1. THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE: SHAKESPEARE AND THE SONNET 2. A VOCABULARY FOR POETRY Lecture Two.

1. THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE: SHAKESPEARE AND THE SONNET

2. A VOCABULARY FOR POETRY

Lecture Two

The English Renaissance: 16-17th c

A ‘rebirth’ of culture after the devastations of the Black Death

The development of the printing press 1450 by Gutenberg Increased trade to different parts of the world A rise in nationalism 1521, Luther makes a break from the Church of Rome and

the Reformation begins: individual and religious freedoms, but also wars of religion

1533 Henry VIII breaks with the Church of Rome and England becomes split between Catholics and Protestants.

1558-1603 Elizabeth 1. A time of prosperity, peace and fostering of the arts

Queen Elizabeth 1, ‘The Armada Portrait’George Gower, 1588

Writers of the English Renaissance

Poets, Playwrights, Philosophers:

Thomas WyattBen JohnsonJohn DonnePhilip SidneyAndrew MarvellQueen ElizabethEdmund Spencer The Faerie QueenChristopher Marlowe Dr FaustusJohn Webster The Duchess of MalfiThomas More Utopia

Renaissance Writers

John Donne 1572-1631

Poet, essayist, satirist, cleric in Church of England

Renaissance Writers

Andrew Marvell

1621-1678Metaphysical poet and politician

‘To His Coy Mistriss’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SpVYlxhtdo

Shakespeare:1564-1616Born in Stratford-upon-Avon.SonnetsRomances: Romeo and Juliet,Comedies: Twelfth Night, As You Like ItTragedies: Macbeth, King LearHistories: Henry IV, Richard II

William Shakespeare

The Shakespearean Sonnet

Themes of love, fear of mortality, urging of procreation, beauty

Wrote 154 sonnets, published in 1609

Shakespearean sonnet:Comprised of 3 quatrians (group of 4 lines) plus a

rhyming couplet - 14 lines.Contains a ‘volta’ or turn, usually at the end of

the 3rd quatrain where poem begins to move towards resolve

Rhyming scheme: abab cdcd efef gg

‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date.Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-cuNXsqJZA(4 mins)

A vocabulary for poetry

Repetition: Of words, images, ideas

Alliteration: a repeated sound at the beginning of word

Syntax: the ordering of words within a sentence

Stanza: line division within a poem

Line: differentiate from grammatical sentence

A vocabulary for poetry

Metre (rhythm): eg iambic pentameter (5 metrical feet per line: weak stress/ strong stress): ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’

Rhyme: sound repetitions at the end of words/lines

Consonance: repeated syllable sounds, ‘slip,slap’

Assonance: repeated vowel sounds ‘The Lotus blooms’

A Vocabulary for poetry

Enjambment: where the grammatical sense of a sentence/phrase runs on from one line to the next

Caesura: where a poetic line is end-stopped in the middle

Stanza: any grouping of poetic lines

Quatrain: 4 lines within a sonnet

A vocabulary for poetry

Octave: 8 lines within Petrarchan sonnet

Sestet: 6 lines

Rhyming couplet: conclusion of sonnet

Volta: the point of change within sonnet

Poetic Forms

Sonnet: 14 lines

Ballad: tells a story, links to music

Lyric: short, subjective/personal, also linked to song

Epic: long narrative, usually with heroic subject matter

Poetic forms

Villanelle: cycling repetitions of lines

Free Verse: no strict metrical or rhyme patterns

Web site for literary terms: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms.html