Renaissance
Poetry
Targets
 Identify the structure and themes of Renaissance
poetry
 Recognize the impact of a renewed interest in Greek
and Roman classics on Renaissance poetry
 Identify/analyze the structure and themes of English
(Shakespearean) and Italian (Petrarchan) sonnets
 Identify/analyze figurative language and other poetic
techniques used in Renaissance poetry
Reading and Analyzing Poetry
 T – Consider the title. Predict what the poem might be about based
on the title.
 P – Paraphrase the poem in your own words. Work with complete
sentences and thoughts.
 C – Consider the connotation and denotation of words, figurative
language, and imagery.
 A – Identify the speaker. Notice the tone (attitude) of the speaker
towards the subject.
 S – Take note of any shifts in tone.
 T – Return to title and modify your initial prediction.
 T – State what the poem is about (subject) and what the poet is
saying about the subject (theme).
Spiritual and Devotional Writings
 Despite the turmoil of the age, England remained a Christian
nation
 Literature reflected Christian beliefs
 King James Bible
 For centuries, the Church resisted translating the Bible into the
language of the common people; feared heresy and challenges
to Church authority
 1604 – James I commissioned (and authorized) 54 biblical
scholars to translate Bible into English based on Greek, Hebrew,
and Latin translations
 Remains one of the most important pieces of English writing
Paradise Lost
 Written by Puritan poet John Milton
 Epic blank-verse poem
 Influenced by King James Bible
 Based on biblical story of Adam
and Eve who are tempted by Satan
to eat from the Tree of Knowledge
 Language is meant to evoke
reverence for religious themes
 Conveys intense emotion through
use of figurative language
493
The Sonnet
 Italian word meaning “little song”
 Introduced in England by Sir Thomas Wyatt
 14 line lyric poem
 Formal rhyme scheme
 Defined structure (versification and meter)
 Three types:

Petrarchan Sonnet

Shakespearean Sonnet

Spenserian Sonnet
Petrarchan / Italian Sonnet
Background
 Named for Francesco
Petrarch
 Wrote 366 poems,
mostly sonnets focused
on “Laura”
 Themes of love:
unrequited, desperate,
eternal, and tragic
Structure
 1 Octave + 1 Sestet
 8 lines + 6 lines
 Situation + Resolution
 Rhyme Scheme:
abbaabba cdecde
abbaabba cdcdcd
Sonnet 90
Francesco Petrarch
Upon the breeze she spread her golden hair
that in a thousand gentle knots was turned
and the sweet light beyond all radiance burned
in eyes where now that radiance is rare;
and in her face there seemed to come an air
of pity, true or false, that I discerned:
I had love's tinder in my breast unburned,
was it a wonder if it kindled there?
She moved not like a mortal, but as though
she bore an angel's form, her words had then
a sound that simple human voices lack;
a heavenly spirit, a living sun
was what I saw; now, if it is not so,
the wound's not healed because the bow grows slack.
336
Shakespearean / English Sonnet
Background
 Originally called the
English Sonnet
 William Shakespeare
mastered the form
 Themes of love and
beauty, as well as
philosophical topics and
ironies (Shakespeare)
Structure
 14 line poem
 Meter: iambic pentameter
 3 Quatrains + 1 Couplet
 Rhyme Scheme:
abab cdcd efef gg
 The “turn” or shift occurs
in the 3rd quatrain or final
couplet
Sonnet 18
William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
326
Spenserian Sonnet
 Named for Edmund Spenser
 Influenced by Chaucer
 Wrote sequence Amoretti “little love poems”
 Variation on the English sonnet
 Interlocking Rhyme Scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee
 Each quatrain  addresses poem’s central idea
 Final couplet  provides an answer or summation
Sonnet 30
Edmund Spenser
My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
how comes it then that this her cold so great
is not dissolv'd through my so hot desire,
but harder grows, the more I her entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
is not delayed by her heart frozen cold,
but that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
and feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told
that fire, which all thing melts, should harden ice:
and ice which is congealed with senseless cold,
should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the pow'r of love in gentle mind
that it can alter all the course of kind.
320
Pastoral Poems
• Portrays shepherds and
rustic life, usually
idealized
• Speakers used courtly
language, rather than
common speech
• Have formal meters and
rhyme schemes
• Sometimes used as a tool
to analyze society of
court (safely)
Pastoral Poems
 “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
 Christopher Marlowe, page 314
 “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd”
 Sir Walter Raleigh, page 316
Cavalier Poets
526 /
532
 Inspired by Ben Jonson and “sons of
Ben”
 Named for their allegiance with
Charles I in civil war against Puritans
and Cromwell
 Imitated the graceful forms of classical
works; rejected the extravagance of
Elizabethan lyrical writing
 Lighthearted, charming, witty,
sometimes cynical styles
 Dealt with limited, human-focused
subjects
 Themes: love, war, chivalry, loyalty to
the throne, and carpe diem (“seize the
day”) philosophy
Metaphysical Poets
 Represented by John Donne
 Broke with convention to produce
intensity:

Unusual imagery

Elaborate and extended metaphors
(conceit)

Irregular meter
 Addressed the vastness of the universe
and explored the complexities of
contradictions of life
 Themes: death, physical love,
religious devotion
517
Reading and Analyzing Poetry
 T – Consider the title. Predict what the poem might be about based
on the title.
 P – Paraphrase the poem in your own words. Work with complete
sentences and thoughts.
 C – Consider the connotation and denotation of words, figurative
language, and imagery.
 A – Identify the speaker. Notice the tone (attitude) of the speaker
towards the subject.
 S – Take note of any shifts in tone.
 T – Return to title and modify your initial prediction.
 T – State what the poem is about (subject) and what the poet is
saying about the subject (theme).