Renaissance and

Elizabethan Poetry
Characteristics of Elizabethan Poetry
• Poetry is a subgenre of literature, so it witnessed the upsurge in literary
production which took place during Renaissance.
• Poetry in particular had a great progression in terms of form and theme.
• The most predominant poetic type was lyrical poetry, which was, at first,
literarily represented in a form of sonnet.
• Sonnet is an icon for the Elizabethan poetry as the majority of writers adopted
and adapted this newly borrowed style of poetry.
• A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, and it is
originated in Italy.
• Italian sonnet, more commonly known as Petrarchan sonnet, was originally
invented by an Italian poet named Petrarch. The Petrarchan sonnet is divided
into two parts (stanzas), octave and sestet.
Characteristics of Elizabethan Poetry
• The octave is 8-line stanza consisting the first part of the Petrarchan sonnet and
where the argument is introduced. The sestet is 6-line stanza consisting the
second part of the Petrarchan sonnet, and where the argument is falling down
till reaching the final resolution of the poet. Between octave and sestet (in the
eighth or ninth line), a volta or turn occurs to mark a shift in the ongoing
argument.

• Sir Thomas Wyatt was the first to introduce the Italian sonnets (Petrarchan
sonnet) into English as mere translated versions of Italian sonnets. So far,
English sonnet had a form very similar to the Italian sonnet.
• Later on, English sonnet was developed and restructured at the hands of many
English Elizabethan poets like, Henry Howard, Edmund Spenser, and William
Shakespeare
• Still, some poets preferred the Italian form of sonnet.
Characteristics of Elizabethan Poetry
Types of Sonnets
The Petrarchan sonnet consists
of an octave and a sestet
Petrarchan rhyming abba abba cdecde (or
cdcdcd).
It consists of three
quatrains and a couplet
rhyming abab, bcbc, and Spenserian
ee.
Similar to the Spenserian
sonnet, which falls into three
quatrains and a couplet but has
Shakespearean
a different rhyme scheme abab,
cdcd, efef, and gg
Characteristics of Elizabethan Poetry
• Hennery Howard invented a new poetic form known as blank verse, which is
defined as poetic lines having metrical patterns, but lacking rhyme. Blank
verses indicate unrhymed poetic lines written in iambic pentameter.
• Some critics claim that Henry Howard was just inspired by some Latin poetry
because the classical Latin verses had not used rhyme.
• Other kinds or forms of poetry dominated during the Elizabethan age may
include, metaphysical poetry, parody, blank verse, dramatic poetry, and pastoral
poetry.
• Metaphysical poetry is highly intellectualized, uses strange imagery and
frequent paradoxes, and contains extremely complicated conceits (prolonged
weird analogy between dissimilar ideas or objects)
• Characteristics: wit and elaborate style, paradoxes and puns, imagery from the
emergent sciences, questions on the nature of reality in philosophical way,
skeptical nature and fluctuating reflections.
• Metaphysical poets:
Characteristics of Elizabethan Poetry
Major Elizabethan Themes Elizabethan Poets
• Courtly love, • Thomas Wyatt- Whoso List to Hunt
• Henry Howard- Description of Spring
• Mutability of life
• Edmund Spenser- To His Love
• Religion and piety
• Sir Philip Sidney- A Litany
• Rebirth and regeneration • Christopher Marlowe- The Passionate
• Rear of death Shepherd to His Love
• Infliction and spiritual purification. • Sir Walter Raleigh- Answer to
Marlowe
• Immortality • William Shakespeare- Sonnet 18&
• Platonic love Sonnet 65
• John Donne- Batter My Heart
• Nationalism
• John Milton- On His Blindness
• Reformation
 Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 11 October 1542)
Brief biography
• Born in Kent, England, Sir Thomas Wyatt was an ambassador to France and
Italy for King Henry VIII.
• Wyatt’s travels abroad exposed him to different forms of poetry, which he
adapted for the English language — most notably, the sonnet.
• Rumored to be Anne Boleyn’s lover, he was imprisoned for a month in the
Tower of London until Boleyn’s execution for adultery.
• Many consider his poem “Whoso List to Hunt” to be about Boleyn.
• Wyatt is credited with introducing the Italian form of sonnet to English.
• His poetry was widely circulated during his life, but the first time to appeat in
print was after his death in print
• In 1557, ninety-six of his songs appeared in Songs and Sonnetts (Tottel’s
Miscellany).
Source: poetryfoundation.org
 Whoso List to Hunt
1.Whose list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
2.But as for me- alas, I may no more.
3.The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
4.I am of them that farthest cometh behind.
5.Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
6.Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
7.Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore,
8.Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.
9.Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
10.As well as I may spend his time in vain.
11.And graven with diamonds in letters plain
12.There is written, her fair neck round about:
13.Noli me tangere, for Caesar as I am,
14.And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.
 Whoso List to Hunt
Brief Summary and Paraphrasing
• Octave: the speaker expresses his frustration over a failed experience to catch
a very fast deer, which symbolically represents his lover.
• Sestet: the speaker is profoundly convinced that the deer is unreachable and he
assures the other hunters that they will do exactly as he has done, to fail in
hunting the deer.
Type of poetry: lyrical
Form: Petrarchan(Italian) sonnet consisting of octave (first 8 lines) and sestet (last
6 lines).
Meter: iambic pentameter
Rhyme scheme: abba abba cddc ee
Themes
• Courtly love
Whoso List to Hunt: Language and style
Anastrophe Whose list to hunt, I know where is an hind,

