Love Song
Think of a song that expresses
what love means to you.
Part 1: Write down the lyrics as much
as possible from memory and/or
paraphrase them.
Part 2: Explain why this song is
meaningful to you and your
understanding of “love.” Select some
favorite lines and/or words and
explain why you like them.
Renaissance Poetry
or Verse
A. Courtly love poetry
B. Pastoral poetry
C. The sonnet
Love Song Pt. 2
Compare the two songs played in
class.
What is the tone of each?
What kind of love, or what perception
or truth about love, is being
expressed?
What was the purpose?
What lines are especially effective or
poetic?
All forms of lyric poetry
The term lyric comes from
the Greek word lyra, a
musical instrument
Refers to poems that were
originally sung and
accompanied by music
Retain the form and
musical quality of a song
Usually short poems that
express personal feelings
Can be contrasted with epic poetry
Not long—usually short
Not narratives—lyric poems don’t tell a
story
Not about a hero doing great nationsaving deeds
About the internal, private thoughts and
feelings of the individual
Not written in 3rd person
Written in the 1st person
Subject matter of lyric poems
usually is love, loss of love,
doomed love, unrequited love
Later subjects expanded to
include religious and
philosophical themes, reflections
on nature, mortality and the
passing of time, youth, loss of
youth, loss of innocence
A common feature is the refrain—
a line or several lines that repeat
throughout the poem, either
exactly or with variations (similar
to the chorus in a song)
Made up of stanzas and lines
Usually has a fixed rhyme
scheme
Usually has a regular meter,
based on the number of syllables
and stress
Meter
Refers to the number and pattern of beats
or stresses in a line of poetry
In other words, it’s a way of describing
rhythm
Foot is a term used to the pattern of
stressed and unstressed syllables
There are 4 different “feet” or types of
rhythm:
1. Iamb--unstressed, stressed (galloping
horse)
2. Trochee--stressed, unstressed (beating
heart)
3. Anapest--unstressed, unstressed, stressed
4. Dactyl--stressed, unstressed, unstressed
We can also talk
about the number of
feet in a line.
Tetrameter=4 feet
Pentameter=5 feet
Hexameter=6 feet
Courtly Love
Originated in the
courts of medieval
France
Modeled on the
feudal relationship
between a knight
and his liege or lord
But this was a
relationship
between the knight
and a courtly lady, a
lady above him in
status (usually the
wife of the lord)
Courtly Love
Idea of this
relationship was an
ennobling, ideal,
platonic love (at
least in the
beginning)
The knight’s love
for the lady inspires
him to heroic deeds
(keeps him in line)
Courtly love found
its expression in the
lyric poems sung by
troubadours
Courtly love poetry
A popular theme of such love poetry
was unrequited love—love that is
ignored or rejected. Usually the
rejected lover is portrayed as desolate
and anguished, totally in the power of
the beloved.
Sir Thomas Wyatt
(1503-1542)
A diplomat in the
service of Henry
VIII
Traveled widely;
responsible for
bringing various
forms of Italian
lyric poetry to
England
“My Lute, Awake”
In the style of the
native English
dance song, a
lively and
forceful kind of
verse written to
be sung to the
accompaniment
of the lute
Queen Elizabeth
1533-1603
Daughter of Henry VIII
& his second wife, Anne
Boleyn
Well-educated, wellread, multilingual &
wrote poetry
Queen of England for
45 years
A glorious period in
English history
Known as the “Virgin
Queen”; she never
married
“On Monsieur’s Departure”
Composed sometime between 1568 & 1570
Structure:
Rhyme scheme:
Meter:
Speaker:
Subject:
Apostrophe:
Paraphrase:
Purpose:
Tone:
Figurative
Language
→Paradoxes:
Review
How does “My Lute Awake” fit the
characteristics of courtly love?
How does “On Monsieur’s
Departure”?
Compare and contrast the
portrayals of unrequited love in
both poems. Think especially
about the attitudes of the
speakers, or the tone, of each
poem.
Journal: Courtly Love
After completing the Venn
Diagram, answer the following
questions: What are your overall
impressions of courtly love? Do
you see any influences from the
courtly love tradition in our society
today? How does the courtly view
of love compare to how we see
love, romance, and relationships
today?
