Overview
This lecture surveys English poetry from the 14th to 17th centuries, focusing on key poets and texts including Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Sidney’s sonnets, Raleigh’s lyrics, Donne’s metaphysical poetry, and Milton’s Paradise Lost. It analyzes their historical context, poetic forms, major themes, and literary innovations.
Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales
- Chaucer (1343–1400) is known as the Father of English literature for writing in Middle English.
- The Canterbury Tales uses a pilgrimage as a frame narrative linking diverse stories by 30 pilgrims from various social classes.
- The General Prologue offers vivid, individualized portraits representing 14th-century English society.
- Chaucer employs irony, humor, and wit to reveal social commentary, especially regarding corruption in the Church and rising materialism.
- His language, a blend of English, French, and Latin, marks an important stage in the evolution of English.
- Characterization is highly varied and avoids rigid patterns, contributing to the work’s realism and enduring appeal.
Philip Sidney and the Renaissance Sonnet
- Sidney (1554–1586) wrote during the Renaissance, merging classical, humanist, and Protestant influences.
- Astrophel and Stella is the first major English sonnet cycle, using Petrarchan conventions (14-line form, octave/sestet structure).
- Sidney explores love, creativity, and the conflict between reason and passion, promoting expressive poetic subjectivity.
Walter Raleigh and Elizabethan Lyric
- Raleigh (1554–1618) was a courtier, poet, and explorer.
- Elizabethan lyrics often focus on love, nature, and spiritual themes, showing influences from folk song and Renaissance poetry.
- The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage uses religious imagery and irregular metrics to reflect on mortality and honor, blending personal emotion with public events.
John Donne and Metaphysical Poetry
- Donne (1572–1631) pioneered metaphysical poetry, known for wit, complex conceits, and merging physical and spiritual themes.
- His poetry departs from Elizabethan platonic ideals, emphasizing mutuality and sensuality in love.
- Poems like The Sunne Rising and The Good-Morrow use elaborate metaphysical conceits and challenge conventional views on love and gender roles.
- The Canonization celebrates lovers as saints, using religious imagery to elevate romantic love.
John Milton and Paradise Lost (Book I)
- Milton (1608–1674) composed Paradise Lost as a Christian epic blending classical and biblical traditions.
- The poem opens with an invocation, presents the aftermath of Satan’s fall, and depicts Hell as a place of despair and rebellion.
- Milton uses epic conventions (invocation, simile, mythology), but reinterprets heroism through spiritual struggle rather than military valor.
- Themes include free will, hierarchy, rebellion, and the consequences of disobedience.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Frame Narrative — a story structure linking multiple tales within a larger narrative.
- Petrarchan Sonnet — a 14-line poem divided into octave and sestet, often about love.
- Metaphysical Conceit — an extended, ingenious metaphor linking disparate ideas.
- Epic Simile — a detailed, extended simile in epic poetry.
- Invocation — a plea for inspiration, often addressed to a muse in epics.
- Irony — expressing meaning by using language that signifies the opposite, often for satire.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review The General Prologue and selected tales from The Canterbury Tales in the original text.
- Read Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella and analyze Sonnet 1.
- Study Raleigh’s The Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage for use of religious imagery.
- Critically read Donne’s poems, focusing on conceits and metaphysical elements.
- Examine Book I of Paradise Lost with attention to Milton’s use of epic conventions and themes.
- Prepare for exam questions that require textual analysis and comparison of poetic forms and themes.