Active reading lecture and questions

Active reading will be key in this class because the texts are old, and often difficult to deal with as the language is archaic, strange/new, and formal. This work we’re doing here sets you up better for the critical analysis required in this class.

A) Go here:

Tips for Active Reading (Links to an external site.)

1.How would you accomplish some of these interactive ideas with the text you read in an online class?

B) Go here: (Links to an external site.)

Tips on mastering Old English (Links to an external site.)

1. What are some of the challenges we will face in reading this kind of language?
2. What three tips on this page are most useful and why?
3. What do you personally do when, while reading, you encounter new or difficult language?

C.) Try it: Go here:

poem sample in Old English (Links to an external site.)

Read the poem actively.

1. What might the poem be about, or what message might it have? No wrong answer, but back your idea up with text. Use a quote to show me why you think what you think. Remind yourself with this link or any other on how to cite poems (Links to an external site.) so you use citation correctly.
2. We will study Chaucer more when we get to the poetry section of this course, but I will tell you now: he was famous, much like Shakespeare, whom you will also read, for playing with language. Much of the text will be puns, often very naughty ones. Go back and re-read now, looking for bawdiness, double entendre, etc. (You can always look up definitions of these literary terms if you don’t know them!)
3. Check out this page with an modern English translation of the poem. (Links to an external site.)After re-reading with this context, what possible new meaning do you find? Again, back it up with text.

Your Chaucer reading:

For this forum, post a comment or question you have about this poem.

You can tell the class what you think the poem means, or write about a particular line you like or that confuses you (this offers a good chance for you to practice quoting with proper citation (Links to an external site.).

Log on later to reply/respond to one classmate to simulate actual person to person discussion.

Points: 10 for your post, 5 for your reply. Also, please put “@name of student” when responding directly to a person so we can see to whom you mean to speak.

reply:

Persephone Wilson

Hi all,

I found Chaucer’s two references to being wounded both intriguing and confusing. His first reference was in the first stanza when he writes, “It is an ointment unto my wound” (7), and again in the third stanza when he writes, “As I in love, am imbued and wounded” (18). I considered these “wounds” might be figurative; however, I also thought these references might be alluding to him feeling rejected or mournful over Rosemounde’s disinterest in him, and therefore are emotional wounds. Does anyone have any other takes on this reference? This also correlates to my interpretation of the poem’s message being about his unrequited love for Rosemounde, but I am open to other interpretations as well!