Anglo-Saxon Boast Pre-writing

  • Brainstorm a list of at least FIVE marvelous things you have done in the past. (You have more than five spaces here so that you can brainstorm MORE!) This could be everything from a piano recital when you were seven to pee-wee football to working a job to making All-State Choir. BRAG ON YOURSELF!
  • Next, you need a goal to brag about. What do you want to BE when you grow up? Your goal could be to graduate from GHS, to go to a certain college (Sic ‘em BEARS!), to enter a certain profession, etc.

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  • Now, brainstorm a list of kennings that you could use to describe or rename the people involved in your accomplishments above or the places you went to accomplish these goals or the names of the accomplishments themselves. (EX. Your football coach—“the great play planner,” your mother—“laundry washer,” etc.)
  • Now you need THREE examples of alliteration. Alliteration is when you repeat a consonant sound at the BEGINNING of a word at least TWO times in ONE line.

Ex. “secret sessions, talking of terror” You could combine this with a kenning such as “fabulous fence builder” for your grandfather who builds fences on his ranch.

1.

2.

3.

  • Now it’s time to write. Begin by WRITING A PARAGRAPH ABOUT YOURSELF IN WHICH YOU INCLUDE ALL OF THE ELEMENTS ABOVE. Don’t worry about making lines of poetry or putting in the pauses (caesuras). JUST WRITE.
  • You could begin your boast just like Beowulf did
  • Hail ______(use your teacher’s name here)
  • I am the son/daughter of ______.
  • The days of my youth have been filled with glory (copied straight out of Beowulf)
  • Now insert the past accomplishments you listed under STEP ONE above.
  • Then list the thing you’re going to brag that you’ll do in the future.
  • Now, divide your paragraph randomly into lines. You need twenty lines. Make sure your paragraph is long enough to go to twenty lines. If not, WRITE MORE! DON’T just divide it up into sentences. PURPOSEFULLY split a sentence into TWO lines. End the sentence in the MIDDLE of a line. That CREATES A CAESURA! You can do the same thing by putting a comma in the middle of a line or using the FANBOYS in the middle of a line. YOU ONLY HAVE TO HAVE ONE CAESURA in your ENTIRE BOAST! Don’t refuse to do this assignment because you’re having trouble with a caesura! Make sure the lines don’t rhyme because Anglo-Saxon poetry didn’t rhyme.
  • Read EACH of your lines to see if there are four beats in one of them that are accented. If you don’t understand this, ASK FOR HELP!
  • Then, type up your boast and decorate it. You can decorate it on the computer, or you can decorate it by printing it and putting it on construction paper, scrapbook paper, etc. with appropriate decorations (like footballs for your participation in pee-wee football or music notes for singing in the third grade music program). Make sure you highlight the elements in your paper—alliteration, past accomplishments, future goal, caesura, four beats in a line, kennings.