Pastoral Poetry
Pastoral comes from the Latin word
pastor, meaning “shepherd”
Presents an idealized view of the life of
shepherds and of country or rural life
in general
Common topics of pastoral poetry
include love and seduction, the
value of poetry itself, death &
mourning, the corruption of the city
vs. the “purity” of country life
Pastoral Paintings
“The Passionate Shepherd to
His Love”
by Christopher Marlowe
Form/structure:
Rhyme scheme:
Meter/Rhythm:
Speaker:
Apostrophe:
Purpose:
Tone:
Imagery:
Figurative
Language:
“The Nymph’s Reply” by Sir
Walter Raleigh
Form/structure:
Rhyme scheme:
Meter/Rhythm:
Speaker:
Apostrophe:
Purpose:
Tone:
Imagery:
Alliteration/Assonance/
Consonance:
Pastoral Ponderings
Do the seasons and/or age affect
how likely people are to fall in love?
Do you believe an ideal love is
possible? Does all love necessarily
have its time when it must end?
Who do you identify with more--the
speaker of “The Passionate
Shepherd” or the speaker of “The
Nymph’s Reply”? Explain.
The Sonnet
Length: 14-lines
Subjects: of a lyrical nature—a focus on
personal feelings and thoughts
Meter: Iambic pentameter (lines containing
5 metrical units, each consisting of an
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable)
Structure and rhyme scheme: a particular
structure and rhyme scheme, Patrarchan
or Shakespearean
Originated in Italy; comes from the Italian
word meaning “little song”
Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374)—
Perfected the Italian form of the sonnet
The Petrarchan
Sonnet
2-part structure: an octave
(8 lines) followed by a sestet
(6 lines)
The octave had an abbaabba
rhyme scheme
The sestet had a cdecde or a
cdcdcd rhyme scheme
Typically, the octave describes a
problem or asks a question & the
sestet gives the resolution to it
The 9th line consists of a “turn,”
signaling the move to a resolution
or a change in tone or mood
The Sonnet
The lovelorn Sir Thomas Wyatt (of “My
Lute, Awake” fame) introduced the sonnet
to the English court
English poets modified the Italian form to
better suit the rhyme-poor English
language
Though Shakespeare was not the first
English poet to write sonnets, he used
the form with such distinction that the
English sonnet came to be known as the
Shakespearian Sonnet
Shakespearian Sonnet
3 quatrains (4 lines)
followed by a rhyming
couplet (2 lines)
Rhyme scheme is
abba cdcd
efef gg
Meter is iambic
pentameter
Shakespearian Sonnet
The first quatrain introduces a
situation, which is explored in the
next two quatrains
A turn, or shift in thought, occurs in
the third quatrain or in the couplet
The couplet often brings resolution
and closure
The couplet may be thought of as the
“punch line”
Francesco Petrarch
Born shortly after
1300 in Italy; died in
1374
Studied law, classics,
& finally entered the
service of the Church
On Good Friday in
April, 1327, he saw
Laura for the first time
Fell madly in love &
proceeded to write
366 sonnets to her
Not much is known
about her but she is
believed to have been
Laura de Noves, a
married woman
Chances are they
never even spoke
She died in 1348 of
the plague
He died in 1374;
many of the sonnets
were written after her
death
Laura
Edmund Spenser
Born to a relatively poor
London family but managed
to work his way through
Cambridge University
Established literary
connections there and began
his poetic career
Served the nobility throughout his life in
whose households he met many other court
writers who were promoting the new English
poetry of the Elizabethan Age
Experimented with verse forms
His most famous work is the poetic romance
titled The Faerie Queen
TP-CASTT
Title
Paraphrase
Connotation (Figurative Language)
Attitude/Tone
Shifts (in speaker, tone or mood)
Title (again)
Theme
Title
Ponder the title before reading
the poem (what does it say to
you, what associations come
to mind, what predictions can
you make about the poem)
Paraphrase
Translate the poem into your
own words
Connotation
Contemplate the poem for
meaning beyond the literal
level (look at word choice—
which words have a very
specific connotation—and
look at use of figurative
language
Attitude/Tone
Observe both the speaker’s
and the poet’s attitude (tone)
toward his/her subject matter
Shifts
Notice shifts in speakers and
in attitudes
Title
Examine the title again, this
time on an interpretive level
Theme
Determine what the poet is
saying