1. English Literature

2. Chapter 5 Sixteenth-Century Poetry

3. Contents I. Poetry II. Elizabethan poets III. Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

4. I. Poetry In Western Literature, poetry is the oldest of written art forms. Poetry has its roots in the oral tradition of our distant ancestors. Poetry is an integral part of the human condition. Written or oral, every culture on earth has a poetic tradition.

5. 1. Definition of poetry “ Poetry is a kind of representation using rhythm, speech and melody. ” — Aristotle "poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility" — William Wordsworth Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive and widely effective mode of saying things, and hence their importance. — George Arnold

6. Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. — Samuel Johnson Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking. — BBC radio broadcaster John Wain, 1976 “ Poetry is an extension and refinement of the mind ’ s extreme recognitions, and of language ’ s most unexpected apprehensions. ” — Seamus Heaney

7. 2. Elements of poetry (1) Speaker The speaker is roughly equivalent to the narrator of fictional works. It is a character or a psychological persona that the poet constructs to deliver the words of the poem. (2) Situation The situation is the context in which the speaker finds him- or herself. This is roughly equivalent to setting and plot in fiction.

8. ( 3) Diction Carefully chosen words to convey precise meaning. (4) Denotation The dictionary meaning of a word, e.g. “ lake ” means a body of water (5) Connotation What people associate with that word, e.g. “ home ” a place where one lives (denotation), security, love, comfort and family (connotation); childish/childlike

9. (6) Syntax Syntax refers to the sentence structure in a poem. A poem ’ s sentences may be long or short, simple or complex. Generally, we would look to the sentence length or the shape of the sentences as being related somehow to the poem ’ s theme. Are there any departures from standard grammar, such as fragmented elliptical passages? Does the syntax change over the course of the poem?

10. (7) Imagery The creation of lively, vivid pictures (images), which appeal to the senses. It is the language that appeals to one of the five (or sixth!) senses Senses : sound, sight, touch, smell, taste, and emotion.

11. (8) Figures of speech A word or phrase that describes one thing in terms of another Not meant to be taken as literally true Always involves an imaginative comparison between two things that don ’ t seem to be alike

12. Simile compares two unlike objects using the words “ like, ” “ as ”, “ than, ” or “ resembles. ” e.g. He is sleeping like a log. She is as quiet as a mouse. “ Slower than molasses in January. ”

13. Metaphor A comparison of two unlike things without using the words “ like, ” “ as, ” etc. Thus, one thing becomes another thing. e.g. “ She ’ s a brick and I ’ m drowning slowly. ” “ All the world ’ s a stage, “ And all the men and women merely players. ” Life is “ a tale / Told by an idiot. ”

14. Personification Giving human qualities to something that is not human, that is, attributing human characteristics to animals, objects, and ideas, for example: Bright April shakes out her rain-drenched hair Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, …

15. Hyperbole An intentional exaggeration used with humorous or ironic results, for example: as old as time a million times a day Sylvia Plath writes, “ Of kitchen slops and, stomaching no constraint,/ Proceeded to swill/ The seven seas and every earthquaking continent. ”

16. Symbol A symbol is both an image and a metaphor. e.g. Life is a journey. In the “ Road Not Taken ” the road is a symbol of life or life ’ s choices Betty has a pretty dog. Some dirty dog stole my purse. You can ’ t teach an old dog new tricks.

17. (9) Rhyme Words that have identical end sounds: “ bad ”, “ sad ” “ grocer ” “ closer ” They usually occur at the end of a poetic line. Exact rhyme are words that have the exact same-sounding ending, like cat and hat Slant rhyme words sound similar, but aren ’ t exact, like one and down. A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming words.

18. Look at the end rhyme I wish that my room had a FLOOR I don ’ t so much care for a DOOR But this walking AROUND Without touching the GROUND Is getting to be quite a BORE! Assign letters A, B, C, for each new rhyme

19. 3. Rhythm and Meter (1)Rhythm refers to the regular recurrence of the accent or stress in poem or song. e.g. the rhythm of day and night, the seasonal rhythm of the year, the beat of our hearts, and the rise and fall of sea tides, etc. (2) 4 basic patterns of rhythms

20. (a) Iambic foot (iamb): An unstressed syllable followed by an stressed one as in the word “ prevent ” or “ contain. ” It ’ s time the children went to bed. We ’ ll learn a poem by Keats. (b) Trochaic foot (trochee): A stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one as in “ football, ” “ never, ” “ happy, ” “ heartless ” or “ English. ”

21. William Morris taught him English. Double, double, toil and trouble Fire burns and cauldron bubble. (c) Anapestic foot (anapest): Two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one as in comprehend or intervene. I ’ ve been working in China for forty years. (d) Dactylic foot (dactyl): A stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones as in dangerous, cheerfully, yesterday, merrily.

