Elizabethan Era Poetry Unit 1485-1625

1. Elizabethan EraPoetry Unit1485-1625

2. Vocabulary • Church of England • Puritan • Renaissance • Sonnet • Petrarchan • Shakespearean • Spenserian

3. Iambic foot • monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter • Octave • Sestet • Quatrain • Couplet • Conceit • Stock devices • Oxymoron

4. Simile • Metaphor • Personification • Allusion • Apostrophe • Rhyme scheme • Rhythm • Scansion

5. Bound verse • Polyrhythmic/free verse • Blank verse • Forced rhyme • Carpe diem • Archaism • Sonnets (Petrarchan, Shakespearean, Spenserian) • Pastoral/idyll lyrics

6. So long Middle English Period…hello Elizabethan Period What happened during the Elizabethan Era? • Lots of political upheaval (wars between countries) • Lots of religious upheaval (the beginning of Puritanism) • Change in the economics (new merchant class) • Cultural changes (influences of the Renaissance)

7. The Social Ladder of the Elizabethan Era • Monarchs (king/queen) • Nobles, knights (wealthy, but sometimes only in title!) • Clergy • Merchants (the people who bought and sold goods for profit) • Explorations/discoveries of new lands and seaways- expanded commerce/trade. • England became a great power in world-wide seafaring trade. • The power in the state was shifting from the landed aristocracy to the merchant/middle class.

8. Peasants/paupers • Still not a pleasant life to live! • Squalor living conditions • Bubonic plague • Vagabonds, laborers, child labor • Poor relief

9. Let’s take a closer look at politics and religion … • Henry VII • Took the throne in 1485 (ending the Wars of the Roses) • Took power away from the feudal barons…goodbye feudal system!

10. Henry VIII • ascended to the throne in1509 (chop…chop…chop…divorce-beheaded-died-divorced-beheaded-survived!) • Successfully challenged the Pope’s authority over the country • Broke from the Roman Catholic Church • 1535- Established the independent Church of England(with himself as the Head!)

11. Just so you know… Around the same time as Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church, religious unrest was spreading throughout Europe. Did you ever hear of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses? This was a catalyst to the Protestant Reformation- a schism in the Roman Catholic church. Protestant Reformation: • Started as a way to reform the Catholic Church • Some did not like the teaching and sale of indulgences, simony, Mariology (devotion to Mary), devotion to the saints, clerical celibacy, authority of the Pope, etc. • Some saw these as corruption of the church

12. Troubled times • Edward VI (1547-1553) strong Protestant • Mary I(1553-1558) tried to turn the people back to Catholicism by a series of bloody executions. • “Bloody Mary” • Locked her sister into the Tower of London • Can you say “crazy”?!

13. Troubled times turn into good times… • Elizabeth I(Good Queen Bess) took the throne. • Got England out of debt • Stopped wars with Spain • Sponsored the arts • This is whom the era is named after

14. Worked out a compromise on religion: Church of England kept some Catholic doctrine and ritual, but remained separate and independent. BUT-this did not suit some extreme Protestants and they wanted to “purify” the C of E from Catholic influences. These extremists were called Puritans.

15. Puritans • Encouraged direct personal religious experience with God (no middle-men priests, archbishops, etc.) • Followed strict moral conduct • Held simple worship services (no flashy indulgences, etc.) • Believed that Christianity should be taken as the focus of human existence…you are here to serve God—NOT to have fun!

16. Cultural Change • However, Puritans were not the only “reformers” of the time… • Another influence on England’s religion and culture was the Renaissance. • English scholars visited Italy & brought back the “spirit of the Renaissance”…

17. In this corner we have the Humanists, and in the far corner…the Puritans! • Man-centered vs. God-centered • Renaissance emphasized human potential, NOT God’s power. • Individual authority vs. Submitting to authority • Humanists believed a person’s role in life should be action, NOT religious contemplation.

18. There was one common denominator though… • Both Humanists and Puritans believed in analyzing, questioning and scrutinizing the Church, NOT submitting to the authority of church officials • The Renaissance influenced a critical study of the Scriptures which partly led to a challenge of Roman Catholicism & the emergence of English Protestantism.

19. The Renaissance’s Influence on Learning: • Learning was important & for everyone • Before Caxton printed his first book(1476) in English, no more than 2% of the English people could read. • Afterwards, learning increased rapidly-from the Crown to the commoner. • Access of information is easier • Books become more accessible

20. Universities offered: • Latin, logic, rhetoric (public speaking), arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy • Universities promoted questioning attitudes about: • the status quo • scientific discovery

21. With all this emphasis on learning, it’s no wonder a new hero evolved! • New hero of the Renaissance: The Scholar Hero • Accomplished at reading, writing, composing poetry, etc • Knew the Greek and Roman period, the Classics & the ideas put forth in the Classics • Accomplished musician

22. Knew the skills of diplomacy (foreign languages) and Court etiquette • Was a member of the new Protestant religion (at least in Public) • Was able to fence & ride (a horse!) • Was able to fight • Was interested in exploration and conflict with other countries

23. Everyday Life in the Renaissance-DVD

24. What about our English language? • English had already triumphed over French as the spoken language by the late14th century. • During Elizabethan Era, English became the language of scholars… and some theologians were starting to use it, too .

25. English expanded its vocabulary… again! • Influences from Latin and Greek literature (brought in by the Humanists) • Explorers/overseas tradesmen brought an influx of words from many foreign languages • Many writers (like Shakespeare) were inventing new words daily • In 1582 Robert Mulcaster proposed a system of regularized spelling-this made a significant difference by 1600.

