Blog 2: Option B, Early Modern English

Instructions: Create a text using Early Modern English (EME) language features. Account for the features on this page by circling or listing them below by line number. Type a one-page contemporary English translation and evaluation as part of the blog. Upload the poem and commentary on or before November 9^th. Give a paper hard copy to Dr. Hallen with this page as a coversheet.

1 point for Thematic Features: Choose one of the following options for preparing the EME text:

• Translatio (back-translation): Translate a Shakespeare sonnet from Early Modern English into a language other than English. Then re-translate the sonnet from the other language back into Present-Day English. See BEL xiii, 118-120, 188, 246-247, 332.

• Metrical Psalm: Select a psalm from the King James Bible and convert it into a sonnet. See BEL 225.

• Carol or Hymn: Select a passage of scripture from the Standard Works and convert it into a hymn or a Christmas carol, using Common Meter (8-6-8-6 syllables per line), Long Meter (8-8-8-8 syllables per line), Short Meter (6-6-8-6 syllables per line), Sevens & Sixes (7-6-7-6 syllables per line), or other hymn meter. See the LDS green hymnbook pp. 405-409.

• Imitatio (mimesis): Create an original poem by imitating an Early Modern English poem. Change the content but try to capture the poet’s diction, form, tone, and figures of sound, syntax, semantics. See the Oxford English Dictionary for word choices and meanings.

1 point for Stylistic Features: Choose one of the following options for preparing the EME text:

• SENECANISM: a highly rhetorical style patterned after Seneca the younger, characterized by exaggerated horrors, sensational themes, unnatural crimes, revenge, hyperbole, detailed descriptions, narrative reports, soriasmus, gory diction, apostrophe, and interjections. (See Macbeth 2.01.36-39).

• ARCADIANISM: a copious style patterned after that of Sidney’s Arcadia, using sound repetition, word repetition, episodic sentence structure, and pathetic fallacy. (See Polonius in Hamlet). EPISODIC SENTENCE: a long sentence using coordinate (paratactic) structure rather than subordinate (hypertactic) structure, though the structures are not necessarily parisonic (grammatically parallel). (See Comedy of Errors 4.03.1-6).

• CICERONISM: a copious style patterned after that of Cicero, using sound repetition (e.g. homeoteleuton), word repetition, periodic sentence structure, and rhetorical devices of argument. (See Claudius in Hamlet). PERIODIC SENTENCE: a sentence which begins with a series of dependent (subordinate) clauses and ends with the main clause or main verb; a sentence in which the main clause is postponed to the end. (See A Winter’s Tale 4.04.79-83).

• EUPHUISM: a style patterned after that of John Lily’s Euphues, using balanced construction, antithesis, isocolon, parison, rhetorical questions, similes, illustrations, and so forth. (See Brutus in Julius Caesar). PARISONIC SENTENCE: a sentence whose structure is syntactically and grammatically parallel to adjacent sentences. (See 2 Henry IV 1.02.180-84).

• PLAIN STYLE/MUSIC OF ENDORSEMENT: the tongue of angels; a humble, pure, and sincere style, patterned after the words of Christ, using the music of language to endorse the truth in love and life. (See 1 Corinthians 13).

2 points for Lexical Features: Use at least two vocabulary items from the Early Modern English lexicon (see BEL 228-231, 283-293.)

2 points for Grammatical Features: Use at least two grammar structures from EME (see BEL 242-248, 265-277.)

1 point : Use two Sound Repetition Figures (see attachments/handouts/Internet).

1 point : Use two Word & Phrase Repetition (see above).

1 point : Use two Syntax Figures (see BEL 277-283 and attachments/handouts/Internet).

1 point : Use two Semantic Figures (see BEL 293-297 and above).

Total: 10 items worth one point each for a total of 10 percentage points.