Imagery Since in a net I seek to hold the wind

Allusion Noli me tangere, for Caesar as I am

Alliteration so sore / Fainting I follow

Assonance vain travail / out of doubt

Consonance vain travail / fleeth afore

Pun Hind/ sore/ round about

Caesura But as for me- alas

Metaphor I seek to hold the wind

Metonymy Hind / wind (metonymy of the deer)

Paradox And wild for to hold, though I seem tame

 Whoso List to Hunt: Questions
• How is the image of woman presented in the poem? Does the voice of the female lover
appear in the poem?
• How does the speaker approve his masculinity in this poem?
• How can you interpret and justify the use of archaic expressions in this poem like ‘alas’
and ‘Noli me tangere”?
• “And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.”, explain the paradox in this poetic line?
• How can you draw a connection between the life of Thomas Wyatt and the thematic
significance of the poem?
• Is there any reference to King Henry III in this poem? Explain how?
• “Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore”, what is the poetic effect of using alliteration and
consonance devices for the affricative sound /f/ in this line?
• At which line does volta take place in this poem? What is the purpose of using volta in
sonnets?
• Is the tone changing throughout the poem? How?
• In poetry, substituting the speaker with the poet is a heresy. In this poem, why can we
assume the speaker is the poet himself?
 Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
Brief biography
• Tudor poet Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, was born in Hunsdon,
Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of the third Duke of Norfolk.
• Associated with the royal court, he grew up at Windsor, where he was a
childhood companion to the Duke of Richmond, son of Henry VIII.
• Surrey was also a first cousin to Anne Boleyn. Educated by tutors, he lived an
eventful life as a soldier and a courtier, eventually marrying Lady Frances de
Vere, daughter of the Earl of Oxford.
• In 1532, he traveled to France with Henry VIII and stayed at the French court
for almost a year. He was made Knight of the Garter in 1541 and served as a
soldier in France.
• After Anne Boleyn’s execution, Surrey and his father ran afoul of the new
English court on several occasions. Eventually charged with treason, he was
imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed in 1547.
 Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
Brief biography
• Surrey’s poetry is often associated with that of
Thomas Wyatt, whose work was published
alongside Surrey’s in Tottel’s Miscellany (1557).
• A major poet of the 16th century, Surrey is
credited with developing the Shakespearean
form of the sonnet.
• He wrote love poems and elegies and translated
Books 2 and 4 of Virgil’s Aeneid as well as Psalms
and Ecclesiastes from the Bible.
• He also introduced blank verse to English—a
form that he used in his translations of Virgil.

