ELIZABETHAN

POETRY AND PROSE

Chapter III

Tiyas Aryani (F1022141005)

Wilda Trianti (F1022141014)
Galang Patria Bangsa (F1022141016)
LOGO

Elizabethan Age

Queen Elizabeth ruled from 1558 to 1603 , yet The Great

Elizabethan literary age began in 1579.
During this time the writing of poetry was the part of
education.

Before Elizabethan
Before 1579, Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of
Surrey already wrote sonnets which they learned
from Italians.
Sir Thomas Wyatt was the first man who
brought the sonnet to England. He followed the
tradition of the Petrarchan sonnet with octave
and sestet.
The Earl of Surrey was the first man who made
blank verse in English.

Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was also a
great poet of this age.
He wrote around 154 sonnets and
they are very famous in English
literature.
He developed a new form of sonnet called the English
sonnet or the Shakespearean sonnet. The rhyme
scheme was abab cdcd efef gg.

Edmund Spencer

Edmund Spencer introduced the

Elizabethan age properly.
In 1579, he wrote The Shepherds
Calendar, a poem in twelve books, one
for each month of the year.
His greatest work was The Faerie Queene. It is written
in Spenserian stanza of nine lines, with the rhyme
scheme: ababbcbcc.

Lyrics of the Elizabethan Age

The Elizabethan age produced many beautiful
lyrics.
One of the finest lyricists was Sir Philip Sidney.
His books of sonnets Astrophel and Stella was
printed in 1591. Another great poet was Sir
Walter Raleigh.
Some examples of best Elizabethan lyrics can
also be found in the plays of Shakespeare, like
Venus and Adonis and Lucrece.

Elizabethan Prose
Many writers of the Elizabethan age translated various
books into English.
Sir Thomas North translated Plutarch Lives of the Noble
Grecians and Romans(1579) had a wide influence on
Elizabethan prose.
Richard Hakluyt collected and published The Principal
Navigations Voyages and Discoveries of the English
Nation(1598)(about Cabots, Hawkins, etc.).
Samuel Purchas published Purchas his Pilgrims(1625),
Purchas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and
the Religions Observed in All Ages(1613), and Purchas
his Pilgrim, or the History of Man(1619)

Euphuism

John Lily wrote a kind of novel named

Euphues(1578 and 1580). He started a
fashion, which spread in books and conversation
called Euphuism.
The term euphemism is used to refer to using a
comparatively milder or less harsh form of a
negative description in a writing or a
conversation.

Francis Bacon

Bacon is one of the most famous

prose writers of the time who is
also known as the father of the
English prose. He wrote books
both in English and Latin.
His famous books are The Essays, The
Advancement of Learning, The History of
Henry VII and The New Atlantis.

The Metaphysical Poets

A group of poets, known as the Metaphysical

poets (Jacobean Age), began to write poems
which were less beautiful and less musical, but
full of intellectual images.
They searched all fields of knowledge, science,
as well as, nature, for comparisons and tried to
say in a style never used before. This made their
poetry difficult to understand.

John Donne

John Donne began writing

metaphysical poets early in the
17th Century. Donne also wrote
religious poetry.
His songs and sonnets are his finest works. He
had made good use of direct speech to give a
colloquial touch to his poems.

Translation of The Bible

William Tyndale was a successful translator who

translated the New Testament from the Greek
and the Old Testament from the Hebrew. He was
later burnt to death for his beliefs.
The Authorized Version (A.V) of the Bible
appeared in 1611. The language is beautiful,
strong and pure.

Benjamin Jonson

Ben Jonson (father of literary

criticism) wrote a book titled
Timber, or Discoveries (1640).
This is a collection of notes and
ideas on various subjects.
Jonson was an English playwright,
poet, actor, and literary critic. He is generally
regarded as the second most important English
dramatist, after William Shakespeare.

Reference

Thornley, G.C., and Gwyneth Roberts. An

Outline of English Literature. 2nd ed.
Harlow: Longman, 1984.