Reading Sixteenth-Century Poetry combines close readings of
individual poems with a critical consideration of the historical
context in which they were written. Informative and original, this
book has been carefully designed to enable readers to understand,
enjoy, and be inspired by sixteenth-century poetry.
* Close reading of a wide variety of sixteenth-century poems,
canonical and non-canonical, by men and by women, from print and
manuscript culture, across the major literary modes and genres
* Poems read within their historical context, with reference to
five major cultural revolutions: Renaissance humanism, the
Reformation, the modern nation-state, companionate marriage, and
the scientific revolution
* Offers in-depth discussion of Skelton, Wyatt, Surrey, Isabella
Whitney, Gascoigne, Philip Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Mary Sidney
Herbert, Donne, and Shakespeare
* Presents a separate study of all five of Shakespeare's
major poems - Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece,
'The Phoenix and Turtle,' the Sonnets, and A Lover's
Complaint- in the context of his dramatic career
* Discusses major works of literary criticism by Plato,
Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, Philip Sidney, George Puttenham, Percy
Bysshe Shelley, Seamus Heaney, Adrienne Rich, and Helen
Vendler
Autorentext
Patrick Cheney is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Penn State University. He is the author of books on Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Spenser, most recently Shakespeare's Literary Authorship (2008) and Marlowe's Republican Authorship: Lucan, Liberty, and the Sublime (2009). He has also edited Cambridge Companions to Marlowe and Shakespeare's Poetry, co-edited Oxford Companions to early modern English poetry and drama, and co-edited an Oxford edition of Marlowe's poems. Currently, he serves as a General Editor of The Oxford Edition of the Collected Works of Edmund Spenser.
Zusammenfassung
Reading Sixteenth-Century Poetry combines close readings of individual poems with a critical consideration of the historical context in which they were written. Informative and original, this book has been carefully designed to enable readers to understand, enjoy, and be inspired by sixteenth-century poetry.
- Close reading of a wide variety of sixteenth-century poems, canonical and non-canonical, by men and by women, from print and manuscript culture, across the major literary modes and genres
- Poems read within their historical context, with reference to five major cultural revolutions: Renaissance humanism, the Reformation, the modern nation-state, companionate marriage, and the scientific revolution
- Offers in-depth discussion of Skelton, