Renaissance Poetry POK: Authors

Sir Thomas Wyatt

"Whoso List to Hunt" (Petrarchan sonnet)

- Written as diplomat under Henry VIII

- "hind" is linked to Anne Boleyn

- Introduced Petrarchan sonnet to England

Christopher Marlowe

"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" (pastoral lyric)

- Elizabethan playwright

- Controversial thoughts --> Possible assassination

- Possible gay characters

Sir Walter Raleigh

"The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" (pastoral lyric parody)

- Legendary Elizabethan court figure

- English colonization explorer (Roanoke Colony)

- Executed under King James I for treason

William Shakespeare

"Sonnet 18," "Sonnet 29," "Sonnet 116," "Sonnet 130" (Shakespearean sonnets)

- Married Anne Hathaway at 18

- Wrote sonnet collections "Fair Youth" and "Dark Lady"

- co-found Lord Chamberlain's Men

David

"The Twenty-Third Psalm" (Psalms)

- David from "David and Goliath"; King David

- Israel's second significant king

- Deep faith, courage, repentance w/ Jesus

John Donne

"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" (Metaphysical lyric) "Death, be not proud" (Petrarchan/ minor English sonnet)

- leading Metaphysical poet

- Became Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral

- Catholicism to Anglicanism

- Controversial marriage to Ann More

Benjamin Jonson

"On My First Son" (elegy)

- Second to Shakespeare; major English Renaissance poet

- Turbulent life (soldier, actor, imprisonment for murder, poverty)

- Elegy for son Benjamin Jonson

Richard Lovelace

"To Lucasta, Going to the Wars" (Cavalier ballad)

- "prototype" Cavalier poet (honor/war duty)

- Loyalty to King Charles I

- War led to financial ruin and death

Robert Herrick

"To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" (Carpe diem)

- English poet/cleric

- Influenced by Ben Johnson (elegy guy) --> Joined "Sons of Ben"

- vicar of Dean Prior

Andrew Marvell

"To His Coy Mistress" (Carpe diem)

- Metaphysical poet and political writer

- Supporting Commonwealth (Milton)

- Satirizing Restoration court

John Milton

"When I Consider How My Light Is Spent" (Petrarchan sonnet) "Paradise Lost" (epic poem)

- English poet

- Known for religious conviction

- Becomes completely blind