PAGINA 4,7,11 LIBRO; ESERCIZI.

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>>Music played and important part in the lives of medieval people. Is music important in your life as well?
Yes, it is. It is very important for me not just because of the emotions it gives to me, but even because it is a part of my routine, since I am a dancer I have to have a good relation with music and its features.

>>Have you ever listened to medieval music? If you have, what is it like? If you haven't what do you expect?
Yes, I have listened to it during a music lesson when I was attending the middle school. It is very different from nowadays music. It's a sort of happy music, generally played to entertain someone; and it is very simple, with a lot of refreins.

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>>Look at the layout. How is the ballad structured?
The ballad is composed by 13 four-line stanzas.

>>Has it got a regular rhyme scheme?
The rhymes are not always regular but sometimes we have an alternative rhyme.

>>How is the story told, through dialogue or narration? Did you find any long descriptive passages?

The story is told through dialogue and through narration, this is the two narrative styles have a different aim: the dialogue introduced the story and describe te emotions; the narration describe the place in where the event is set.
All the ballad is a descriptive passage of an event.

>>Is the language abstract or concrete? Is the style complex or simple?

The language is concrete and the style is simple.

>>"Once upon a time, in far country, there lived a king whose daugheter was the prettiest princess in the world. [...]" (James Thurber, The Princess and the Tin Box). What does the beginning remind you of? Compare it with the first stanza of the ballad. Are there any similarities?
The beginning remind me of a tipical start of a fairy tale.
Both started with the stating the existence of a king and his beautiful daughter.

>>What season is referred to in stanza two? How do you know?
It referred to autumn, when corn is harvested and grass can grow freely.

>>What season is reffered to in stanza four? Why?
It is referred to winter, because the situation is set twenty weeks after autumn.

>>What colour is Diamond's hand (fifth stnza) and th kitchen boy's breast (ninth stanza)? Why?
Diamond's hand is described as lily and pale and that is to make her noble origins more evident. The boy's breast is depicted white to underline the purity of his soul.

>>What is Lady Diamond's attitude when her father questions her (sixth stanza)?
Since she knows that she has disobeyed him she is praying him not to stop their love.

>>What do you think is the singer's attitude to the story? Which side is he on, Dimond's or the king's?
The singer's seems to stand by lady Diamond's view.

>>Write Lady Diamond's letter to her father before dying.
"Dear Father,
I just can't stand the idea of living without him. I need and I want to be with him, so I have to go to him.
Please, forgive me.
Forgive me for having disobeyed you and shamed the family.
Forgive me for leaving you. "

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>>Who are the 2 characters speaking? What is their relationship?

The man is a sailor who claims to be very rich and is fallen in love with the wife of a house carpenter. Their relationship is temporary.

>>What has the man given up for love?
He claimed to had given up the chance to marry the Kings'd daughter.

>>What does the man want the woman to do for him?
He wants her to leaver her husband and her son and to go away with him.

>>What does she need to know before leaving?
She need to know if the man is really rich or not as he claimed he was.

>>What are her feelings once she has left?
She misses her baby.

>>What happens to the lovers and their ship?
The ship skins and they die drowned.

>>What general features of the ballad can you fin here?
The tipical features of the ballads are:

• theme of the tragic love and religion

• use of concrete language

• repetition, incremental repetition, alliteration, rhyme.

>>Who is really the sea captain? What biblical episode does the wonman's behaviour remind you of?
The sea captain is the devil, or the snake who tempted Eve inducing her to eat the apple and promising her happiness. In the ballad Eve is the woman, ho decided to follow the sea captain because of his richness.

>>How are Heaven and Hell described?
Heaven is describev as a high place, Hell is describe with dark and low hills.

>>Why is heaven a forbidden place for the lovers?
The two lovers have violate religion violating marriage, since it is a religious pact. They can't go to heaven.

>>Focus on the title. What title would you give the ballad now, "The House of Carpenter", "The Daemon Lover" or other?
I would give again the title of "The House of Carpenter". Even if the Carpenter is not the main character, the house is the place in where the Deamon went, is the place where the woman lived, and is the place that will always remain in the woman's heart. "The Daemon Lover" is probably better to explain the topic of the ballad, but I think the woman is not the Damon Lover, because she was in love with his richness and the idea that she had made up of him, not in the Daemon himself.

>>Turn the ballad into a story and give the house carpenter a chance to express his own point of view.