My "customer review" for A Sacrifice of Praise

A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century


Rating: 5 star

Comments: I am so thankful for this book. I am really struggling with our year 7 curriculum and understanding some of the literature (Ivanhoe and the poem assigned for memory).

This morning I decided to read some "Middle English" poems from this resource that came highly recommended. I was floundering, and about ready to just "forget it". Seriously, who can understand a poem like this!?

A Song of Passion

My trewest tresowre sa trayturly was taken,
Sa bytterly bondyn wyth bytand banders,
How sone of thi seruandes was thou forsaken,
And lathly for my lufe hurld with thair handes.....

and on and on we go!!!

My overwhelmed mind is thinking "How in the world are we going to comprehend Beowulf later this year?!

STOP!!! Take a breath. Would Charlotte throw it all out just because she does not "get it"? What would Charlotte do if she were presented with a daunting task of teaching something of which she has no understanding? She would "self-educate".

This morning I began reading the introduction to the "Anglo-Saxon/Middle English" section of A Sacrifice of Praise. The historical context set ablaze in the recesses of my mind, the first chapter of Ivanhoe, of
which I had read a few weeks ago. I proceeded to Google search "Anglo-Saxon and Middle English" and have stumbled upon some very interesting information about the evolution of our language.

I want to thank Lynn Bruce for recommending this book at our last meeting. I do believe that this book is going to do a work in my soul. I endeavor to press onward and slowly read through this poetry that has me groping. A Sacrifice of Praise is a shining beam to help lead the blind into a new world of undiscovered terrain.

I do believe this should be a recommended "teacher resource" for AO educators. I plan to use this for historical referencing in all of our poetry study.

Living in JOY,
Adrienne