Renaissance Poetry Secular vs. Religious

Secular

exploring the structures of worldly experience rather than religious affairs
temporal age of the world

negative: excessive indulgence in material or worldly matters
positive: ethical principles grounded in something other than religious doctrine

The Secular In Government

• there were forms of power and government beyond the church

• pre reformation: head of the church claimed authority over the monarch

• post reformation: the church and state were fused

The Secular In Commerce and Agriculture

• commerce, agriculture, craft, industry - how we live

• all practiced w/n a framework shaped by Christian ethics and principles and w/n the rhythm of the church calendar

The Secular In Knowledge

• forms based on non Christian sources such as Greek or Roman thought and writing (the beginning of scientific practice)

• scholars sought ways to make classical philosophy and christian theology compatible

The Secular In Culture And Art

• anchored in worldly experience and pleasure

• usually situated within context of christian metaphysics of the body and soul

Religions’ Control

• forms a horizon for any sense of the world

• underpinning and defining and confining it

Isabella Whitney - Women’s Secular Writing

• we do not know a lot about her background - mid to late 1500s

• first women whose name appears under a completed printed volume of secular poetry

• women’s roles in writing usually parsed through devotional affairs

• to be in the public secular world was unprecedented

• series of love letters in verse + verse observations

• produced marketable poetry → secular, commodity

Whitney’s Voice

• A Communication Which The Author Had To London, Before She Made Her Will - Isabella Whitney

• confident, loud, public voice - contrary to the norms

• generalises her message to female readership

• confident voice speaking on female experiences

• presents a secular vision of London - city of consumption

• regular meter and form

John Donne

• writes both secular and religious poetry - sits in between

• 1572 - 1631

• government official

• become an Anglican clergyman in 1615

The Late Medieval Church

• end of the 15th century

  • poorly educated and underpaid clergyman

  • lots of nepotism

  • source of anxiety

  • monasteries in a state of decline

  • popes (Leo X) living a life of greed, corruption and sensuality

• at a local level religion was popular and flourishing

Martin Luther + The Reformation

• wrote objections to practices prevalent in the church - practices, doctrine and organisation

• what is necessary for salvation

• faith (looks inwards) vs. work (looks outwards, charitable works)

• criticising corruption, refocusing worship, rethinking the role of the clergy

• to see what the church should be doing look at scripture

Process Of Reformation In England

• Henry VIII was dedicated to Pope Leo X

• Pope Leo X awards Henry defender of faith title

• Henry VIII declares himself head of the church in England → the church wouldn’t give him an annulment

• Act of Six Articles reaffirming key Catholic doctrine → enforces religious uniformity, resisting radical reform, using parliament to hold reform, keeping traditional practices

• Edwardian Reformation - English becomes the language of Church and masses

John Donne Religious Works

• religious framing of worldly experience

• linkage of intimate things and bigger questions about the world

• crisis of faith

John Donne - The First Anniversary

• uncertainty that might be about religious conflict

• anniversary of death of a daughter of his patron (Elizabeth Drury)

• identify her as a source of what is good, right and true - ideal perfect women

• meditation on the state of the world

• ultimately blames Eve - original sin

• large (world) and the intimate (atoms)

• fragmentation of religion

• wrestling with self

Donne - Holy Sonnets 18

• addressing issues around religion and church

• language, imagery and metaphors borrowed from language of love

• church available to him as a women would be

Donne - Holy Sonnets 14

• wishes to be conquered by God

• asking for his love to be reciprocated

• wants to be undone by God

• sexual language

Amelia Lanyard

• Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum - Hail God King Of The Jews

• forerunner of religious poetry printed by women

• focuses on women involved in Christ’s Stories

• situates herself through marriage to husband who is a servant to Christ - alliance between herself and nobility

• written in Ottawa Rima

• eight lines of iambic pentameter

Context - Creation in Genesis

• two versions

• one which is much less specific and hierarchical
  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”

• more common
  “And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman”

• women to be crooked by nature - aspiring and wanton

Eve’s Apology

• Pilot’s wife warns about her husband - speaks for women

• Adam is culpable because he is seen to be the more rational figure

• relies on dominant hierarchical relationship in which Eve is aligned with weakness

• ‘our’ → women with collective pronoun

• biblical references - positioning a critique of Renaissance gender norms within the bible - more palatable

• tried to evoke empathy for Eve

• ‘staine’ deeply etched into society

• sense of trial and persecution ‘ Let us have our / Liberties againe’ → advocating for women

• indented closing couplet

• sets weakness against strength and love against sin