4. Renaissance Poetry and Prose

Who is known as the "new poet of the renaissance" and "master of the Elizabethan lyric”?

Edmund Spenser.

What is The Faerie Queene about (by Edmund Spencer)?

An ambitious allegorical romance featuring adventures of knights and layers of moral, religious, political, and historical allegory.

What characterizes a petrarchan (Italian) sonnet?

It contains 14 lines, divided into an octave (description) and a sestet (cognitive conclusion), with a rhyme pattern typically abba abba cde cde, focusing on courtly love.

What characterizes English (Shakespearean) sonnets?

They consist of three quatrains and a concluding couplet, typically in iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.

Who were the first English sonneteers?

• Sir Thomas Wyatt (introduced changes in subject matter and tone),

• Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (introduced the alternative rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg).

Describe William Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609).

• 154 sonnets.

• The first 17 are "procreation sonnets" to a young man.

• Sonnets 18-126 are addressed to a Fair Youth, expressing love and exploring themes of beauty and the rival poet.

• Sonnets 127-152 are addressed to a Dark Lady, expressing the speaker’s love for her.

Who wrote Utopia?

Thomas More.

What characterizes an euphuistic romance?

An ornate and sophisticated style with parallelism, extensive literary devices, and allusions.

Examples: John Lyly's Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit.

What does a pastoral romance feature?

Love plots with stylized shepherds/shepherdesses in idyllic rural landscapes.

Examples: Sir Philip Sidney's The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia.

What does a picaresque romance look like?

It has an episodic structure, following the adventures of a rogue-like protagonist

Example: Thomas Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller.