Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism | The Dream of the Rood - O. D. Macrae-Gibson (essay date 1969)

huppé details the structure of the dream of the rood:

the basic design of the dream of the rood is clear. it consists of four scenes: i, 1-23, the vision; ii, 24-77, the narrative of the cross; iii, 78-121, the peroration and exhortation of the cross; iv, 122-156, the dreamer's prayer to cross and christ. however, this relatively simple frame supports an elaborate rhetorical structure in which a series of striking antitheses is developed. the antitheses derive basically from the juxtaposition, the communicatio idiomatum, of the two...