Renaissance Poetry and Sonnets

Renaissance Poetry and Sonnets Marlowe, Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, Donne

Edmund Spenser • Not wealthy, but from lower class • Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley sponsored him • Wrote Faerie Queen • Favorite of Queen Elizabeth • Invented Spenserian Stanza • 9 lines: 1st 8 lines iambic pentameter • last line alexandrine—6 iambic feet

Spenserian Rhyme Scheme • A • B • A • B • Gap between stanzas • B • C • B • C • C

Sir Philip Sidney • Introduced pastoral poetry • poems set in nature • Romanticized, not realistic • Often difficult to understand • Lived in a dream world • Poetry has an atmosphere of dreaminess • Uncle was Robert Dudley • Earl of Leicester, Spenser’s sponsor • Used Spenserian sonnet format

Astrophel & Stella • Sonnet sequence (108) about a woman named Penelope Devereux • She is the Stella of the poems • Autobiographical • His love for Penelope who was 13 • Were engaged • She broke it off & married Lord Rich

Definitions • Astrophel: star lover • Stella: star • How possible is this love?

Christopher Marlowe • Born in same year as Shakespeare 1564 • Killed in a brawl at age of 29 • Supposedly over paying the bar tab • Others think was due to espionage he had done for the government • Dr. Faustus is his most famous play

Sir Walter Raleigh • Introduced tobacco to Europe • Fought the Spanish Armada • Famous for throwing cloak on the ground for the Queen could walk over a puddle • Married one of her maids/ladies • Imprisoned in Tower of London • Executed by James I for treason

Their answering poems • Not autobiographical • Are not the shepherd or the nymph • Reckless men who came to violent ends

Shakespeare’s sonnets • Published 1609 without his permission • Majority written to a young attractive man • Also written to his mistress and a rival poet • Also growing old is a major theme in his sonnets

Mysteries of the sonnets • Written to W.H.? • Henry Wriothesley-Earl of Southhampton • His patron • Or William Herbert-Earl of Pembroke • Man who despised marriage • Who was the young man of the sonnets? • Who was his mistress? • Who was the rival poet? • How did the sonnets get published? • What did his wife think? • Why did he retire when they were printed?

John Donne • Born a Catholic at a dangerous time for Catholics • Relative of Sir Thomas More • Wrote Utopia • Beheaded by Henry VIII for opposing his divorce to Catherine of Aragon • Donne studied at Oxford and Cambridge but never graduated • Refused to take Oath of Supremacy that declared Henry VIII as head of the church

Early Life • Began to question his faith after his brother’s death • Wealthy, handsome spent his early years as a man about town • Began writing his poetry then Satires • Traveled to Cadiz, Spain with the Earl of Essex • Career was on the rise; became secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton

Troubles Secretly marries Egerton’s daughter Anne Thrown in prison, friends who aided also imprisoned Lost his job, for next 10 years would struggle with poverty trying to support his family Finally a reconciliation and Anne’s father paid her dowry

Mid-life • Practiced law, but lean years and little money • Would write an essay supporting suicide as not a sin • English Catholics given option to swear an oath to James I and repression against them will ease • Donne will take Anglican order at behest of James I • 1615 takes religious orders; 1617 wife dies

Later Life • Struck with grief, continued to write his poetry • No love poems though; instead his Holy Sonnets philosophical discussions about life and death • Became Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1623—would have become bishop but health was failing

Meditation XVIII “For whom the bell tolls” is his most famous of the meditations written after a serious illness Obsessed with death, posed in a shroud and the painting was completed a few week before his death Preached what has been called his own funeral sermon at this time His monument in his shroud survived the Great Fire of London 1666 and can still be seen at St. Paul’s

Literary techniques used • Donne used several techniques in his poetry to convey his ideas • Metaphor and simile • Comparison of physical acts to spiritual emotions or concepts • Anaphora • Repetition of words/word phrases to draw attention to theme or images • Oxymoron and Antithesis • Opposing ideas used to draw emphasis on each other

The Flea • Uses the concept of a flea biting a man and woman as a comparison to the sexual act • Premise is since it bit you and it bit me; then we are already mingled and should have sex • Not very successful though in his seduction as she turns him down

The Broken Heart • Uses play on the word “heart” to illustrate his feelings • Images from nature especially violent • Metaphysical poem transforms a simple idea: love • Turns into a complex discussion about life and death with each stanza looking at the topic from a different perspective

John Donne • http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/donnebib.htm • Woodcut from Sir Thomas More'sUtopia.

Renaissance Poetry and Sonnets