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10 terms

Renaissance and 17th Century

Group 2
Sir Thomas Wyatt, "Whoso List to Hunt
- Attractive and intelligent met Ann while working for the king. Imprisoned when thought to be having an affair
​- Wyatt became interested in Petrarchan sonnets from Italy after translating them
- Iambic pentameter (loosely followed)
- Extended metaphor = hunter vs. doe
- One must accept when a goal is unattainable
- Diamond necklace
- Catching the wind in a net
- Fainting as he follows
- "In a net I seek to hold the wind"
- "Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am, and wild for to hold, though I seem tame."
- Loosely comparable to the Nymphs Reply - Detail typical to the period
- She cannot be hunted, for truly she is no doe
Christopher Marlowe, "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love"
​- Written during Marlowe's studies at Cambridge
​- Most exciting Elizabethan dramatist prior to Shakespeare
​- Iambic pentameter, 8 syllables per line
- AA BB CCDD, 7 quatrains
- Mixes imagery of nature and manmade objects
- Love flourishes in nature / Live in the moment
- Bed of roses

- Gown made of the finest wool
- Sheppard feeding his flocks
- "Come live with me and be my love"
- "Melodious birds sing madrigals"
- Work similar to Shakespeare in many ways
- Displays strong connections between living in nature and maintaining love
- Let us run away and leave behind the mess
Sir Walter Raleigh, "Nymph's reply to the Shepherd"
- Raleigh was multitalented (explorer, philosopher, colonizer, historian) and had many influential friends
​- Executed for treason (never proven guilty)
​- Alliteration (Flocks from fields, flowers de fade, etc.)
- AABB CCDD 6Quatrains
- Parallels Marlowe's poem
- Formal diction "thee, thy"
- Living in the moment has a detrimental effect on the future
- Springtime and summer subsiding into fall/winter
- Sheep leaving field
- Refusal of Nymph to Shepherd
- "Honey tongue a heart of gall, in fancy's spring but sorrow's fall"
- "In folly ripe, in reason rotten"
- Similar realistic view as Whoso List to Hunt, but warmer and less defeated
- Humanism (reversed) the world will not stop for human affairs?
- Love is not an escape
William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 29"
- No historian is sure whether or not the sonnets are connected to Shakespeare's history or just entertainment
- First 126 sonnets addressed towards a young man warning him against time + moral weakness
​- ABAB CDCD EBEB FF (Irregular)
- Two distinct sections of depressed and joyous
- Uses "---" to visibly denote shift in tone (reset pace)
- Terrible times can be turned around with positive thoughts
- Lark at daybreak
- A king's state
- Heaven's gate
- "Trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries"
- "Haply I think of thee, and then my state"
- Description of heaven also in Milton's work
- Classical ambiguity (allusions to Christianity)
- Help comes from within us
William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 116"
- First 126 sonnets addressed to young man urging to perpetual morals
- Though he often writes of romance, no evidence that it relates to the authors own personal life
​- ABAB CDCD EFEF GG (Traditional)
- Ending couplet paradox used as proof
- Metaphor of the north star is used to create a parallel that love can guide us
- Clear theme statement
- North star (Eternal and bright)
- Rosy lips and cheeks (Delicate and young)
- Powerful image 3
- "If this be an error and upon me proved I never writ, no man ever loved"
- "Love's not time's fool"
- Eternal love similar to that of Bonnie Barbara Allen
- Humanism + personification of love and time
- Love's waters must be navigated
William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 130"
- Petrarchian love sonnets made famous in England by Philip Sidney
- Sonnets 127 to 154 are addressed to a homely mistress who eventually betrays the poet
​- Simple diction brings out bland simplicity of subject
- Chooses common 'love symbols' to further mock
- Traditional Shakespearian sonnet
- Love can take any form
- Red coral
- Dark haired lady with dirty complexion
- A goddess walk vs. a human walk
- "No such roses I see in her cheeks"
- "I grant I never saw a goddess go, my mistress, when she walks, treads on ground"
- Same satire apparent as in Shakespeare's other works
- Imitation - early satire
- Love the imperfections.
John Donne, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"
- Lived in poverty for several years after spending his inheritance on education, women, and travel
- Became a lawyer, a priest, and a member of parliament
- ABAB rhyming pattern (Relatively simple compared to his other work)
- Iambic tetrameter
- Four line stanzas
- Theme: Although these two lovers are forced to part for a time, their departure should not be a sorrow occasion, as their love will outlast any time and fill any distance.
- The image of the expanding gold (Metaphor for their love expanding to fill the void between them)
- The image of the twin compasses (Their love always points true, as they are only meant to be with one another)
- The image of the circle ending right where it began (They must depart from each other for now, but if they are faithful, they will be together again)
- "Not yet a breach, but an expansion, like gold to an aery thinness beat"
- "Thy firmness makes my circle just, and makes me end where I begun"
- Connection?
- Detail typical of the period
- Metaphyical poet who loved in his youth
Robert Herrick, "To the Virgins"
- Born in Cheapside, London, and was (ironically) the son of a prosperous goldsmith
- Matriculated to St Johns College (Cambridge) at the age of 22
- ABAB rhyming pattern
- Part of the "Carpe Diem" genre
- Another note...
- A warning to young men and woman that youth is short, as time will always be passing. Take time and love in youth and make the most of it.
- The "same flower" that lives for today, but will die tomorrow (Herrick uses this metaphor of a delicate and beautiful flower to embody youth and it's impermanence)
- The glorious lamp of heaven (Meaning the sun and its ethereal/immortal qualities, acting in contrast to the very mortal flower.
- The youth and blood (Giving a very clear image of how the human body ages and grows cold after youth)
- "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may"
- "Then be not coy, and use your time"
- Connection?
- Detail typical of the period
- Seize that day, for it is short
John Milton, "On his Blindness" from Paradise Lost
​- Was a civil servant for the Commonwealth (republic) of England
​- He wrote in a time of religious flux and political uncertainty
​- ABBA rhyming pattern
​- First person narrative
​- Mostly a realistic reflection on the author's own life
- God does not judge men on the gifts they give or deeds they have done, for he has no use for them. He judges on the intent and valor of the individual behind them.
- Milton's "dark world and wide" (Milton referring to the state of his blindness)
- Man bearing his "mild yoke"
- Thousands at his bidding speed
- "When I consider how my light is spent ere half my days in this dark world and wide,"
- "God does not need either man's work or his own gifts"
- Connection to other work
- Detail typical of the period
- The lord does not ask for gifts so that he may have them; he asks to see how each man will deliver
Samuel Pepys, "The Fire of London"
- An English naval administrator and a member of parliament
- The private diary he kept is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration
- Written as a first person narrative
- No rhyming pattern
- Level of detail used to add a personal tone
​- Small events can have great and violent consequences.
- Crude firefighting methods of the day (Used to add a reflective tone/perspective)
- The infinite great fire across the bridge
- Smoke remaining in the city for many months after the fire
- "And among other things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loth to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconies."
- "In absolute ignorance how this fire should come - which is a strange thing, that so horrid an effect should have so mean and uncertain a beginning."
- The immense flames and grand scale relate to Milton and his descriptions of biblical events in Paradise Lost
- Many works from this era refer to the great fire, but none in such detail
- A spark that fed the flame, rather than start it.