Poetry during the

Renaissance!
By: Vanessa Pham

http://www.slideshare.net/guest86884b1/poetry-
during-the-renaissance
 Changes in Poetry through
Time
• Medieval century the poetry used to be mainly about religion; the
clergy and the church. Talks about the heritage of the Holy Roman
Empire, and the early Christian churches.
•The language of the poetry used to be very complex, includes
extensive vocabulary, iambic pentameters, rhymes etc. They thought
to believe that poems were supposed to be filled with logic and
reason, at the same time the key points of the poems in the sound of
rhythm.
•Poetry was rarely used to showcase feelings, but more as a “oral
history.” telling stories about politics and war. It was considered as
the “pre-literature” of the century.
 Characteristics of Renaissance
Poetry
•An important style of Renaissance Poetry was epic style, and
sonnets (Shakespeare).
•Characteristics include: Rhyme, intensity in feelings,
repetition, meter, meaning& logic, language of vocabulary,
iambic pentameter.
•The Renaissance poems came in many languages,
commonly Latin, Italian& Greek. Some are translated and
being used today as a historical and religious sources.
•The topics of the poems varied from religion to heroes. Most
of the Christian poems talk about how they survived the fall of
the Holy Roman Empire. Poems about heroes/ heroines were
very popular, the most successful Beowulf.
•The 11th and 12th centuries was the time period where satires,
fables, tales, ballads and poetry became exceptionally
popular.
Socrates Plato Aristotle

Petrarch
 Plato& Socrates
TO STELLA by: Plato
THOU wert the morning star among the living,
Ere thy fair light had fled;
Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving
New splendor to the dead.
Flopping Fishes by: Socrates
Flop flop go the fishes,
Floppily flopping until death.
All fishes
Are mute.
Five fat fish
Frenching fifteen fat flounders.
Watch out!
The banana mumbles...
Wentsworth, the spotted octopus,
Dances merrily upon the sandy sea floor.
And Wilkins, with his sharp stinger,
The azure waters
Smelling the mute, fat fishes.
Pink poppers
Popping the five fat fish.
O! Woe is the world!
Flopping fish floppingly perish.
A Picture of Pain by: Plato
Pick up a little girlie!
Pull on her little curlies!
We pirates love paining peoples!
Pain in churches and their steeples!
Beating up strange men quite badly!
Ripping them to bloody shreds madly!
We pirates sail the seven seas!
And we chop off little chickens' knees!
Yo ho ho!
Yo ho ho!
Of Slime and Men by: Socrates
Men and slime, though different,
Are the same.
They both dissolve people
And engulf the world.
Wolves love the texture of slime;
It mats their fur,
It hangs off their noses in viscous
Strings of translucent slime.
Wolves and men are not alike
Unless they are werewolves.
I hate werewolf stories!
I hate slimy wolves!
Amen.
Venus& Adonis Poem by Shakespeare

And now she beats her heart, whereat it

groans, That all the neighbour caves, as
seeming troubled, Make verbal repetition of
Even as an empty eagle, sharp by fast,  her moans; Passion on passion deeply is
Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh and bone,  redoubled: Ay me!' she cries, and twenty
Shaking her wings, devouring all in haste,  times 'Woe, woe!' And twenty echoes twenty
Till either gorge be stuff'd or prey be gone;  times cry so. 
Even so she kissed his brow, his cheek, his chin, 
And where she ends she doth anew begin. 
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, But
With this she seizeth on his sweating palm,  Lust's effect is tempest after sun; Love's
The precedent of pith and livelihood,  gentle spring doth always fresh remain, Lust's
And trembling in her passion, calls it balm,  winter comes ere summer half be done; Love
Earth's sovereign salve to do a goddess good:  surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies; Love is
Being so enraged, desire doth lend her force 
Courageously to pluck him from his horse. 
all truth, Lust full of forged lies. 

Forced to content, but never to obey, 

Panting he lies and breatheth in her face; 
She feedeth on the steam as on a prey, 
And calls it heavenly moisture, air of grace; 
Wishing her cheeks were gardens full of
flowers, So they were dew'd with such distilling
showers. 
THE END!!
 Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_poetry
http://www.world-class-poetry.com/Harlem_Renaissance.html
http://www.stjohnschs.org/library/curriculum/english/renaiss/ren
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/
http://poetry.about.com/od/renaissancepoets/Renaissance_Poets
http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2749
http://www.experiencefestival.com/english_poetry_-
_the_renaissance_in_england
http://www.artandculture.com/categories/308-16th-century-
renaissance-poetry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5657
Braden, Gordon. The Classics and English Renaissance Poetry:
Three Case Studies. Print.
 Anticipation Guide!

For my very first Portfolio project I decided to do mine on Renaissance Poetry. I picked
this topic in particular because I personally have always had a passion for poetry, the
meaningful lyrics of words by the word. In this project I am hoping to learn more about
poetry during the Renaissance era, learning how poetry has changed through time and its
effect on society through the ages. Whereas the topics and meanings of the poems
describing the people’s culture back in the day, and how that has all changed due to the
time span. I am also hoping to read some poetry during the Renaissance era, and see
what makes a poem a Renaissance poem, the characteristics of Renaissance Poetry. Also
the change in thought, the change in perspective, and the change in language and
vocabulary from the poems itself tells allot about one’s culture. I am hoping to learn
more about poetry itself, and understand more about the people’s point of view on things
compares to today, the changes in poetry and the parts of it that will always remain
unchanged.