Five
Poetry And Prose
From The Elizabethan Period
Part One
The Elizabethan Era is one of the many periods in
history that speaks of Queen Elizabeth being the one
who ruled the entire English nation.
This was considered as a golden age in the history of
English simply because of the fame and the power that
was closely associated with the period and because of
the Queen Elizabeth herself.
She was one of the many reasons why there were many
plays that were written and performed during that time.
It was during Queen Elizabeth's time when the
“Elizabethan
theatre”
(Wikipedia.org, 2007)
had
so
much
success.
A Brief Look At English Literature
This was the time that the likes of Shakespeare and Sir
Thomas Wyatt were able to compose poetry and prose
that continue to be as timeless as they are right now.
Their works are well-known to almost everyone who
have studied English.
The plays that came out of the minds of Shakespeare
were the plays that are now called unique and were the
types of plays that were the example of the continued
growth of the style of plays of England.
Many people look at the Elizabethan Age as a very
important age because it clearly gives a picture of what
was before and what was after this age.
It was because of the different poets and storytellers
that this age was very memorable to the people of that
age and to the people who are presently studying it.
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Sir Thomas Wyatt was the son of Henry and Anne
Wyatt. He was born on 1503 at Allington Castle which
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A Brief Look At English Literature
is quite near Maidstone, Kent.
There is not much that we know about Sir Thomas
Wyatt's childhood.
Although we know that he was able to have his first
court appearance in 1516 as Poet Extraordinary to
King Henry VIII.
After that, he was able to attend college at St. John's
College in the University of Cambridge.
After going to college, at around the year 1520, he was
married to Elizabeth Brooke who was Lord Cobham's
daughter.
He had a son by the name of Thomas Wyatt Jr. or
Wyatt the younger in 1521.
It was because of his popularity in the court that he was
able to serve on many foreign missions for King Henry
VIII.
As part of his duties, he was also able to serve several
offices during his stay at home.
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A Brief Look At English Literature
In his later years, Sir Thomas Wyatt eventually
divorced his wife because of adultery.
This was also probably during the time that he was
able to meet and become interested in Anne Boleyn.
He was able to accompany Sir Thomas Cheney on a
particular mission of diplomacy to France in 1526 and
Sir John Russell to Venice as well as the papal court in
Rome during 1527.
During his time, he became High Marshal of Calais,
which was during the period of 1528-1530.
After that, he was named the Commissioner of Peace
in Essex in 1532.
During one of his missions, Wyatt had the chance to
visit beautiful Italy.
He was greatly impressed with the beautiful Italian
verses that he was exposed to.
He noted the difference of Italian poetry against the
ones that were found in England.
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A Brief Look At English Literature
Because of this, he attempted to introduce this style of
poetry in this native country.
Initially, the style of Italian poetry was very much
patterned after the poetry of Provence in Southern
France.
At the time of the twelfth century, there was a literary
reformation wherein the poets and the troubadours of
that time pushed for the type of poetry, which centered
on woman-worship.
This was a one of the types of poems that Wyatt loved.
This type of poem is typical of the medieval chivalry
that is seen and spoken of in common medieval time
tales.
This was a style of poetry that described a beautiful
and fascinating place, the poetry talked about the type
of poet-lover who always longed for the woman.
That type of lover was a stubbornly persistent person
whose existence only meant undying devotion to the
woman that he loved.
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A Brief Look At English Literature
From Provence, the nation of Italy had adopted the
style of poetry as well as various types of expressions.
These were seen in the fourteen-line stanzas that are
now called sonnets.
The entire campaign originated itself in Petrarch who
created hundreds of sonnets, which spoke of beauty in
perfection.
It is this type of beautiful poetry that Wyatt
purposefully set out to insert in the English culture.
Wyatt was able to do this through different means.
He first of all tried to imitate Petrarch.
He had always limited his poems with his themes of
love, which talked about the unkind nature of the
women who probably never existed in the first place.
It was in these types of poems that Sir Thomas Wyatt
tried to introduce an English air of self-sufficiency,
which furthered upon the author of the poem implying
that if the lady continues to be stubborn, the author will
not offer his life for her love.
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A Brief Look At English Literature
One example of this sighing type of love-poem can be
seen in his poem “And Wilt Thou Leave Me Thus?”
And wilt thou leave me thus?
Say nay, say nay, for shame!
To save thee from the blame
Of all my grief and shame.
And wilt thou leave me thus?
Say nay! Say nay!
And wilt thou leave me thus,
That hath loved thee so long
In wealth and woe among?
And is thy heart so strong
As for to leave me thus?
Say nay! Say nay!
(Wyatt, 1815)
This was one of his poems in which he patterned after
the style of Petrarch.
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A Brief Look At English Literature
It was through these types of sonnets that Wyatt was
able to communicate the style of Petrarch very
effectively.
He also innovated the “conceit” which was an
exaggerated form of figure of speech or play on words,
which describes the emotions in a literal and
complicated manner.
Earl of Surrey
Sir Thomas Wyatt's efforts were continued by his
follower and the person who replaced him, Henry
Howard.
He was the son of the Duke of Norfolk, which gave
him the title Earl of Surrey.
This was a bright but disobedient example of Tudor
chivalry.
He was remembered as someone who enhanced the
metrical adaptation of Wyatt's sonnets by making the
smoothness and the fluency of the verses better.
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A Brief Look At English Literature
He also introduced the pentameter blank verse, which
was what English poetic drama would later use.
He did this in a translation of a couple of books of
Virgil's Aeneid.
His poems were markedly fewer but his range of topics
was definitely much more diverse compared to Sir
Thomas Wyatt's.
Some of his topics were about nature, which was a nice
change to the woman-worship that completely
dominated Wyatt's sonnets before.
However, even though his sonnets had a broad range of
topics, he seemed to be less sincere.
He changed the meter of his sonnets and he strayed
away from the form of his master.
He used a different form for his sonnets, which was
composed of three self-reliant quatrains, which was
followed by a couplet, which summarized the thoughts
of the poem in a satirical and paradoxical manner.
(Fletcher, 1916)
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