English Literature

Unit III: The Renaissance

Week 15
Please read:

John Donne:

• "Song", p. 279.
• "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", p. 280-281.
• From Holy Sonnets
  • Sonnet 10, p. 282.
  • Sonnet 14, p. 282.
• Meditation 17, p. 283-4.

You can find a biography of Donne and a large collection of his works at the Luminarium site.

George Herbert:

• "Easter Wings", p. 287.
• "Virtue", p. 287.

Check here again at the Luminarium site for a relatively complete collection of Herbert's works, and here for a biography.

John Milton:
Check here for "L'Allegro", and here for "Il Penseroso", a matched pair of poems on contrary states of mind. These are together linked to the larger Milton Reading Room site at Dartmouth College, which is well worth investigating if you find Milton to your taste.

• "On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-Three", p. 293.
• "On His Blindness", p. 293.
• Paradise Lost, Bk. 1 (selection), p. 294-300.

The King James Bible, Gen. 1-3, pp. 302-306.

"Reader's Note" on translation of the Bible, p. 307.

The Changing English Language, p. 308.

Please take the unit review quiz for Unit III.

In view of the approach of Christmas, it may be worth a quick extra glance at John Milton, whose "Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity" is one of his more effective pieces. A blessed Christmas to all.

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