Brooke was an Anglo-Irish clergyman, poet, critic, and educator whose Primer of English Literature (1876) was popular with generations of students. In the excerpt below, he contends that Cynewulf, who...
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In this essay, Leiter studies the transformation of the poem's three characters: Christ, the Cross, and the Dreamer.
The Dream of the Rood is concerned with a process of salvation by means o...
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Here, Patten explores the analogies between the Dreamer and the Cross, the Cross and Christ, and Christ and the Dreamer. She also analyzes the allegorical and historical aspects of The Dream of the Ro...
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In the following essay, Canuteson compares the Crucifixion as portrayed in The Dream of the Rood with the Biblical descriptions of Christ's second coming.
Praise for The Dream of the Rood ha...
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In the excerpt below, Macrae-Gibson focuses on the transformations of the Christ-figure in The Dream of the Rood.
Huppé Details the Structure of the Dream of the Rood:
The basic design of th...
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In the following essay, Wolf examines the poet's 'presentation of the Crucifixion as a battle" in The Dream of the Rood, focusing on theme and diction.
The unlettered singer wh...
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In the following essay, Irving describes the treatment of the Crucifixion from the perspectives of the poem's two main characters, the Dreamer and the Rood.
Very few of the countless artisti...
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Below, Brzezinski contends that the last few lines of The Dream of the Rood refer to the Last Judgment rather than to the Harrowing of Hell.
The narrative structure of The Dream of the Rood has bee...
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In the following essay, Patch explores parallels between The Dream of the Rood and church liturgical texts "in order to gain a further knowledge of the poet's working method and to assis...
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Here, Schlauch praises the poet's unique use of prosopopoeia (discourse by inanimate objects), stating that he "was not following a literary tradition concerning the Rood; he was making ...
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In the following excerpt, Kennedy discusses glorification of the Cross in The Dream of the Rood, attributing to the poem 'pre-eminent distinction as a superb lyric presentation of a religious a...
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In the following essay, Woolf assesses The Dream of the Rood 's emphasis on Christ's supremacy and suffering, stating that the poet "reflected exactly the doctrinal pattern of tho...
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In the essay below, Diamond analyzes the use of heroic language in The Dream of the Rood.
Many people who have read The Dream of the Rood have been struck by the poet's use of certain heroic...
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In the following essay, first published in 1959 in Neophilologus, Burrow contrasts the emphasis and detail in The Dream of the Rood with that in several Middle English Crucifixion lyrics.
The Dream...
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In the following excerpt, Greenfield centers on the prominent role of Christ in The Dream of the Rood, emphasizing "the poem's double stress on the triumphant and suffering Christ. �...
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Below, Fleming examines the characters, language, and themes of The Dream of the Rood, calling the poem "a carved celebration of the monastic ideals" of English Benedictinism.
The ear...
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Critical Essay by Stopford A. Brooke