26. Literature At the beginning of the period, England was far behind the literary progress of France and Italy. However, by the end of the Elizabethan Period, England was in the lead (mostly due to the writings of Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Sir Philip Sidney and Christopher Marlowe.

27. Poetry • During Elizabeth I’s reign, “England was called a nest of singing birds; every courtier felt it part of his duty to write poetry; sonnet sequences by the hundreds appeared; and English poetry was the admiration of all Europe.”

28. Sonnets • Are poems consisting of 14 lines in iambic pentameter with rhymes arranged according to a fixed scheme, usually divided either into octaveandsestetor, in the English form, into three quatrains anda couplet. • Got that? Don’t worry, we’ll come back to it.

29. What were sonnets written about? • Love • Nationalistic pride • Man’s potential • Nature • Seven deadly sins • Gluttony, lust, pride, envy, wrath, sloth, and avarice • Seven cardinal virtues • Faith, hope, love, prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance

30. The Humors • In the old theory of physiology, the four chief liquids of the human body were: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. • It was believed that: • Both physical diseases & mental and moral dispositions were caused by the dominance of some element within a humor, or from an imbalance of the humors.

31. Divine Right of Kings • A political & religious doctrine of royal absolutism. • A monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God. • To go against the king or to restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God and could be considered heresy. • Divine right started in Medieval times and only ended in 1689.

32. The Great Chain of Being God Angels Humans Beasts Plants Stones The ladder of intellect

33. Elizabethan poetry’s literary devices: • Conceits- were prominent in many love poems. • unusual and elaborate comparisons between two dissimilar things. • these images were usually about a despairing lover and his unpitying, but idolized, mistress. • Ex. A lover is compared to a ship on a stormy sea and his mistress is a cloud of dark disdain.

34. Stock devices – themes, characters, etc. which show up again and again. This is especially apparent in poems dealing with the tradition of courtly love. • The idea of the cruel or indifferent mistress • The idea of the all-consuming passion • The pale, wan lover

35. The paradoxical pain and pleasure of lovesickness is often described using oxymorons- (a figure of speech that combines normally-contradictory terms. Ex. wise fool, failed success, dark sunshine • Similes • Metaphors

36. Personification • Allusion -making reference to a famous historical event, literary figure, or pop culture person/event that would be known of by the majority of the population. • Apostrophe -to address the absent as though present, the dead as though living, or the inanimate object as if it were animate. Ex: an invocation to the muses.

37. Rhyme scheme • Rhythm –accented and unaccented syllables. • Iambic- an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Ta THUMP • To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells.

38. Scansion-the division of verse into feet by indicating accents and syllables to determine the meter of a poem. • (iambic feet) (pentameter, etc.) • ta TUM -5 metrical feet • A line of iambic pentameter is five iambic feet in a row: • da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM • To swell / the gourd, / and plump / the haz / el shells.

39. Rhythm types • Iambic ~ / (The most common meter in our language and naturally falls into everyday conversation. To BE or NOT to BE-Shakespeare. • Trochaic / ~ DOUBle DOUBle TOIL and TROUBle. • Anapestic ~ ~ / I aRISE and unBUILD it aGAIN. • Dacylic / ~ ~ Openly • Spondee / / HEARTBREAK • Pyrrhic ~ ~ (generally used to vary rhythm)

40. Meter-rhythm type • Monometer-one foot in a line • Dimeter-two feet • Trimeter- three feet • Tetrameter-four feet • Pentameter-five feet • Hexameter-six feet

41. Bound Verse is poetry which must conform to a specific pattern: • Uniform line length • Consistency in the number of lines in a stanza • Rhythm must be uniform (but may have exceptions) • Rhyme scheme should have a pattern

42. Free Verse/Polyrhythmic Verse • Does not have to conform to a specific structure • Is distinguished by an irregular metrical pattern • The focus is not on the way it is written, but on the message

43. Poetry notes on FRIDTM (handout) • Form • Rhythm & rhyme • Imagery • Diction • Theme • Mood

44. Sonnets • There are three types of sonnets in English literature: • Italian (Petrarchan) • English (Shakespearean) • Spenserian

45. Petrarchan Sonnet • Also called the regular or classical sonnet • Is divided into the octave (first 8 lines) and the sestet (last 6 lines) • The rhyme scheme of the octave is: abba, abba • The rhyme scheme of the sestet is: cdc, cdc or cd, cd, cd • The octave sets out the problem or difficulty • The sestet attempts a solution

46. Spenserian • Developed by and named for Edmund Spenser • It consists of three quatrains and a couplet • The rhyme scheme is abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee

47. Shakespearean Sonnet • Has four divisions: three quatrains and a rhymed couplet. • The rhyme scheme is : abab, cdcd, efef, gg • The concluding couplet is usually a comment on the preceding lines or acts like a general statement about life.

48. Let’s take a look at some poets and their sonnets! • Get ready to FRIDTM and WTF the following poems…

49. Edmund Spenser • Believed in the Renaissance’s ideals of: man’s potential, human love, earthly beauty and the value of art. • Believed in the Reformation ideals of: moral idealism and religious devotion. • Used metaphors and similes. • Was very concerned with structure and rhythm.

50. Edmund Spenser-from “Amoretti” XLVII • “Amoretti” sonnets are a sequence of sonnets in which Spenser paid court to the lady who became his wife.