YASMIN GRACE M.

GALLARDO
BSE ENGLISH 3A

Activity 4: Understanding the Literary Works

Based on the literary pieces which you were asked to read and study, answer each of the
following questions:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
1. What challenge does the Green Knight present to Arthur and his knights?
 The Green Knight entered the round table of King Arthur’s castle and posed no threat or
condemnation, the knight only imposes upon his Christmas game, for anyone daring
enough to step foot into it. He proposed a game, he shall grant someone an axe to cut
off his own head, in which anyone cunning enough may do so. Anyone who had done so
may hold on to his axe, and by a year and a day from that point, the green knight shall
also be the one to cut off the person’s head who had previously cut his.
2. What was the most important role of the Green Knight in the story?
o The Green Knight in the story proves to be a driving force to reengage a person
based on how they perceive themselves as someone righteous, loyal, and or
courageous. He foresees this as a test to judge a person based on how chivalrous
they are as a knight. By doing this, the green knight can determine whether or
not someone can hold a title as virtuous and rewarding such as being a knight
and or a person who holds authority to preserve loyalty above all else.
3. How important chivalry and loyalty are in these present times? Defend your answer.
o Chivalry and loyalty, as old as these concepts would presume, are still extremely
important in modern/present times as these hold accountability for a person
being respectable, courteous, brave, and overall show the grandest cultural
appropriateness on how one would act in accordance with precise conduct;
either men treating men/women with respect and women treating women/men
with respect, creating a world where everyone is treated with love, care, and
unity. In addition, these are also the sole attributes a knight should highly
inculcate within themselves as diligent and vigorous stakeholders for strict and
just moral deeds; treating everyone fairly regardless of differences and giving aid
to those who need it. These two concepts, even if separated by centuries, still
hold a high standard of credibility as we badly need them to be disseminated
with high regard and be taken within by people who use their freedom for
toxicity and deceits, by then, we would solve an underlying problem in today’s
 society, and that is the implication of distrust and distaste upon the lost essence
of chivalry and loyalty. Then only then, the people of these present times would
chronically open their senses and see their world in colors and not in black and
white, we could only make a difference if that were the case.
For Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
1. What lessons/ morals can be derived from The Nun’s Priestess Tale and The Pardoners’s
Tale? How relevant these lessons are in these present times? Explain your answer by
relating examples.
 In the Nun’s Priestess Tale, Chanticleer is a force to be reckoned with, as he is deemed
as a benevolent singer and master of all roosters, this title got the best of him and this
led to his downfall, (which is typically the case for narcissists that crave for attention and
refuse to undermine the importance of establishing rapport with his thoughts and
people around them). This irresponsible view of themselves was the reason on why
Chanticleer nearly got killed by the fox because he got swayed profusely by the fox’s
sweet and gentle demeanor, (whom he swore no harm and would only indulge thyself
to the sweet melody of joyful), and earful hymns making Chanticleer susceptible to any
attacks, but refused to acknowledge them. This in turn made Chanticleer realize after
getting caught and him being free thereafter to never be persuaded easily by flattery
ever again.
o By this, we can learn that we shouldn’t trust other people instantaneously as we
are easily tempted by their calming personalities, and we really can’t easily
determine whether or not they are a friend or foe; just waiting on the
opportunity to strike. This has been a prevalent issue nowadays, the constant
façade of such people, making face and meeting amends, only for the reason to
backstab us when we least expect it; the concept of being wary is a defense
mechanism for us to know if a situation can be believed as safe or not, that’s
why we have them. It lets us be safe and contented enough to engage, and a
lesson that we all agree on is that we shouldn’t be attracted too much by
words/flattery because it can sneak up on us when we least expect it.