Source: poetryfoundation.org
 Description of Spring,
Wherein each thing renews, save only the Lover
1. THE soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
2. With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale:
3. The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
4. The turtle to her make hath told her tale.
5. Summer is come, for every spray now springs:
6. The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
7. The buck in brake his winter coat he flings;
8. The fishes flete with new repaired scale.
9. The adder all her slough away she slings;
10. The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale;
11. The busy bee her honey now she mings;
12. Winter is worn that was the flowers’ bale.
13. And thus I see among these pleasant things
14. Each care decays- and yet my sorrow springs.
 Description of Spring
Brief Summary and Paraphrasing
The speaker is fascinated by the vast change of spring at which all manifestations
of nature have new livelier appearance. Among all these pleasant manifestations,
the poet is melancholic because all he does not enjoy any thing new except his
sorrow and melancholy.
Type of poetry: lyrical
Form: Petrarchan(Italian) sonnet consisting of octave (first 8 lines) and sestet (last 6
lines)
Meter: iambic pentameter
Rhyme scheme: ABAB ABAB ABAB AA
Themes
• Courtly love
• Rebirth and regeneration
• Emptiness
• Harmony with nature
Description of Spring : Language and style
Imagery Visual: swift swallow/green hath clad Kinetic: swift swallow
Auditory: busy bee Olfactory: honey

Metaphor With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale

Anthropomorphism With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale

Paradox sorrow springs

Onomatopoeia The busy bee

Caesura Each care decays- and yet my sorrow springs.

Euphemism The turtle to her make hath told her tale.

Juxtaposition And thus I see among these pleasant things

Each care decays- and yet my sorrow springs
Syntactic inversion feathers new
 Description of Spring
• What is romantic in this poem?
• Is the inside of the speaker in harmony with nature?
• What is the significance of including the male gender only in this poem?
• How does the poet animate the image of nature in this poem
• What is the effect of using the present tense on the thematic significance of the
poem?
• What are the two extremes of juxtaposition in this poem?
• As a Muslim reader, how can you read this poem?
• At which part is the main argument introduced in this poem? Explain how?
• What is paradoxical in “my sorrow springs”?
 Edmund Spenser 1552–1599
• Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for “The Faerie Queen”, an epic
poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth.
• He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its
infancy, and one of the greatest poets in English language.
• Spenser used a distinctive verse form, called Spenserian stanza, in several works,
including “The Faerie Queen”. The stanza’s main meter is iambic pentameter with
a final line in iambic hexameter, and the rhyme scheme is abab abab abab aa
• Spenserian Sonnet
The Spenserian sonnet is based on a fusion of elements of both the Petrarchan
sonnet and the Shakespearian sonnet. It is similar to the Shakespearian sonnet in
the sense that its set up is based more on the 3 quatrains and a couplet, a system
set up by Shakespeare; however, it is similar to the Petrarchan tradition in the fact
that a solution or conclusion follows after an argument is set up in the earlier
quatrains.
 To his Love
1.One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
2.But came the waves and washed it away:
3.Again I wrote it with a second hand,
4.But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
5."Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay,
6.A mortal thing so to immortalize;
7.For I myself shall like to this decay,
8.And eke my name be wiped out likewise."
9."Not so," (quod I) "let baser things devise
10.To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
11.My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
12.And in the heavens write your glorious name:
13.Where whenas death shall all the world subdue
14.Our love shall live, and later life renew."
 To his Love
Brief Summary and Paraphrasing
• Octave: the speaker writes down the name of his beloved at the strand but the
waves wash her name. After trying many time in vain, his beloved assures him
that we all will vanish one day because we all are subject to immortality.
• Sestet: despite of the mutability of time, which is symbolically represented as
the waves, is enormous, the speaker puts forward s solution: he will
immortalize his beloved through poetry.
Form: Spenserian sonnet (3 quatrains and a couplet)
Meter: iambic pentameter
Rhyme scheme: ababbcbecdcdee
Themes
• Immortality
• Mutability of life
• Platonic love
To his Love: language and Style
Metaphor “But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.”,

Medias Res Starting the poem from the middle of the story:
One day I wrote her name upon the strand

Metonymy One day I wrote her name upon the strand

But came the waves and washed it away

Imagery One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Anthropomorphism But came the waves and washed it away

