English Literature

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 these three 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

“The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” is obviously written in response to Marlowe’s (exceedingly popular) poem; John Donne’s “The Bait” takes a slightly more indirect approach, but its verbal echoes are still unmistakable.

I also add the following two poets’ work from a 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”

    The last of these, some might recognize, is a translation of an older poem by Horace (Integer vitae).

• 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.

While reading, consider:

• How is literature, and specifically lyric poetry, functioning as a medium of social interchange?
• How does poetry feed on other poetry?