Renaissance Poetry
What does quote mean?
“That man who dwells upon himself,
….rests in his true centre.” John
Donne
When a man knows himself well, he is
focused and centered.
The focus of this unit is
Renaissance Poetry which reflects
humanistic thinking.
Influences on Renaissance Poetry
 Humanism – belief in the central
importance and dignity of human beings.
 A new interest in ancient Greek and Roman
Writings, including drama and poetry
 Italian verse forms, including the sonnet
 Powerful patrons of the arts, such as
Elizabeth I.
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Read pages 267- 268 for further explanation.
Ask yourself
 How did the rediscovery of classical literature
shape Renaissance Poetry?
 Classical literature provided Greek and Roman
themes; Renaissance poets emulated patterns,
line length, and rhyme schemes of ancient
poets.
 How did people use poetry during the
Renaissance?
 Renaissance people wrote poetry to entertain
friends. Upper-class men and women learned to
write and sing poetry to be respected and
admired. During Elizabeth’s reign, her court
celebrated poetry with music and drama.
Important Vocabulary
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Humanism
Rhyme scheme
Sonnet
Iambic Pentameter
Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet
Turn
 All of are in handouts that were distributed
on 11/30
What does Renaissance Poetry
celebrate?
 Individuals
 Their relationships
 Their natural surroundings
Sir Thomas Wyatt
Courtier
Diplomat
Ambassador to Henry VIII.
May have been in love with Anne Boleyn
(mother of Queen Elizabeth)
 Works may have been written in her honor.
 Works were not published, just shared
among friends.
 Works were published 15 years after his
death.
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Key Vocabulary for Wyatt’s poems
 Speaker
 Drawing Inferences
 Sonnet – what is its structure?
Whoso List to Hunt
Whoso List To Hunt by Wyatt
Summary
 The poem uses a hunt metaphor to
describe a man pursuing a woman, who he
compares to a deer.
 The speaker is tired of the chase, and he
invites others to take it up.
 He uses classical allusion to warn others
that their prey (probably Anne Boleyn), like
Caesar’s deer, is claimed by a powerful
ruler (probably Henry VIII).
 The speaker ends by warning that this
woman is wild although she looks tame.
Real World
 Are there any contemporary songs or
poems that are similar to Wyatt’s
“Whoso List To Hunt”?
 Do men and women still write about
the “chase” of one another?
Day 2
December 2, 2009
 Essential Questions
Are themes of Renaissance
Poetry still present in our
contemporary literature
and music?
If yes, what does this tell
you about people,
relationships, and society
of the Renaissance?
If no, what themes are
present in our
contemporary literature
and music?
 Standards:
E4-1.3 Evaluate devices of
figurative language
(metaphor, oxymoron,
pun, and paradox).
E4-1.1 Compare/contrast
ideas within and across
literary texts to make
inferences.
E4 -5.6 Compose effective
pieces of writing to
respond to prompts.
Edmund Spenser
 One of the most influential poets of his day.
 Attended Cambridge as a “sizar” or poor
scholar.
 Dedicated The Shepheardes Calendar to Sir
Philip Sydney (a poet and his friend).
 Wrote The Faerie Queene while living in
Ireland.
 Died in London and was buried next to Chaucer
in the Poet’s Corner at the Westminster Abbey.
 Wrote sonnets to his wife, Elizabeth, about
their courtship.
Sonnet 30 by Spenser
 Speaker compares his love for a woman to
fire and her rejection to his love to ice.
 Sonnet develops a paradox, concluding
that in the case of love, the rules of nature
are suspended.
Definition: Contradictions that are
actually true.
Example: Ice and fire coexisting without
changing properties.
How does the final couplet of the
poem explain the feelings between
the speaker and the loved woman?
“Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter the course of kind.”
The obstinate love of the speaker and the
equally obstinate rejection by the woman seem
to be evidence that love is so powerful that it
can alter physical laws.
Sonnet 75
 Spenser uses the image of the sea
and its eternal tides to emphasize the
critical nature of life and the
immortality brought by his poetry.
Sonnet 75 by Spenser
 Speaker describes writing
his beloved’s name in the
sand and seeing the
waves wash it away twice.
 When she protests that it
is futile (hopeless) to try
to immortalize anything
mortal, he promises to
make her name and their
love live forever through
his verse.
Why does the woman complain the
speaker is vain?
 She believes it is vain to transform an
ephemeral (temporary) thing into
something permanent.
What image does the author use to
represent loves impermanence?
 Spenser uses the image of waves
washing away the name of his
beloved from the sand.
Day 3
December 3, 2009
 Essential Questions
With 220,000 people
throwing their sewage
in the street every day
and no garbage
collectors, what do you
think the city smelled
like?
How might these facts of
life in London have
made a pastoral
setting appealing to
the reader of the day?
 Standards:
E4-1.5 Analyze the
effect of the author’s
craft (including tone
and the use of
imagery, flashback,
foreshadowing,
symbolism, motif,
irony, and allusion)
on the meaning of
literary texts.
Agenda:
Pastoral Poetry
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Background
Marlowe
The Passionate Shepard to His Love
Raleigh
The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepard
How might
these facts of
life in London
have made a
pastoral setting
appealing to
the reader of
the day?
