LEARNING PACKET 2

GATIL, IMEE LYN B.

BSED–English 3A

Activity 1 (Term Requirement)

Write a thorough description of each of the aforementioned authors and cite your
impressions and interpretations on one of their literary contributions in literature during the
Middle English Period. (20 pts.)
Pearl Poet
Pearl-Poet is generally regarded as an anonymous or unknown writer. Many attempts
have been made to identify him, but none of these identifications has been widely accepted.
Nevertheless, we can learn many things about the poet from his writings. The Pearl-Poet wrote
the exquisitely beautiful, fourteenth-century, Middle English dream vision poem, Pearl.
His narrative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a story set in the Middle English
and was written by an unknown person from West Midlands. He is famed with many other
works that were also written around the same period. It is one the great Arthurian romances. It
is an epic poem in which the noble Sir Gawain plays the ‘beheading game’ with a mystery knight
and setting him on course for a grand quest in which his virtues are sorely tested.
Sir Gawain is truly, a figurative character in the story. He is symbolic in the way he
depicts the innocence of life. He did not fear at all to agree to all challenges since it pointed at
salvaging the entire kingdom from the serious effects of anarchism that could arise from the
failure of having a central king.
His acceptance to a duel against the Green Knight immediately portrayed one of the
elements that knighthood stood for. This is the aspect of fearlessness. Individuals accept such
dares on a daily basis. Indeed, this could be the basic foundation of the roots of the term
“sticking one’s neck out”. In instances where individuals take up on certain tasks or challenges,
many are never prepared to live with the results of an unsuccessful feat.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer, (born c. 1342/43, London? England—died October 25, 1400, London),
the outstanding English poet before Shakespeare and “the first finder of our language”. The
Canterbury Tales ranks as one of the greatest poetics works in English. He also contributed
importantly in the second half of the 14th century to the management of public affairs as
courtier, diplomat, and civil servant. In that career he was trusted and aided by three successive
kings—Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV. But it is his avocation in writing of poetry for which
he is remembered.
 The Canterbury Tales ranks as one of the greatest poetics works in English. The writer
uses different characters to evolve a story and convey his idea through their personality.
Without characters and their development, the story cannot progress. The characters in The
Canterbury Tales, represent Geoffrey Chaucer’s idea of love, rivalry and religious corruption in
the context of medieval society. Some of the major characters from The Canterbury Tales have
been discussed below.
Sir Thomas Mallory
Sir Thomas Malory (c. 1415-1471 CE) was an English knight during the War of the Roses (1455-
1487 CE) best known for his highly influential work of medieval literature. He was released in
early 1470 CE and died the following year. His work “Le Morte D’Arthur” is regarded as the first
novel in English, the first in western literature, and the most comprehensive treatment of the
Arthurian Legend.
Le Morte d'Arthur, completed in 1469 or 1470 and printed by Caxton in abridged form in 1485,
is the first major work of prose fiction in English and remains today one of the greatest. It is the
carefully constructed myth of the rise and fall of a powerful kingdom. Le Morte d'Arthur tells
the story of King Arthur and his Knights at the Round Table. Arthur, who is son of King Uther
Pendragon but was raised by another family, takes his rightful place as king when, as a boy, he
is able to pull the sword called Excalibur from the stone. Although he rules wisely and is
counseled by Merlin the magician, Arthur makes enemies of other kings and is often at war.
In Le Morte d'Arthur, Malory created new personality to some characters to be found in all
English literature: Like King Arthur as the tragic hero; Launcelot as the noblest knight in the
world and torn by a conflict of loyalties which must result in his destruction of all he loves best;
Sir Gawain who is vengeful and treacherous but steadfast in loyalty to his king; Queen
Guinevere who emblem of courtly courtesy and generous but also fierce in jealousy; and many
more. This work was first published in 1485. Although King Arthur tried to maintain structure
and order as a king, betrayal by the people closest to him eventually led to his demise.

Activity 2 (Class Participation)

A.Read and study the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet.
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease halt all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

B. Answer the following: (5 pts. each)

1. Why does Shakespeare compare the young man to a summer’s day?
Shakespeare compare the young man to a summer’s day is because to link him to this
time of great beauty, great heat and great passion. Shakespeare finds the youth beauty are
more permanent than a summer’s day. Which is tainted by occasional winds, blistering heat
and the eventual change in season. While summer must always come to an end, the speaker’s
love for the man is eternal and the youth’s “eternal summer shall not fade”.
2. What lines give examples of passionate love in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18?

 “Thou art more lovely and more temperate”

It portrays passionate love because it is spoken directly at “her”. You can interpret the
line as a young couple so in love and staring into each other so passionately with great
adoration. This line sounds so passionate and sweet in the ears.
 “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”
The line sounds so deeply passionate. It gives the reader the feeling of the writer’s great
adoration and appreciation to the person it pertains to. It is very romantic words that
touches the heart.
3. How can the poet’s beloved be eternal?
The poet’s beloved is eternal because the poem will live on forever and will never
forgotten. His beloved will be live eternal in his piece and will never die as his beloved is
remembered. As long the poet’s words live, the beloved will also be kept alive. It is a love that
will forever be remembered as this piece exist and continue to live forever.
Activity 3 (Class Participation)
A. After you have read the poem above, ‘To the Virgins to Make Much of Time’: (20 pts.)
1. Give the meaning of the following lines:
a. “glorious lamp of heaven”

 It pertains to the sun and described as “glorious lamp of heaven” because of light or
youth, intense feeling that it gives off. The man is described as a sun and its strong
charm it gives off while still young.
b. “youth and blood are warmer”

 It means that early in life, people are young, more bright, vibrant and warmer. It is best
to marry while you are still young, bright and active.
c. “Then be not coy, but use your time”

 The line means don’t be shy and hesitant. You must not waste your time and beauty,
and use it while you still have a chance to find a partner to marry. It is easy to find and
marry at such age of one’s prime. It might be waste and regrettable to marry beyond the
marriageable age of a woman.
d. “Go marry, for having lost but once prime, you may forever tarry.”

 It means that one must immediately marry while she still has beauty, youth and charm.
If she lost her youth, beauty and no longer in the prime of marriage, she may forever
remain single and undesirable in the eyes of a man. It will be difficult to find a man to
marry when you already lost and late for marriageable age of a woman.
2. To whom was the poem addressed?
The poem is addressed to the single and virgins. It is particularly pertaining to the
women who still young and have their beauty and amore. It is clearly mentioned in the title to
whom it addressed to. The content of the poem is also talking about women and their prime
time of marriageable age.
3. What was the author’s purpose in writing the poem? Why?
The purpose of the author in the poem is to urge women not to waste their youth and marry
someone while still in her prime. The author makes them understand that t is not to late and
one is still having chance to marry while still young. He makes them realize that it will be to late
and regrettable for not being able to marry at such marriageable age. It will be hard to find a
partner that you will spend your life. One might spend life alone forever.

4. Give the message of the poem.

 The message of the poem is that young women should make their best time to look for
their partner while still have a chance. They should make the best of their beauty and passion
while they are young. It would be hard to find someone who will like you once you past your
prime and youth as a woman. It is best to find love while the passion is still strong and burning
and don’t waste the moment to experience the strong passion of the early age/stage of love
and marriage

Activity 4 (Term Requirement)

A. Provide a full copy then read Francis Bacon’s essay ‘Of Studies’. Determine central ideas or
themes of the text and write your thoughts about it.

Of Studies
by Francis Bacon
"Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in
privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and
disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by
one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those
that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for
ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar.
They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural
plants, that need pruning, by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much
at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men condemn studies, simple men
admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom
without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to
believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some
books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that
is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few
to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy,
and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments,
and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy
things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And
therefore, if a man writes little, he had need have a great memory; if he confers little, he had
need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know
that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural
philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores
[Studies pass into and influence manners]. Nay, there is no stone or impediment in the wit but
may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises.
Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for
the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So, if a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the
mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin
again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the Schoolmen; for
they are cymini sectores [splitters of hairs]. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up
one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers’ cases. So, every defect of
the mind may have a special receipt."
ANSWER:
The theme of the essay is education, knowledge and balance. It was said that the three
types of men exist when it comes to the matter of study. There are crafty men that condemn
study because the simple fact is, they will be caught out by someone who is more learned than
them. Then simple men that admire studies as they know that studies will lead to a
development of intelligence. While wise men will use studies to their advantage.
In bacon’s essay, he mentioned that studying has three benefits. Firstly, some people
study for delight or personal use. To humor themselves while at the same time not imposing
their knowledge on others. Secondly others study for ornament meaning that their pleasure is
in discourse. To share their knowledge with others. Which may leave some critics to suggest
that due to mankind’s vanity those who study for ornament may be in reality very boring or
self-absorbed. The third benefit of study is for ability. That being to use one studies practically
to solve problems and perhaps to promote the individual in a more practical way than those
who study for ornament.
When it comes to studying or reading in particular Bacon also believes that it is more
important for a man (or woman) to weigh and consider what they read rather than to
necessarily believe or take for granted what has been read. Similarly, do not read just for the
sake of discourse as society may like a well-read person. However, they may not necessarily like
the ideas of the person. When it comes to reading a person should also only read what is
needed. They should not waste their time reading entire books if there is no need for it. The
reading of a book till its conclusion should be left to specialists who need the information. For
the majority of people, a little reading on something will suffice.
Anybody can learn, it’s just a simple matter of having the right balance and knowing
what to learn. It is pointless learning something that is known by few if one wants to engage in
conversations with others. Yet knowing the information may be a delight to the individual and
this in itself may suffice. It is better to seek a productive and balanced approach when it comes
to studying. Any type of study has its benefits but it is most productive when put into action. An
educated man will live a more enjoyable life should he put into practice what he has learned
rather than using his knowledge as a tool to amuse himself and others.
B. Cite five (5) famous quotable quotes of William Shakespeare and give your impressions
and interpretations for each.
1. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore, is winged Cupid painted
blind”

 A Midsummer Night’s Dream is saying you shouldn’t fall in love with someone’s beauty,
but rather their personality, mind, heart and soul.
2. “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

 Don’t rely on fate to lead you through life. Believe in yourselves and work towards
building the life you want to live.
3. “I am not bound to please thee with my answers.”