 While on The Pardoner’s Tale, the pardoner is a storyteller who has problems of his own
that he clearly notices do have irony in his role as a taleteller, one who introduces to
listeners the dangers of greed being struck at their most vulnerable state, and that is
their complete obliviousness to their urge-struck greed, sinful ideologies, and
bewildering sophistry. However, the pardoner desires self-consciousness to adhere to
change, even if he himself is a sinner by the way that he accumulates money from his
actions and delegations, but the passage of what he is telling is different from his own.
Despite this, he foretells it in a way that doctrines the essence of living a harmonious
life and not one run by what he despises the most, thus paving the way for his listeners
to potentially take mental note off and lead them in the right direction.
 o Adding to the narrative in his story, it has been stated that once greed takes full
control of the person’s well-being, as relatively common in the present times, it
can become a slippery slope of destructive ideas falling at each petty mistake
that they might think would benefit them but turns out just tarnish their own
lives and ruin the lives of others. This is true for the most part because in the
present society, the convulsions of such disheartening greed set by humans
sparks a dangerous narrative of pain-filled regret and suffering by those invested
in corruption of their lives and the lives of people that might be affected by it.
For this, it is important to level oneself in a way that their needs and wants are
held accountable for every action that they take, as this will be a determining
factor to negate the potency of heartbreak and remorseful niches.

The Poems from the Renaissance, Restoration and Enlightenment Period

Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
1. What kind of bond exists between the speaker and his loved one?

 Although it was not vividly detailed within the poem the relationship between the
speaker and his loved one, it is still safe to assume that the speaker’s love for their
beloved exceeds the magnitude of that of the sun. This type of love that the speaker
has for their significant partner blooms tenfold in the qualities that make their beloved,
and what appropriate scriptures are there to give justice to how the speaker views
them. Someone worthy of standing with the sun: not by direct exposure, with no result
of the consequences of the literal sun; it dilutes that into a soothing analogy that makes
them go steadily by. Making their qualities shine brighter than ever before, forgetting
the penalties, and remembering only the pleasantries of their beloved.

2. To what eternal summer refer? What will ensure that the loved one’s eternal summer
shall not fade?
 The term “Eternal summer” was deliberately and euphemistically directed to that of
the speaker’s loved one, pertaining to a season that vividly entails beauty that
perseveres, not too extreme nor too mundane, it’s the balance of their beauty that
recalls abundance in a struck-feeling agenda of love and longing. Moreover, as the
season goes on, it will count instances where the “summer” just meets too much of its
overwhelming persona, but with it comes the ambiance of love that defies the odds.
With this, as long as the resonation of the poem by the speaker lives on, it will be like
that of the everlasting seasons that change, however, their love will survive; the
summer is just something to relate to, but it goes beyond what ordinary would expect.
Pertaining the poem itself into a love poem that caters to not just their beloved, but the
very personification of what the speaker strongly feels, the rejuvenation of their lover,
and of the emotion on romance in itself.

3. What is the speaker’s purpose in writing eternal lines? What conditions are
necessary to realize this purpose?
  The precept of eternal, such as what has been stated beforehand, involves the speaker
in using phrases and sentences that perceive the senses, with its structure and
feedback backed with figurative language, toppling down the unengaging excerpts of
short-lived love, but on the contrary an everlasting one. The speaker of the poem
realizes sooner that time and seasons change over time, this is inevitable in the real
world, so, the speaker actively reforms that of their love for a poem for their beloved,
with a message that survives even with the alterations that may be of affect; that of
emotion that soothes the soul and the mind, the love of the speaker speaks in centuries
as dedicated for one.

4. The poet used eternal to describe summer and lines. What do you think is achieved by
this?
 The season of summer was used as an analogy by the poet by its speaker to their lover
inside the poem, and they realized this passion and desire for them just wouldn’t suit
their emotions alone to define their love; they let their affection be on the track of a
poem, to inch and piece together all that they want to convey to their lover. With this,
the season of summer was an alternative to cliché and niche lines but is still a
roundabout way of connecting things. However, it was described and defined in a way
that no other words can accompany it, and that is the variation of contrasting the
negatives and making that beyond the literal definition of it; conveying profusely that
the speaker’s love shall never die down by its flames. Rather, as a torch that guides it
toward the immortality of the speaker’s lover’s beauty, disregarding the changes of the
seasons and of the times. This was used by the poet to beautifully craft a manifestation
of analogy, metaphors, and personification into relating love and beauty.

