University of Karbala 16th and 17th Century Poetry

College of Education for Humanities Stage: Second

Department of English Class: Morning& Evening

Course Title: 16th and 17th Century Poetry

Course Instructor: Lect. Zena Dhia Mohammed

Email : zena.mohammed@uokarbal.edu.iq

Class: 2nd

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2020-2031

HOURS: 2h

Course Description: This course introduces the second year students to the English poetry of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It surveys some major movements that influenced
English poetry like the Renaissance, Humanisim and the Reformation. Moreover, this course
sheds light on the secular spirit of the Renaissance which was inspired by classical heritage..

Course Objective:

-Students are expected to get acquainted with the main features of the Renaissance and analyze
some well-known poems.

-Have information about the 16th and 17th century Poetry.

Course Content:

-Introduction to 16th century Historical Background

-The Renaissance- Renaissance Humanism-The Reformation
- Elizabethan Literature: Forms : The Lyric- Sonnet- Petrarchan Sonnet, Shakespearean Sonnet,
Spenserian Sonnet- Blank Verse
- Sir Thomas Wyatt “ The Hind”
- Henry Howard “ Spring”
- Sir Philip Sidney “ Leave me O’ Love”
- Edmund Spenser “ Sonnet 38” “ Like as a Ship”
-Christopher Marlowe “ The Passionate Shepherd to his Love”
William Shakespeare Sonnet 18
William Shakespeare Sonnet 116
Introduction to the 17th century Jacobean era Political, social Background
Metaphysical Poetry : Definition and Characteristics
John Donne “ Death BE Not Proud”
George Herbert “The Collar”
Cavalier Poetry: Introduction Carpediem
Robert Herrick “ To Daffodils”
Puritanism
Restoration: political and social background
John Milton
“Paradise Lost” Book 1 (1-156)
An Introduction to Neo-Classical Poetry
Characteristics of Neo-Classical Poetry
John Dryden “Absalom and Achitophel”(Zimiri)

Required Textbook:
Ala’ uddi H. Al-Jubori et. al. The Sixteenth Century
Shakir M. Mustafa Seventeenth- Century English Poetry
University of Karbala 16th and 17th Century Poetry
College of Education for Humanities Stage: Second
Department of English Class: Morning& Evening

Introduction Sixteenth Century English Literature: A Historical and Cultural

Background

Europe in the fourteenth century witnessed the rise of the Renaissance( European
Renaissance). Renaissance is a French word which means ‘rebirth’ or ‘revival’.

Renaissance: the period ranging from the 14th century through the 17th century that marked
the transition from the medieval to the modern world, and witnessed extraordinary intellectual,
cultural, scientific and artistic developments in Europe. Generally, the term is used to describe
the revival of the culture and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome . It started in Italy in 14th
century and reached England late, at the beginning of the 16th century. Great Renaissance
writers were Dante(1265– 1321), Petrarch(1304-1374), and Boccaccio(1313 –1375); while great
artists were Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519), Michel Angelo (1475 –1564), Donatello (1386 –
1466) and Raphael(1483 –1520).

Renaissance Humanism: the Renaissance adopted a new learning, a new philosophy called
Humanism. Humanism was the principle method of learning in the 14th and 15th centuries, a
philosophy that exults the human elements in as opposed to the supernatural or divine, on one
hand, and the animal, on the other. Humanism stresses the dignity of man and focuses on his
mind, body, thoughts, feelings and the relationship to other men. Humanism asserted
individuality and the importance of secular(worldly) life rather than the religious.

There was a conflict between the Renaissance worldview on man’s conception of himself and
the Christian worldview in the middle ages. Medieval thinkers believed in the super-natural and
a God-centered world which places man below God and the Church, and in which man lives the
present life in order to prepare himself for life after death. In Renaissance Humanism, there was
a shift from the dogmatic religious dominance over life to a flexible religious attitude that puts
emphasis on the natural world of here and now and believes that man is the center of the universe
and has the right to think and act for himself.

Not long after all the discoveries of the Renaissance, the Reformation arrived in England
receiving its impetus from the new religious thoughts of Martin Luther (1483–1546) in Germany
and John Calvin (1509 –1564) in Switzerland.

The Reformation is a great religious movement that swept across Europe in the 16th century
against the corruption, doctrines, and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and the
unrestrained authority of the pope and led to the establishment of the various protestant churches.
The Reformation started in England when the Tudor king, Henry VIII (1491 – 1547) who ruled
from 1509, wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, who had failed to provide him a
male heir . The pope refused to grant him a divorce. So, the king broke with the Roman Catholic
Church in the Act of Supremacy in 1534 and was declared the Supreme Head of the Church of
England.

Sixteenth Century Literature

Elizabethan Literature: refers to the bodies of work produced during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth I (1533 –1603) from 1558 to 1603., and is called the ‘Golden Age’ of English
literature. The central figures of the Elizabethan canon are: Sir Thomas Wyatt(1503 –1542) and
Henry Howard(Earl of Surrey)(1516–1547), Edmund Spenser (1553 –1599), Sir Philip Sidney
(1554 –1586), Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 -1618), Christopher Marlow (1564 –1593), William
Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) and Ben Jonson (1572 –1637).

