Renaissance poems focus on the creative and experimental side of human nature through more abstract ideas such as nostalgia, imagination and emotion. The literary devices employed in the Renaissance period are personification, alliteration, smile and metaphor.
On the contrary, the lyric poetry of the Anglo-Saxon period is characterized by dramatic, and formal style.
The literary devices commonly used in the Anglo-Saxon period are Alliteration, Epithet, Hyperbole, Kenning, Metaphor.
Example of a Renaissance poem: Death, be not proud:
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie. [...]
An example of Anglo-Saxon poetry:
Now let us praise the Guardian of the Kingdom of Heaven
the might of the Creator and the thought of his mind,
the work of the glorious Father, how He, the eternal Lord
established the beginning of every wonder.
For the sons of men, He, the Holy Creator
first made heaven as a roof, then the
Keeper of mankind, the eternal Lord
God Almighty afterwards made the middle world
the earth, for men.