5. What do these last two lines mean?

So long as man can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
 As previously mentioned, and held with high spirits; these last two passages of the
poem strike in accordance with what the speaker wants to embellish within his love
pem of their beloved, and that is the perpetual romantic tale of its love being a torch
that guides and illuminates the surroundings throughout the times of inevitability and
with death. There, it is openly envisioned that the speaker in the poem will keep their
love intact and true for years to come, for as long as the poem survives even with the
uncertain, if people are alive, if people are ever spreading the history of emotions
galore; love is where it lives, it loves, and it breathes. For which perfectly defines of
what an “eternal” love can truly associate for and from, when the extremities are all too
much to bear; for shall immortally love and beauty be embedded for all senses to seek.

6. How do the ideas expressed about love and beauty in the sonnet compare with the
ideas about love and beauty that people hold today?
 In the sonnet, both love (which is the highest virtue accompanied by serenity) and
beauty (which is a sub-content for all things love-filled) are intertwined and are given
much emphasis toward a certain person or thing by a certain someone who would
 illustrate with everything that they hold a name worthy of praise and contentment. The
sonnet entirely encompasses what love and beauty really resonate with, and that is the
nourishment of a profound and fulfilling incentive of romance. These concepts are still
present today, as love and beauty go hand in hand in defining, or even describing
someone or something that people hold near and dear to. Thus, the embodiment of
love hits the criteria that it needs to be preserved for all time, no matter the relevance
of it to others, it is simply an endearment to thyself; what narratives you spread will be
heartfelt by those who share the same sentiments, and it inculcates vibrantly both
concepts with much regard to humanity.

Song, to Celia by Ben Johnson

7. How does the speaker describe Celia in the poem?
 The speaker in the story describes Celia in a manner that doesn’t indulge in simple
layman’s terms, he speaks of her figuratively and deliberately so; this captures the
innermost essence of all her encompassing light that the speaker is precisely in love
with. He deems Celia as a presence where no other definition can cater to her, hence
the reason why the speaker dedicated a poem to her, it resonates profoundly with his
never-ending and everlasting luminescence of love. He doesn’t think of her negatively,
unwillingly, and ungenerously, in fact, the speaker keeps his love intact no matter what
happens, that’s what he describes Celia in the poem, the contingency of one’s own
damning emotion would linger to a woman whose very own existence precedes the
rejuvenating aura of her prowess and beauty, directly or ind4irectly so.

8. What does the speaker feel towards Celia?

 The speaker in the story blatantly holds Celia into his own definition of love-filled
sincerity, he feels passion and serenity whenever Celia is around, and everything about
her speaks volumes of how much he loves her physically, spiritually, and universally so.
He engages in sweet and tender acts of communication to let her know how the speaker
feels about her, either in verbal and non-verbal cues or by sending a gift to Celia; all in
all, spark’s deliverance on the unity of his feelings and hard-felt emotions to only a
person whom he loves dearly and solely. This emotion-bounded and pertinent love that
he speaks all bare only one meaning, and that is to love Celia with his all glory and
might, which stays longer and burns livelier with each passing second of time.