Christopher Marlowe – the Rebel
 Playwright, poet, brawler, and spy
 Began espionage in 1587 for England,
but arrested in 1593 for scandalous
speeches
 Days before court he died of stab wound
sustained from a brawl
 Some believe he was assassinated since
his assailant was acquitted.
Summary
of PSTHL
 A shepherd describes the beauty of
life in the country to his beloved to
persuade her to go live with him.
 Repetition of line 1 of the 5th and last
stanza make is more pleasant and
songlike. Creates rhythm and
emphasizes the speaker’s urgency to
have his beloved go with him.
Day 4
December 4
 Essential
Questions
How do movies,
books, or music of
our day attempt to
portray ideal
romantic escapes?
Are they accurate?
Why or Why not?
Agenda:
1. Answers to Passionate Shepherd
questions.
2. Key vocabulary
3. Pictures of country/pastoral life
4. Raleigh
 The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepard
Inverted word order
 In your notes, you must write what
word over is.
 What does inverted word order
remind you of? Yoda!!
Example from “Passionate”
Come live with me and be my love
And we will all the pleasures prove…”
And we will prove all the pleasures
Key vocabulary
 Pastoral poetry – poem depicting country
life in idealized terms; passionate
shepherds and beautiful nymphs live in
harmony with nature absent of harsh and
gritty images of rural labor.
 Anti pastoral poetry – mocks the pastoral
poetry’s idyllic (peaceful), idealistic
(unrealistic) depictions of rural life.
 "nymph" comes from the Greek word that
means "young woman"
 Shepherd – someone who tends his flock
Sir Walter Raleigh
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Handsome, arrogant, dashing
Favorite of Queen Elizabeth
Seafarer, courtier, soldier
Imprisoned after Elizabeth’s death
Beheaded because he and his men
attacked a Spanish settlement.
Summary of “The Nymph’s Reply to
the Shepherd”
 A nymph ridicules a shepherd’s
promises of love by painting a
realistic view of the effect of time on
passionate love.
Day 5
December 7
 Essential Question
How might Donne’s
contrasting life
experiences have
influenced and
enriched his
writings?
 Standards
 E4-1.1
Compare/contrast
ideas within and
across literary texts
to make inferences.
 E4-1.3 Evaluate
devices of
figurative language.
Agenda:
 Important vocabulary
 John Donne
 A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
Important vocabulary
 Metaphysical poetry-written in a difficult and abstract
style; intellectual, detached, obscure imagery; verbal
wit; rough sounding meter
 Imagery- vivid language that creates a mental picture
 Meter- a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables.
 Hyperbole- extreme exaggeration
 Metaphysical conceit – elaborate clever figure of
speech that makes connection between 2 things that
are startling different.
John Donne
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Studied at Oxford at age of 12, but was not allowed to have
a degree because of his religion – Catholic.
Studied law in London
Completed 2 naval expeditions
Appointed secretary to Thomas Eggerton – lord keeper of
great seal.
Married a 17 year old girl, Anne More, without her father’s
consent.
Imprisoned.
Struggled after his release and lived off of friends.
Wrote poetry against the Church of Rome.
Big supporter of Church of England.
James I encouraged him to become a clergyman
His sermons were a huge success
Became the DEAN of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Summary
 Speaker urges his wife to behave with
dignity when they part. The couple’s
love is described as a union of souls
that cannot be broken by distance.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
 Why is this line a metaphysical
conceit?
“Like gold to airy thinness beat”
It compares human souls to gold that is
beaten into a thin sheet. The poet uses
an unusual extended comparison to
show that the lovers’ souls aren’t
harmed by their separation.
A Valediction:
 What makes the use of the word circle in
the final two lines such a perfect word
choice at the end of this poem?
“Thy firmness makes my circle just,”
Like perfect love, a circle has no beginning
and no end. It is continuous and
everlasting. The circle evokes not only the
compass image but also the orbit of the
heavenly bodies, which Donne refers to
earlier.
Day 6
December 8
 Essential Question
How might Donne’s
contrasting life
experiences have
influenced and
enriched his
writings?
 Standards
 E4-1.1
Compare/contrast
ideas within and
across literary texts
to make inferences.
 E4-1.3 Evaluate
devices of
figurative language.
Day 6
December 8
 Agenda:
John Donne – “A Valediction: Forbidding
Mourning” open book quiz
John Milton – Intro to Paradise Lost –
page 350
From Paradise Lost “The Fall of Satan”
Day 7
December 9
 Essential Questions
How does Milton
use characteristics
of a sonnet in
Paradise Lost?
 Standards
 E4-1.3 Evaluate
devices of
figurative language.
 E4-1.5 Analyze the
effect of the
author’s craft on
the meaning of
literary texts.
Agenda
 Key vocabulary
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Style
Diction
Blank verse
Epic similes
EPICS – oral, primary, and literary
 John Milton background
 Introduction to Paradise Lost
 “The Fall of Satan”
Vocabulary
 Style – way writers use language to
express their ideas
 Diction – word choice
 (pick or choose?) Which would you use?
 Blank verse – unrhymed iambic pentameter
(like Shakespeare)
 Epic Similes- extended comparisons that
draw parallels between dissimilar things.
 Oral or Primary Epic – performed by
generations of storytellers (ex: Beowulf)
 Literary Epic – product of an individual
writer (ex: Paradise Lost)
John Milton
 Talent for languages