22. (e) Substitute Feet Spondee: knick-knack; More haste, less speed. Pyrrhic: (light) of the (world); My way is to begin with the beginning. The meters with two-syllable feet are: IAMBIC (x /) : That time of year thou mayst in me behold TROCHAIC (/ x): Tell me not in mournful numbers SPONDAIC (/ /): Break, break, break/ On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!

23. The meters with three-syllable feet are: ANAPESTIC (x x /): And the sound of a voice that is still DACTYLIC (/ x x): This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlock (a trochee replaces the final dactyl)

24. (3)Number of feet per line one footmonometer (rare) two feetdimeter three feettrimeter four feettetrameter five feetpentameter six feethexameter seven feetheptameter (rare) eight feetoctameter (rare)

25. 4. Types of poetry (1) Narrative poetry epic, romance, and ballad The stress is on action, e.g. to tell stories and describe actions; (2) Lyric poetry Elegies, odes, sonnets, epigraphs, etc. To combine speech and song to express feelings in varying degrees of verbal music.

26. II. Elizabethan poets 1.Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) The first great English sonneteer

27. 2.Henry Howard (1517-1547) He made first English attempts at blank pentameters

28. 3. Philip Sidney (1554-1586) His great work is the sonnet sequence, Astrophel and Stella Arcadia is a romance-epic in prose. Apology for Poetry is a serious critical work on the nature of poetry.

29. 4. Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) “ The Nymph ’ s Reply to the Shepherd ”

30. 5. Samuel Daniel (1562-1619) His sonnet sequence, Delia (1592)

31. 6. Michael Drayton (1563-1631) His love sonnets, Idea (1594)

32. III. Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

33. 1. Life and career Educated at Merchant Tailors' School and at Cambridge Fell in love and recorded his laments over the loss of Rosalind in his Shepherd's Calendar Establishing his reputation as an important poet with the publication of The Shepherd's Calendar

34. Made secretary to Lord Grey of Wilton, the queen's deputy in Ireland 2. Major Works The Shepherd's Calendar, 12 pastoral poems, one for each month of the year Amoretti (88 sonnets) Epithalamion, marriage hymns

35. 3. Allegory A story with a double meaning: a primary or surface meaning, and a secondary or under- the-surface meaning A story that can be read, understood and interpreted at two levels

36. 4. The Faerie Queene (1) Story Gloriana, the queen of Fairyland, represents both glory and Queen Elizabeth I, in whose honor 12 knights, who represented the qualities of the chivalric virtues, engage in a series of adventures. The first six books are about the qualities of holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, justice, and courtesy.

37. (2) Plan of the poem Purpose: To fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline The plan: 12 books, each one having a different hero distinguished for one of the private virtues Prince Arthur, he is to play a role in each of the 12 major adventures, searching for the Fairy Queen, whom he has fallen in love with through a love vision

38. (3) Two levels of allegory One level examines the moral, philosophical and religious values and is represented by the Red Cross Knight, who stands for all Christians. The second level is the particular, which focuses on the political, social, and religious conflicts in the then English society.

39. Dragon

42. Redcrosse Knight fights against the dragon

43. (4) Spenserian Stanza For The Faerie Queene, Spenser originated a nine-line verse stanza, now known as the Spenserian stanza — the first eight lines are iambic pentameter, and the ninth, iambic hexameter; the rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc.

44. (5) Book I: Major episodes Error ’ s woods Archimango and Duessa House of pride/Sins Orgoglio, Arthur to rescue Fight against the dragon

45. (6) A Brief Analysis of The Faerie Queene The Faerie Queene is full of adventures and marvels, dragons, witches, enchanted trees, giants, jousting knights, and castles. It is also an allegory; the heroes of the several books represent the virtues portrayed in those books. The purpose of Redcrosse's quest is to free original mankind — the parents of Una or the undivided truth of the Anglican Church--from the power of the Devil.

46. The quest against outer evil becomes an experience of inner sin. Redcrosse has cast off his old, corrupt self, been renewed in spirit and so put on the new man `created in righteousness, and true holiness'. The theme is "Fierce wars and faithful loves." Romantic scenery: plains and forests and caves and castles and magical trees and springs; one meets dwarfs and giants and lions and pilgrims and magicians.

47. 5. Characteristics of Spenser ’ s Poetry (1) a perfect melody; (2) a rare sense of beauty; (3) a splendid imagination; (4) a lofty moral purity and seriousness; (5) a dedicated idealism.

48. 6. Sonnet 75 The poem addresses immortality using a common archetypal symbol: the ebb and flow of the ocean, which usually represents immortality as a cycle of life, death and rebirth, rather than a static continued existence. The poem also uses an archetypal motif of submersion into cyclical, suggesting that submitting to that life-death-rebirth cycle leads to immortality, as demonstrated in the last two lines of the poem.

49. This personification of death subduing the world illustrates death as a hunter, and this hunter image occurs earlier in the poem with the tide making the man's efforts to write in the sand "his prey. “ This image of the writing in the sand parallels the cycle described at the end of the poem, with the tide acting as death and the man's hand, like poetry, forever writing her name in the sands of time.