9. For what does the speaker’s soul thirst? What will best satisfy his thirst?
 The speaker’s soul thirsts for his love for Celia, an invitation to ponder on making
amends by indirectly linking the passage of a divine drink that would only cater to his
thirst for love. Concerning both allusion, metaphors, and figuratively alluring premises of
and to alcohol of the higher gods shall not do justice to what he feels. Moreover, the
steadily inference that his thirst for love isn’t meant to be taken in a derogatory light,
but instead with a connotation of a solidified indulgence of love; paving the only way
that his thirst will be satisfied, and that is by sweet renaissance of his blooming love to
Celia and a probable cause for reciprocation if it were that saccharine.
 10. If you were Celia in the poem, what would you feel towards the speaker? Explain
why?
 If I Celia, I would be beyond flattered that someone felt that strong of an emotion with
only a person. Although it may come as a surprise, if only I would see consistency in the
speaker’s senses and mere action not just thoughts, then I would be inclined to feel at
awe, considering the many paths taken by a person as a direct result of the figuratively
appealing still unrequited love to be that expounded and taken into consideration for.
By this, it is safe to say that I would be elated, to once be indulged in such a romantic
reprise, then only after if I’ve seen the uniformity of the speaker’s ways into mine; there
will I seek refuge into a person’s guise of tranquility-filled romance.

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray

11. What do you think prompts the speaker to start thinking about his own death? For
the first twenty or so stanzas, he's cheerfully thinking about the dead villagers. What
shifts, and why?
 The speaker put himself inside the situation of the deceased, at first, he acknowledged
the environment and setting of his surroundings, and later apologetically conveyed his
emotions about what kind of unfortunate fate these people had ended up with. The
speaker knows that these people could have lived a better life if it wasn’t only for their
way of life that didn’t cater to them enough; poverty was a hellish provocation on the
countryfolk, and the speaker wishes they could’ve gotten more recognition and chances
in life. As they believed that these countryfolk would’ve gone far in life, one could’ve
been this and one could’ve been that, and he stresses his frustration in numerous
instances. This prompted him to react about his own death and on death in itself; death
is inevitable and universal because no matter who we are as people, death will and shall
always find its way with us when we least expect it. Therefore, this elegy was written
with a narrative that just doesn’t signify death, but also to commemorate it and to treat
the deceased with respect.

12. Why do you think Gray uses so much personification? Why, for example, does he
say "Let not Ambition mock their useful toil" in line 29, instead of, "Hey, ambitious
people, don't make fun of these guys"? What's the effect on your reading?

 Personification was used a lot in the poem, and Grey realized this as a massive point to
be inculcated throughout the poem because it gives justice and alignment to spread a
narrative that even though people are deceased, we should still treat them as they were
alive and we shouldn’t belittle their lives as we don’t have a semblance of theirs to begin
with. It gives awareness that this attribute of giving humanistic characteristics sparks the
similarity of not giving creativity and artistry, but keeping intact the value that we must
commemorate the dead to give light even at their resting point for eternity. That’s why
Grey used Personification throughout the poem, in hopes for his poem to board upon an
account that it reaches everyone to take arms, for them to reflect on the presented
messages, and establish an ideology that we would also die and we would want for
 others to think of us positively; remembering us with the goodness in our days, with
goodness in our near passing, and with goodness even in the afterlife.

13. Who do you think is the intended audience of this poem? Men, women? Rich people,
poor people? Young or old? Why do you think so?

 The poem talks about a universal theme, and this is intended not just for a specific
audience, but for the majority who would want to establish a better understanding to
not belittle the lives of those unfortunate enough that didn’t envelope wealth and
fortune in their days; as the theme in the poem gives justice in commemorating the
dead, once were alive and had lived simple lives to go on day-by-day in working hard and
providing for their family to live their own peaceful lives in the countryside. It spreads a
message to give emphasis to consider everyone as someone close to us who had
unfortunately passed and left behind their lives, no matter who people are, we must still
act with proper respect because we don’t know their full stories, narratives, and traits
that made them who they are as a person living just like any other. With this, we can
start to understand that the poem solely wants to embark on offering to ourselves and
to the deceased the resemblance of humanity, as we all would lead to death at some
point in our lives. There, we would accept the morality of living and tempt the majority,
living our lives with an intent of purpose; no matter the characteristics it may have.

14. If this is an "Elegy," or a poem of mourning, who or what is it mourning? How do

you know? Give pieces of evidence from the poem.

