English Literature

Unit III: The Renaissance

Week 10
Please read:

Queen Elizabeth I, p. 173-4:

• "When I Was Fair and Young", p. 173

Sir Walter Raleigh, p. 174-8:

• "To Queen Elizabeth", p. 175
• "Sir Walter Raleigh to His Son", p. 176
• "What Is Our Life?", p. 177
• "Even Such Is Time", p. 177

Consider the next three items together:

• Christopher Marlowe,"The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", p. 266
• Sir Walter Raleigh: "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd", p. 266
• John Donne: "The Bait", p. 280

In the above sequence of poems we can see how lyric poetry functioned as a medium of social communication and also how poetry grows in response to poetry. "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" is obviously and directly in response to Marlowe's (exceedingly popular) poem; John Donne's "The Bait" takes a slightly more indirect approach, but its verbal echoes are obviously intentional.

I also add the following two poets' work from the previous edition of this book, since it will help round out your awareness of English renaissance lyric. It is worth bearing in mind that many of these poems were principally meant to be accompanied by music. If you have or can get hold of any English lute-songs from this period, listen to them. As such they are interesting to compare with the sonnets we have read — in terms of sophistication and lyric subtlety.

• Thomas Campion:
  • "When To Her Lute Corinna Sings",
  • "Now Winter Nights Englarge"
  • "The Man of Life Upright"
• Thomas Nashe:
  • "Autumn"
  • "A Litany in Time of Plague"

William Shakespeare:

• Sonnet 18, p. 186.
• Sonnet 29, p. 186.
• Sonnet 30, p. 187.
• Sonnet 71, p. 187.
• Sonnet 73, p. 309.
• Sonnet 116, p. 187.
• Sonnet 130, p. 188.

William Shakespeare as dramatist: introductory materials:

• "Reading Shakespearean Drama", p. 190.
• "The Witch Scenes in Macbeth", p. 232-3.
• "Shakespeare's Theater — the Globe", p. 250-251.

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