Renaissance

Renaissance

rebirth/renewal; focus on nature, art, and individual

Humanism

humans can make their own destiny (not relying on God)

Utopia

"no place"/"nowhere" - ideal society

Reformation

Martin Luther's theses - wanting to get rid of corruption in the Church

Pun

play on words

Sonnet

14 line poem

Octave

8 line stanza

Sestet

6 line stanza

Quatrain

4 line stanza

Couplet

2 line stanza

Paradox

statement that contradicts itself but is actually true

Syntax

order of words

Conceit

extended metaphor with complex logic; confusing at first but after an explanation

Hyperbole

exaggeration for dramatic effect

Understatement

making something less important than it actually is

Figurative Language

when the words differ from their literal meanings

Rhyme Scheme

the rhyme pattern of the last word in each line

Scansion

the act of analyzing a poem

Iamb

stressed, unstressed (U /)

Image

elements in a poem that speak to the five senses

Motif

a reoccurring image that normally reinforces a theme

Meter

the pattern of the stressed or unstressed

Foot

basic unit of the pattern

Iambic Pentameter

a poem with lines each having 5 iamb feet

Plutarch

Shakespeare’s source of Roman history

Johannes Gutenberg

Invented printing press

William Caxton

First printer in England

Sir Thomas More

Came up with the idea of a utopia

Erasmus

“prince of humanists”

Martin Luther

One of the leaders of the Reformation

Henry VIII

Married sister in law, got into fight with the Pope over the divorce, created the Church of England

Elizabeth I

Kills Mary Queen of Scots because people thought Mary should rule, tried to keep peace during her reign

Mary Stuart

Queen of Scots, inspired Spanish Armada

King Phillip of Spain

Sent Spanish Armada in 1588, its defeat led to England becoming the leading naval power

James I

Kept Elizabeth’s rules in order to keep peace

Spenserian Sonnets

AB AB BC BC CD CD EE

Shakesperian Sonnets

English Sonnets, AB AB CD CD EF EF GG

Petrarchian Sonnets

Italian Sonnets, ABBA ABBA CDE CDE

Amoretti 30

-My love is like to ice, and I to fire
-The more he tries, the more she rejects him yet this makes him want to try harder
-why do the rules of science not apply to the rules of love?
-his desire is fire and she is ice
-Spenser

Amoretti 75

-One day I wrote her name upon the strand
-writes her name on the beach twice, but the waves wash it away
-lover tells him this is futile, besides she herself is mortal and will not live forever
-she and their love will live forever in poetry
-Spenser

Whoso List to Hunt, I Know where is an Hind

-Sir Thomas Wyatt
-the hind is Anne Boleyn
-wears a diamond necklace that says “for Caesar’s I am”
-wild for to hold, though I seem tame
-he is coming in last, but no one else can win anyway

Sonnet 29

-Shakespeare
-When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
-Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, haply I think on thee; and then my state
-For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
-when he feels alone, poor, and depressed, he thinks of her

Sonnet 116

-Shakespeare
-Let me not to the marriage of true minds
-love is not love which alters when it alteration finds
-love is constant and never leaves
-a checklist for true love

Sonnet 130

-Shakespeare
-My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
-if hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head
-she is ugly but he loves her anyway

Sonnet 90

-Petrarch
-She used to let her golden hair fly free
-unearthly voices sang in unison
-well, though the bow’s unbent, the wound bleeds on
-he remembers a woman who has left him, but has more emphasis on her

Sonnet 292

-Petrarch
-The eyes I spoke of once in words that burn
-And yet I live, grief and disdainto me
-he remembers a woman, but has more emphasis on grief

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

-John Donne
-As virtuous men pass mildly away
-for his wife, Anne
-no tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move
-thy firmness makes my circle just, and makes me end where I begun

Death Be Not Proud

-John Donne
-thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men
-death needs poison, war, and sickness while poppy and charms make people sleep
-rest and sleep do not scare anyone
-our best men die too
-one short sleep past, we wake eternally
-death, thou shalt die

Meditation 17

-John Donne
-no man is an island
-each is a piece of the continent, if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less
-ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee
-each man’s death diminishes me

To Althea From Prison

-When love has unconfined wings
-know no such liberty
-kings do not know more liberty than he when he thinks of her
-stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage
-only angels enjoy such liberty because he has freedom in his love
-Lovelace

On my first son

-Johnson
-farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy
-seven years tho’ wert lent to me, and I thee pay
-will men lament the state he should envy?
-“Here doth lie Ben Johnson his best piece of poetry”
-he promises to never love anyone as much ever again

Song to Celia

-Johnson
-Drink to me only with thine eyes
-looking at each other is as good as drinking wine
-a rose he sent her that she sent back smells of her

Passionate Shepherd to His Love

-Marlowe
-come live with me and be my love
-offers valleys, hills, fields, woods, rocks, rivers, and birds
-and I will make thee beds of Roses
-“and be my love” refrain
-offers temporal things

The Nymph’s Reply

-Raleigh
-if all the world and love were young, and truth in every shepherd’s tongue, these pretty pleasures might me move
-all these pleasures will grow old
-the rest complains of cares to come
-in folly ripe, in reason rotten

To His Coy Mistress

-Marvell
-had we but world enough and time, this coyness, lady, were no crime
-if we had all the time in the world, we would do things slow, and our love would grow
-but at my back I always hear time’s winged chariot hurrying near
-your beauty will soon disappear, and we may die so we should get together
-thus, though we cannot make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

-Herrick
-Anglican cleric
-Gather ye rose-buds while ye may
-this same flower that smiles today tomorrow will be dying
-then be not coy; but use your time, and while ye may, go marry; for having lost but once your prime, you may forever tarry
-you are more beautiful young