English Literature: Its History and Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World | Page 7

contain the name
of Allah, and the ideal is too enormously important to be neglected or
lost.
SUMMARY OF THE SUBJECT. We are now ready, if not to define,
at least to understand a little more clearly the object of our present
study. Literature is the expression of life in words of truth and beauty;
it is the written record of man's spirit, of his thoughts, emotions,
aspirations; it is the history, and the only history, of the human soul. It
is characterized by its artistic, its suggestive, its permanent qualities. Its
two tests are its universal interest and its personal style. Its object, aside
from the delight it gives us, is to know man, that is, the soul of man
rather than his actions; and since it preserves to the race the ideals upon
which all our civilization is founded, it is one of the most important and
delightful subjects that can occupy the human mind.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. (NOTE. Each chapter in this book includes a
special bibliography of historical and literary works, selections for
reading, chronology, etc.; and a general bibliography of texts, helps,
and reference books will be found at the end. The following books,
which are among the best of their kind, are intended to help the student
to a better appreciation of literature and to a better knowledge of
literary criticism.)
GENERAL WORKS. Woodberry's Appreciation of Literature (Baker &
Taylor Co.); Gates's Studies in Appreciation (Macmillan); Bates's Talks

on the Study of Literature (Houghton, Mifflin); Worsfold's On the
Exercise of Judgment in Literature (Dent); Harrison's The Choice of
Books (Macmillan); Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies,


Part I; Matthew Arnold's Essays in
Criticism.
ESSAYS. Emerson's Books, in Society and Solitude; Dowden's The
Interpretation of Literature, in Transcripts and Studies (Kegan Paul &
Co.), and The Teaching of English Literature, in New Studies in
Literature (Houghton, Mifflin); The Study of Literature, Essays by
Morley, Nicolls, and L. Stephen, edited by A.F. Blaisdell (Willard
Small).
CRITICISM. Gayley and Scott's An Introduction to the Methods and
Materials of Literary Criticism (Ginn and Company); Winchester's
Principles of Literary Criticism (Macmillan); Worsfold's Principles of
Criticism (Longmans); Johnson's Elements of Literary Criticism
(American Book Company); Saintsbury's History of Criticism (Dodd,
Mead).
POETRY. Gummere's Handbook of Poetics (Ginn and Company);
Stedman's The Nature and Elements of Poetry (Houghton, Mifflin);
Johnson's The Forms of English Poetry (American Book Company);
Alden's Specimens of English Verse (Holt); Gummere's The
Beginnings of Poetry (Macmillan); Saintsbury's History of English
Prosody (Macmillan).
THE DRAMA. Caffin's Appreciation of the Drama (Baker & Taylor
Co.).
THE NOVEL. Raleigh's The English Novel (Scribner); Hamilton's The
Materials and Methods of Fiction (Baker & Taylor Co.).

* * * * *


CHAPTER II
THE ANGLO-SAXON OR OLD-ENGLISH PERIOD (450-1050)
I. OUR FIRST POETRY
BEOWULF. Here is the story of Beowulf, the earliest and the greatest
epic, or heroic poem, in our literature. It begins with a prologue, which
is not an essential part of the story, but which we review gladly for the
sake of the splendid poetical conception that produced Scyld, king of
the Spear Danes.[2]
At a time when the Spear Danes were without a king, a ship came
sailing into their harbor. It was filled with treasures and weapons of war;
and in the midst of these warlike things was a baby sleeping. No man
sailed the ship; it came of itself, bringing the child, whose name was
Scyld.
Now Scyld grew and became a mighty warrior, and led the Spear
Danes for many years, and was their king. When his son Beowulf[3]
had become strong and wise enough to rule, then Wyrd (Fate), who
speaks but once to any man, came and stood at hand; and it was time
for Scyld to go. This is how they buried him:
Then Scyld departed, at word of Wyrd spoken, The hero to go to the
home of the gods. Sadly they bore him to brink of the ocean, Comrades,
still heeding his word of command. There rode in the harbor the
prince's ship, ready, With prow curving proudly and shining sails set.
Shipward they bore him, their hero beloved; The mighty they laid at the
foot of the mast. Treasures were there from far and near gathered,
Byrnies of battle, armor and swords; Never a keel sailed out of a harbor
So splendidly tricked with the trappings of war. They heaped on his

bosom a hoard of bright jewels To fare with him forth on the flood's
great breast. No less gift they gave than the Unknown provided, When
alone, as a child, he came in from the mere. High o'er his head waved a
bright golden standard-- Now let the waves bear their wealth to the
holm. Sad-souled they gave back its gift to the ocean, Mournful their
mood as he sailed