Onomatopoeia But came the waves and washed it away

Hyperbole And in the heavens write your glorious name

 To His Love: Questions
• Trace the diversity of tone and highlight its special significance on the whole
meaning of the poem?
• What is the main argument in this poem, and how does the speaker put forward
a solution for his dilemma?
• What makes this poem similar or different to the Petrarchan sonnet?
• The couplet reveals the speaker’s deceit and equivocation. How can you argue
for/ against it?
• How can you perceive the inclusion the woman’s voice in this poem?
• As a Muslim, what ideas contrary or compatible with your Islamic beliefs does
the poem express?
• As a Palestinian, how can you critically read the first quatrain?
• What are the possible themes of this poem and how does the thematic
significance of the poem differ from that of Description of Spring?
• To what extent do you think that this poem is dedicated to convey sincere
feelings towards the speaker’s beloved?
Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
• Playwright, poet. Christopher Marlowe was a poet and playwright at the forefront
of the 16th-century dramatic renaissance. His works influenced William
Shakespeare and generations of writers to follow.
• Born in Canterbury, England, in 1564. While Christopher Marlowe's literary career
lasted less than six years, and his life only 29 years, his achievements, most
notably the play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, ensured his lasting legacy.
• The constant rumors of Christopher Marlowe's atheism finally caught up with him
on Sunday May 20, 1593, and he was arrested for just that crime. he was not jailed
or tortured but was released on the condition that he report daily to an officer of
the court. On May 30, however, Marlowe was killed in a quarrel over a bill.
• Plays:
-The Jew of Malta
- Edward the Second
- The Massacre at Paris
- Doctor Faustus source: biography.com
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
1. Come live with me and be my love,
2. And we will all the pleasures prove,
3. That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
4. Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
5. And we will sit upon the Rocks,
6. Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks,
7. By shallow Rivers to whose falls
8. Melodious birds sing Madrigals.
9. And I will make thee beds of Roses
10. And a thousand fragrant posies,
11. A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
12. Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle;
13. A gown made of the finest wool
14. Which from our pretty Lambs we pull;
15. Fair lined slippers for the cold,
16. With buckles of the purest gold;
17. A belt of straw and Ivy buds,
18. With Coral clasps and Amber studs:
19. And if these pleasures may thee move,
20. Come live with me, and be my love.
21. The Shepherds’ Swains shall dance and
sing
22. For thy delight each May-morning:
23.If these delights thy mind may move,
24.Then live with me, and be my love.
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Brief Summary and Paraphrasing
A passionate shepherd lists simple natural manifestations in order to woo his
lover. The shepherd is promising the woman he is proposing to simple rural life
that will serve them idyll life where all pleasures exist and valid.
Type of poetry: pastoral poetry
Form: six quatrains
Meter: iambic tetrameter
Themes
Pastoral Romanticism
Love
Idyllic life
 The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:
Language and Style
Hyperbole And a thousand posies

Pun posies

Allusion Myrtle: is one of two trees sacred to the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and lust,
Aphrodite

Consonance That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields

Alliteration all the pleasures prove

Shepherds feed their flocks

Imagery Visual: That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields
Auditory: Melodious birds sing Madrigals.
Olfactory: And a thousand fragrant posies
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:
Questions
• What are the material offers of the shepherd in this poem? And how does the
speaker connect all the material presents with pure nature?
• What is the main stylistic feature used in the forth and fifth stanzas?
• What is the main paradox/irony in this poem?
• What is the significance of mentioning flowers many times in the poem?
• What is the significance of using “If” in line 23?
• What is the special effect of meter break (shift in meter) in line 10?
• This poem maintains high levels of regularity. Explain how?
• How does the speaker develop and prompt his invitation to his mistress?
• How can you approve that the thematic significance of this poem is not related
to Marlow's real life?
• As a Palestinian, how can you respond to Marlow's invitation?
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:
Questions
• Marlow’s poem goes in parallel with the prevalent colonial discourse. How?
• What are the techniques and tactics Marlow used to persuade the assumed
beloved to go with him?
-Drawing a portrayal of a utopian pastoral life
- Listing material benefits appealing to woman
- Using interpersonal pronouns
- Showing respect to woman’s opinions
- Excessive use of imagery and modality
 Sir Walter Raleigh 1552–1618
• Sir Walter Raleigh was an English adventurer and writer who established a colony
near Roanoke Island, in present-day North Carolina, which he named Virginia in
present-day North Carolina. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London and
eventually put to death for treason.
• An early supporter of colonizing North America, Sir Walter Raleigh sought to
establish a colony, but the queen forbid him to leave her service. Between 1585
and 1588, he invested in a number of expeditions across the Atlantic, attempting to
establish a colony near Roanoke, on the coast of what is now North Carolina, and
name it “Virginia” in honor of the virgin queen, Elizabeth.
• Delays, quarrels, disorganization, and hostile Indians forced some of the colonists
to eventually return to England.
• A second voyage was sent in 1590, only to find no trace of the colony. The
settlement is now remembered as the "Lost Colony of Roanoke Island.
source: biography.com
 Sir Walter Raleigh 1552–1618
• Sir Walter Raleigh forfeited Elizabeth's favor with his courtship of and subsequent
marriage to one of her maids-of-honor, Bessy Throckmorton, in 1592. The
discovery threw the queen into a jealous rage and the couple were briefly
imprisoned in the Tower of London.

