ENG 310A: Courtier Poets1 The Courtier Poets 16th and early 17th century
ENG 310A: Courtier Poets2 Biographical Sketches HENRY VIII: –Sir Thomas Wyatt ( ; nat. death) –Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey ( ; exec.) ELIZABETH I: –Sir Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599; nat. death) –Sir Philip Sidney ( ; d. of battle wound) ELIZABETH I and JAMES VI & I: –Sir Walter Ralegh ( ; exec.) –Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke ( ; murd.) –non-courtiers: Marlowe: ; Shakespeare:
ENG 310A: Courtier Poets3 Literary/Cultural Traditions & Courtier Poetry Italian literature –e.g., Petrarch’s sonnet sequence to Laura (14th-c.) –literature on courtly life and behavior (15th-16th c.) fin amour tradition Chaucer as national poetic model classical literature –epic; pastoral Christianity & Bible
ENG 310A: Courtier Poets4 Poetic Forms See Handout on Rhythm & Rhyme –Feet definition types foot-type + line-length = meter of line –Stanzas lengths types –Poetic forms defined by: meter of lines and rhyme scheme (number of lines implied)
ENG 310A: Courtier Poets5 Sonnets and Sonnet Sequences Wyatt and Surrey Sidney, Astrophil and Stella Spenser, Amoretti
ENG 310A: Courtier Poets6 Specific Concepts & Poems Petrarchan conceit (definitions) pastoral (definition)