The sixteenth century witnessed enormous changes in both language and literature. Although
early Elizabethan literature was written in Latin, English soon became the preferred language of
expression and a uniquely English vocabulary began to develop. The dominant forms of English
literature during the Renaissance were poetry and drama, which were permeated by Italian
influence.

In the age of Elizabeth, literature turned to drama and brought it to the highest stage of
development, culminating in Shakespeare. It was also an age of poetry which is remarkable for
its elaboration of language, extensive allusion to classical myths and variety including the lyric,
elegy, tragedy, pastoral, sonnet and blank verse.

Sixteenth Century Poetry

The most typical of the Renaissance poetry were the lyric and sonnet. The lyric is a short
poem like a song, that expresses personal and emotional feelings and the thoughts of the poet.
Lyrical poems have a musical quality which reflected the melodious spirit of the age. Also, the
sonnet flourished as one of the most important types of lyric poetry. The sonnet is a poem of
fourteen lines of iambic pentameter which follows a strict rhyme Pattern. The Elizabethan age
was called the ‘Age of the Sonnet.’ The sonnet originated in Italy in the 13th century and was
used by two Italian masters: Dante and Petrarch. The first English Renaissance poets and
sonneteers, Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard(Earl of Surrey), were credited with
introducing the sonnet into England in the 16th century. Sir Thomas Wyatt was the first who
introduced the Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet into England . He imitated and translated many sonnets
by the Italian poet, Petrarch, he also wrote sonnets of his own, but with different rhyme scheme.
He also experimented with Terza Rima and Ottava Rima.
 The Earl of Surrey was the first to modify the Italian sonnet and introduce the English sonnet.
He also introduced the blank verse.

Courtly poets: (Courtly Makers): the court poets in the reign of Henry VIII who introduced the
‘new poetry’ from Italy and France into England. Two of the most important poets were Sir
Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard.

Blank verse: verse without rhymes, usually in lines of five iambic foot.

There are four types of sonnets: l-The Petrarchan sonnet 2-The Shakespearean sonnet 3-The
Spenserian sonnet 4-The Miltonic sonnet

The Petrarchan sonnet: is a sonnet written by the Italian poet, Petrarch. It is usually divided
into two parts: the octave and sestet which are separated by a break in thought. In the octave (the
first eight lines),the poet presents a problem or depicts a situation: while in the sestet (the last six
lines),the poet provides a solution to the problem presented in the octave. The rhyme scheme is
abba abba cde cde or cdc cdc.

The Shakespearean sonnet: it consists of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. The rhyme
scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. The first quatrain has a statement which is varied or expended in
the second and third ones, The couplet is the conclusion of the poem. The form is not an
invention of Shakespeare, it was first used by Surrey. Yet, it was called after Shakespeare
because he reached perfection.

The Spenserian sonnet: it was developed by and named after Edmund Spenser. Like the
English sonnet, it consists of three quatrains and a concluding couple. The rhyme scheme is abab
bcbc cdcd ee. The break or turn in meaning may occur after the ninth line or after the twelfth.

The Spenserian Stanza: it is a stanza invented by Edmund Spenser and used in his famous epic
poem “The Faerie Queen”. It is a stanzaic pattern consisting of nine verses rhyming abab bcbc c
. The first eight lines are in iambic pentameter while the ninth line is in iambic hexameter(two
extra syllables).

What were the dominant literary themes in the Elizabethan era?

The Elizabethan era was a time of new ideas and new learning. The themes in the Elizabethan
era were varied. Some of the very common themes include beauty, idealized love, rejected love,
time, jealousy, revenge, power, politics, Courtly love, pastoral poetry, court life, and Carpe diem.

Carpe diem: “Seize the day,” is a Latin phrase used by Horace and has become a common
theme in the sixteenth and seventeenth century English love lyrics. It emphasizes that life is short
and time is passing by, so one must enjoy the pleasures of life and live for the moment, without
concern for the future.
Pastoral Poetry: (Latin pastor, “shepherd”): is poetry that describes shepherds, landscapes and
the rural life in a simple idealized way. Great examples of pastoral poetry are Edmund Spenser’s
“ The Shepherd’s Calendar”, and Christopher Marlowe’s “ The Passionate Shepherd to his
Love.”

Courtly Love he tradition: a doctrine of love, governed the relation of aristocratic lovers,
which was widely represented in the lyric poem and chivalric romance of Europe during the
middle ages. This phenomenon, that emphasized nobility and chivalry, started in the south of
France in the late 11th century by the Troubadour lyric poets.

The chief characteristics of this tradition are: humility, courtesy, adultery, secrecy and the
religion of love. Love is a dynamic force in which the couples engaged in a courtly relationship
conventionally exchanged gifts and tokens of their affair. It is a service modeled on the service
of the feudal system in which the lady is the lord. Love was treated as a kind of God to be
worshipped. The lady ruled with tyranny over the lover, thus, the lover suffers agonies and
physical and mental pain.

This idealized love, which is usually between a knight and a married lady, offered an escape
from the boring confinements of medieval marriages that were usually arranged according to
economic and political purposes rather than depending on romance.

Lect. Zena Dhia Mohammed