• Upon his release, Raleigh hoped to recover his position with the queen and in
1594, led an unsuccessful expedition to Guiana (now Venezuela) to search for “El
Dorado”, the legendary land of gold.
• King James I, Elizabeth's successor, imprisoned him and executed him after a
while due to his actions which did not sit well with the monarchy.

source: biography.com
 Answer to Marlow
1. If all the world and love were young,
2. And truth in every Shepherd's tongue,
3. These pretty pleasures might me move,
4.To live with thee, and be thy love.
5. Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
6. When Rivers rage and Rocks grow cold,
7. And Philomel becometh dumb,
8. The rest complains of cares to come.
9.The flowers do fade, and wanton fields,
10.To wayward winter reckoning yields,
11.A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
12.Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
13.Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of Roses,
14.Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies
15.Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten:
16.In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
17.Thy belt of straw and Ivy buds,
18.The Coral clasps and amber studs,
19.All these in me no means can move
20.To come to thee and be thy love.
21.But could youth last, and love still breed,
22.Had joys no date, nor age no need,
23.Then these delights my mind might move
24.To live with thee, and be thy love.
 Answer to Marlow
Brief Summary and Paraphrasing
A Nymph, an assumed lover, replay to the shepherd's appeal to live an idyllic life
in the bosom of nature where all pleasures are attainable. The nymph puts
forward her argument based on her realistic perception of the natural rustic
beauties as transient. At the end of her counterargument, the nymph sets her
conditions to accept the shepherd’s proposal which are: ever lasting youth,
regenerative love, and timeless joy.
Type of poetry: parody
Form: six quatrains
Meter: iambic tetrameter
Main Themes
• Realism
• Mutability of life
• Immortality
• Transience
 Answer to Marlow: Language and Style
Allusion Philomel: a character from Greek mythology indicating nature

Alliteration When Rivers rage and Rocks grow cold,

Time drives the flocks from field to fold

Metonymy Time(metonymy of death)

Flocks (metonymy of people)

Imagery Time drives the flocks from field to fold,

Anthropomorphism Time drives the flocks from field to fold,

Repetition Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of Roses,

Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten

Juxtaposition A honey tongue, a heart of gall,

Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall
 Answer to Marlow: Questions
• How can you juxtapose “if” at the beginning of this poem with “if” at the end of
The Passionate Shepherd ?
• How does Raleigh devastate the harmonic idealized vision of rustic life in
Marlow’s the Passionate Shepherd to His Love?
• Compare and contrast between the phonological styles used in Answer to
Marlow and in The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
• To what extent do you think that Raleigh does not spoil the musicality of Answer
to Marlow even though his poem is dedicated to spoil and refute the thematic
significance of Marlow’s poem?
• Raleigh’s tone in Answer to Marlow is sarcastic, but very logical and realistic.
Comment
• Despite being contradictory, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and Answer to
Marlow are complementary. Explain
• What is the mutual thing both the shepherd in The Passionate Shepherd to His
Love and the nymph in Answer to Marlow pursue?
 Answer to Marlow: Questions
• Why does Raleigh initiate his poem with the conditional “if” and ends it up
with the same conational?
• On which levels and techniques does Raleigh build his parody? (lexical,
thematic, repetition of “if”, and juxtaposition)