 Don’t tell someone what they want to hear in hopes it pleases them — instead, tell
them the truth.
4. “Be great in act, as you have been in thought.”

 Instead of talking about dreams and aspirations, put these thoughts into action.
5. “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

 It’s important to keep your heart open and to love, while trusting only those who have
pure intentions. But even to those we don’t trust, we must treat them with respect.
ASSESSMENT
Please Note: This part must be detached and returned on time to the SSU-LGU Academic
Learning Center (ALC) if you’re done accomplishing all the tasks given below.
Name: Gatil, Imee Lyn B. Date Received ___________________
Home Address: Brgy. San Juan, San Jorge Samar Date Submitted ___________________
Contact No: 09273266835

1. Discuss literary contributions of the representative writers in each era and cite the
essential development of literature during the Middle English Period. (10 pts.)
Pearl-Poet – is generally regarded as an anonymous or unknown writer. Many attempts have
been made to identify him, but none of these identifications has been widely accepted.
Nevertheless, we can learn many things about the poet from his writings. The Pearl-Poet wrote
the exquisitely beautiful, fourteenth-century, Middle English dream vision poem, Pearl. His
narrative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a story set in the Middle English and was
written by an unknown person from West Midlands. He is famed with many other works that
were also written around the same period.
Geoffrey Chaucer – (born c. 1342/43, London? England—died October 25, 1400, London), the
outstanding English poet before Shakespeare and “the first finder of our language”. The
Canterbury Tales ranks as one of the greatest poetics works in English. He also contributed
importantly in the second half of the 14th century to the management of public affairs as
courtier, diplomat, and civil servant. In that career he was trusted and aided by three successive
kings—Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV. But it is his avocation in writing of poetry for which
he is remembered.
Sir Thomas Malory – (c. 1415-1471 CE) was an English knight during the War of the Roses
(1455-1487 CE) best known for his highly influential work of medieval literature. He was
released in early 1470 CE and died the following year. His work “Le Morte D’Arthur” is regarded
as the first novel in English, the first in western literature, and the most comprehensive
treatment of the Arthurian Legend. Le Morte d'Arthur, completed in 1469 or 1470 and printed
by Caxton in abridged form in 1485, is the first major work of prose fiction in English and
remains today one of the greatest. It is the carefully constructed myth of the rise and fall of a
powerful kingdom.
2. Answer the following: (5 pts each)
a. What do you know about the famous literary work of Shakespeare’s - Romeo and
Juliet?
Romeo and Juliet, play by William Shakespeare, written about 1594–96 and first
published in an unauthorized quarto in 1597. The characters of Romeo and Juliet have been
depicted in literature, music, dance, and theatre. Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which
two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and
the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud. In this death-filled setting, the movement from love
at first sight to the lovers’ final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in
an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because of its
exquisite language, it is easy to respond as if it were about all young lovers.
b. If the lovers were around same as your age, what advice would you give them
regarding their situation?
In this kind of situation that happened between lovers, it is important for them not to foolishly
make rash decisions that will do no good to your relationship. It is important in a relationship to
understand each other and their surroundings. They should also have great trust to each other.
Love is not the only thing that keeps a relationship going. It is important to listen to the advices
of the others to be able to come up a better solution that would not risk your relationship in the
process.
3. Enumerate all the books of the King James Bible, and why do you think it is rightly regarded
as the most influential book in the history of English civilization? (10 pts.)

The Old Testament contains 17 Historical books, 5 Poetical books and 17 Prophetic books.
17 Historical Books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Number, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1
Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
5 Poetical Books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
17 Prophetic Books: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
The New Testament contains 4 Gospels, 21 Epistles and the Revelation.
4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
21 Epistles: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1
Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
The Revelation: Revelation
In 1604, England’s King James I authorized a new translation of the Bible aimed at
settling some thorny religious differences in his kingdom and solidifying his own power. But in
seeking to prove his own supremacy, King James ended up democratizing the Bible instead.
Thanks to emerging printing technology, the new translation brought the Bible out of the
church’s sole control and directly into the hands of more people than ever before, including the
Protestant reformers who settled England’s North American colonies in the 17th century. Even
now, more than four centuries after its publication, the King James Bible (a.k.a. the King James
Version, or simply the Authorized Version) remains the most famous Bible translation in history
—and one of the most printed books ever.