Pastoral Poems and Sonnets

Pastoral Poems and Sonnets

1. There were crazy awesome writers during the Renaissance.

• Elizabeth I was a poet herself and rewarded poets for their eloquent rhymes.
• She also surrounded herself with lyricists.
• Among her Proteges were Sir Philip Sydney and Sir Walter Raleigh.
• The latter encouraged his homie Edmund Spencer to write the epic The Faerie Queen (1950) in honor of the queen, Elizabeth I.
• Christopher Marlowe wrote pastoral poems about shepherds and rustic life.

2. The Elizabethan poets were very spiritual about nature.

• They created ingenious metaphors, wicked sweet allegories, and analogies, all in the form of Sonnets.
• The Sonnet was the most popular form of love poems.
• Some Sonneters were Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Edward Spencer, William Shakespeare, and Amelia Lanier.

Shakespearean Drama & The Rise of Humanism

Shakespearean Drama

1. Elizabethan drama came from three sources:

• medieval plays, 16th century interludes, and Greek and Latin classics

2. Plays focused mainly on human complexities rather
than religious themes
3. The Globe: most successful English theater
4. Shakespeare contributed 37 plays to the theater
including tragedies, comedies, and
histories

• ex: Macbeth [tragedy]
  
• Othello [tragedy]
  
• A Midsummer Night's Dream [comedy]

5. Christopher Marlowe: wrote tragedies

• 1st playwright to explore potential of English language as dramatic medium

6. Ben Jonson: wrote comedies

• writing included satire and cynical commentary

7. After 1649: Puritans closed theater




The Rise of Humanism

1. Humanists studied humanities

• art, history, philosophy, & literature

2. Humanists criticized society
3. Sir Thomas Moore: believed humans could run the world best
4. 1516: Sir Thomas Moore published Utopia

• perfect society on imaginary island

5. Humanists were concerned with classical learning
6. Reverence for classics combined with a pride in English language led to distinguished
translations

• ex: Earl of Surrey's "Aeneid" translation
• George Chapman's "Iliad & Odyssey" translation
  

7. Humanists disagreed on religious issues.

Spiritual Writing & The Metaphysical & Cavalier Poets

Spiritual Writing

1. Early efforts for Bible translation were censored by the church.

• John Wycliffe: attacked by British archbishop for translation
• William Tyndale: condemned as heretic and burned at the stake

2. 1604: James I commissioned 54 biblical scholars to create a new authorized version

• based on Greek, Hebrew, and early Latin translations

3. John Miltion's "The Paradise Lost" is based on a biblical story of the first humans 4. John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" is an allegory of the journey to the afterlife




The Metaphysical and Cavalier Poets


1. Ben Jonson: boisterous man, accomplished poet, and
an inspiration to other poets

• "sons of Ben"
• Robert Herrick
• Richard Lovelace
• Sir John Suckling

2. These poets were known as "Cavalier Poets" because
they took the side of Charles I and the Royalists.

3. Cavalier poetry was charming, witty, and dealt with
themes of love, death, and carpe diem

• carpe diem: living for the moment

4. John Donne: wrote Metaphysical poetry

• poems characterized by live, death, and religious devotion

5. Metaphysical poets used elaborate metaphors to explore the complexities of life