Elizabethan Era Poetry

Elizabethan Era Overview

• Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558-1603) is considered a golden age for English history and literature
• English poetry from this era is characterized by variety, freshness, youthful energy, and romanticism
• Italian forms and genres, like the love sonnet, pastoral, and allegorical epic, heavily influenced poets from this age
• Key works include Edmund Spenser's "The Shepherd’s Calendar" and "The Faerie Queene"
• Other key works include Sir Philip Sidney’s "Arcadia," William Shakespeare’s sonnets, and Sir Walter Raleigh’s lyrics
• William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets in 1609
• Also "Venus and Adonis" in 1593, and "The Rape of Lucrece" (1594)

Features of Elizabethan Poetry

• Showcased a range of poetic forms and prose, from Platonic idealism and romancing narratives to stark realism
• Romantic themes celebrated love, adventure, and chivalric ideals
• Featured a rich, elaborate style, using 'conceits' as a popular device
• Poets experimented and refined the forms and boundaries of literary genres
• Literature from Italy, France, and Spain significantly impacted the poetic traditions
• The literary spirit permeated all classes, from courtiers to humble writers

Key Poets of the Time

• Edmund Spenser advanced English poetry with works like "The Faerie Queene" and "The Shepheardes Calender"
• "The Shepheardes Calender" popularized the pastoral genre
• Christopher Marlowe, primarily a playwright, exemplified the pastoral tradition in his poetry like "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"
• William Shakespeare revolutionized the English sonnet
• Shakespeare's sonnets Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 27 showcase thematic diversity and paradox
• Sir Philip Sidney's "Astrophel and Stella" sonnet sequence portrays the melancholy of unfulfilled love
• Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the Italian sonnet to English literature
• Wyatt emulated Petrarch, translated sonnets, and wrote lyrics, epigrams, and satires
• Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey innovated the sonnet form with distinct rhyming schemes
• Henry Howard translated Virgil's Aeneid into blank verse
• Henry Howard influenced dramatists like Shakespeare

Common Themes In Elizabethan Poetry

• Courtly and unrequited love were central themes, which were explored through sonnets
• Feminist interpretations reveal perspectives on the portrayal of women as objects of desire
• Nature and pastoral life explored the beauty and simplicity of nature, like that of Edmund Spenser
• Mortality and transience of life reflected the fleeting nature of beauty, youth, and worldly pleasures
• Mysticism and spirituality explored personal journeys and relationships with the divine

Forms of Elizabethan poetry

• Sonnet: 14-line lyric poem in iambic pentameter, Petrarchan or Shakespearean rhyme schemes
• Petrarchan sonnet has octave and sestet
• Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains and a concluding couplet
• Lyric: Short, non-narrative poems of thoughts and feelings, sometimes in dramatic situations
• Narrative Poetry: Poems that tell stories, like Shakespeare’s "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece"
• Lyrical Poetry: Poems with musical qualities, often set to music, that emphasize emotion
• Imagery and Figurative Language: Vivid descriptions were used to enhance the poetic experience
• Poems also frequently used classical allusions to mythology and classical references

Key Facts From the Elizabethan Era

• Tottel’s Miscellany is a collection of 271 poems and the first printed anthology of English poetry
• Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the sonnet, and Henry Howard developed the Shakespearean sonnet form and blank verse
• George Gascoigne's Steel Glass was the first verse satire
• Sackville's "The Induction" is the first significant single poem
• Spenser’s The Shepherd’s Calendar (1579) and Amoretti popularized pastoral and sonnet forms,
• Shakespeare's 154 sonnets, Sidney's "Astrophel and Stella," and Marlowe's "Hero and Leander" were significant works
• The Theatre and the Curtain were built in 1576
• The Theatre and the Curtain were closed in 1642, and reopened in 1660
• University Wits: John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Nashe, George Peele, Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, and Thomas Lodge

Shakespeare Glance

• William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon
• William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and fathered three children
• His non-dramatic poetry includes Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece
• Shakespeare 154 sonnets address themes of love, time, and beauty

Poetic Techniques

• Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds
• Allusion: Referencing historical, mythological, philosophical, and religious concepts
• Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming
• Metaphor: Non-literal comparisons
• Simile: Direct comparisons, including extended Homeric similes

Notable Elizabethan Lines

• “Had I no eyes but ears, my ears would love.” from Venus and Adonis
• “Thou art more lovely and more temperate, rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.” from Sonnet 18
• “What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?” from The Rape of Lucrece
• “Thy eternal summer shall not fade.” from Sonnet 18

Elizabethan Conclusion

• This age is known as a pinnacle of romanticism and english literary history
• This age features include innovations in poetry forms and contributions by poets
• The publication of Tottel’s Miscellany, made poetry the most celebrated literary form
• Key themes were love, nature, mortality, and spirituality
• This period remains a golden age, revered for its profound impact on English literature.