 The speaker in the poem mostly revolves his narrative around the country churchyard
that he is situating himself with, and by that, he is mourning those who died with their
conditions of unjust and unproportioned statuses in life, where they didn’t acquire a
chance to change for the constant betterment of their lives. Their old life was an
obstacle which there was no escape from, it detached their hidden talents and
achievements that were hidden in plain sight. Moreover, mourning even the bitter
comfort of death makes the speaker accept it in the near-final moments of the poem,
and the sharing of those who had just passed and the life they lived along the way,
stating that no matter who we are as individuals, we are all sharing the faint struggle of
death in an uncertain grasp at our hands.
Lines in the poem that mourn the deceased, of death itself or the inevitable end of life:
20 No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.
35 Awaits alike th' inevitable hour.
36 The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
40 The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
 15. Why do you think Gray insisted so much on the fact that it's a country churchyard?
Would the poem be different if it were set in a city? How so?

 Grey reiterates the country churchyard as a vocal point in the poem as it strongly
presents the countrymen who had lived in impoverished conditions in hopes of living
idly by every day, but the speaker within the poem still sees in them their individuality as
people who had the potential for a better life if it weren’t for the inconsistencies of their
status in life. The setting of it being rural, adds more toward the raw emotion of the
deceased that is not present in the city/urban state because in the city, people there are
passing by each day working office hours repeating the same schedule for months and
years on end without little to no change, surpassing their urges until they claim it until it
gets way over their heads. However, it is specified in the poem that the people living in
the countryside have so much personality to offer that they see each other as not
complete strangers, but as close acquaintances or even close friends; they live in
proximity toward their love for their jobs as farmers, their simple life with their families
whom they love and cherish, the ambiance of the rural setting and its carefree nature,
and the power to register that this life that they had were not that different from the
cityside, but they stuck with it since they grew to love it and the attributes of they built
to live quietly and with praise.

16. What do you imagine people will say about you after you're dead? What would you
like them to say? If you could write your own epitaph, as Gray does in this poem,
what would it say?

 In writing an epitaph that would honor me even in death, I would like for people to
remember me not by instance and hearsays, but for the life that I’ve lived inside and out;
no half-baked attempts to appease, the honesty of the imperfect yet strong-filled life is
the one that should be catered for. Adding to that, what my actions had done for the
people around me, either positive or negative, has helped them in some way shape, or
form. Thus, this will show that my life just like any other, was an adventure in where I
was for the most part, directing my path in the way that I saw fit in my ambitions and
intuitions; think of it as being an artist, making erasures along the way and setting a
milestone to where I would create a masterpiece. An example of an epitaph on my own
solitude would be in the lines of:
“The distance makes it all too difficult to adjust, a man sleeping for eternity didn’t account for
his own, for he wanted to make the essence of what he could for other’s sake, minimalizing his
own. He did things in his own regard without asking. He said things in his own assurance. He
just shows for those he loves the taste of sincerity.
However, his shortcomings took a toll on him at times, but that didn’t bring down his ship. As he
kept on sailing toward escaping the dark abyss of his mind, he turned the wheel with a full
rotation to steadily ponder on what life should be lived. There, he saw light at the darkest of
weathers.
Free from the constraints to explore the vast reach of heaven and earth. Shall we encompass his
never-ending wisdom of going forward, even with the burdens of mistakes and its
consequences, for he shall be a guide. The guide to live a life with a purpose to be a neutral
individual with no enemies, and no obligations of regret.”

17. What is the significance of the epitaph in the poem?

 The speaker at the end of the poem imagined his own epitaph and how he potentially
would want someone to narrate to him once he died, he imagined himself in the shoes
of those fallen and wanted to introduce that not only was he suffering from the sadness,
hardships, and distaste of such circumstances; he did, in fact, turn this into something
positive, as wanting to live in a world where there were no problems and everything was
fine at the end of the day. He understood the harsh reality, and instead of coping it in a
derogatory way, made use of it to make him accept it at face-value and try to reengage
in it, even in the darkest of days and up to them dying, their life was successful and not a
room of regret was spared.