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Early 17 th c. Verse. A Tale of Two Schools? “ The Cavalier Poets ” ---Sons of Ben John Donne and the “ Metaphysicals ”. Some Traditional “ Cavalier ” Characteristics. Balance//Parallelism Polite Courtly Diction and Tone Octosyllabic Couplets and Caesurae
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Early 17th c. Verse • A Tale of Two Schools? • “The Cavalier Poets”---Sons of Ben • John Donne and the “Metaphysicals”
Some Traditional “Cavalier” Characteristics • Balance//Parallelism • Polite Courtly Diction and Tone • Octosyllabic Couplets and Caesurae • Example—”Still to be Neat” (p. 1444/)
Still to be neat, still to be dressed, As you were going to a feast; Still to be powdered, still perfumed: Lady, it is to be presumed, Though art's hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound. Give me a look, give me a face, That makes simplicity a grace; Robes loosely flowing, hair as free: Such sweet neglect more taketh me Than all the adulteries of art; They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
“Metaphysical Poets” • Origin of term • Some characteristics • Colloquialism (Jonson: “Donne, for not keeping of accent deserved hanging”) • Intellectual complexity • Argumentation • Anti-Petrarchanism • Metaphysical conceits (discordia concors—harmonious discord)
How I’ve Organized this Unit • Religion, Politics, Love • Elegy 19 (p. 1283/1393) • The Two “Schools”
John Donne • Jack Donne/Dr. Donne • Keep track of poetic persona
“The Flea” (p. 1263/1373) • Argumentation • Metaphysical conceit • Mixture of secular and religious language
Secular/Religious language • The Canonization (p. 1267/1377) • The Relic (p. 1280/1390)
“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”(p. 1275/1385) • Blending of religious and secular • Colloquial, intellectually complex, argumentative
Carpe Diem Poems • Herrick: “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” (p. 1659/1762) • Trochaic tetrameter • (Trochee: stressed, unstressed) • Flow, movement • Classical sources
Carpe Diem • Marvell: “To His Coy Mistress” (p. 1703/1796) • Iambic tetrameter couplets • (iamb: unstressed, stressed) • Begins with familiar courtly elements—hyperbole, blazon • A darker turn
Jonson, “To Penshurst” (p. 1434/1546) • Sidney family home • Country house poem • How is this poem structured? • Shaped through description of the estate • Awareness of social hierarchy • (peasants to king—Jonson’s background) • Time also adds order • Negative contrast—classic Jonson?
Lanyer “Cookham” (1319/1436) • Elegiac (ll. 7, 9, 14, 128) • How do pastimes differ from “Penshurst”? • (line 161) • Virtuous women (l. 81 ff) • Preserving the estate through poem (lines 205-210
Open Review Session/Q and A • Sunday 12/8 • WLH 2205 from 2:00-3:50
Marvell • An Horatian Ode p. 1712/1806 • What’s an ode? An Horatian Ode? • Historical situation • Cromwell as a force of Nature • Depiction of execution • Comparison to Rome • Whose side is he on?
Marvell • Bermudas p. 1698/1791 About a group of Puritan exiles What’s left out of this poem?
Donne’s Holy Sonnets • Calvinism • Sonnet 1: 1295/1410 • Sonnet 9: Direct Address to God p.1296/1412 • Sonnet 10: Personifying Death • P. 1296/1412 • Sonnet 14: Violent relationship to God • P. 12971413
Herrick: Corrina’s Going A-Mayingp. 1658/1760 • Archbishop Laud • The Book of Sports • May Day • Elements of Carpe Diem/Pastoral
Herbert: The Collar p. 1619/1720 • Shifts in voicing • Shifts in tense • Order and outburst—expressing spiritual struggle • Children of God • Multiple meanings of the title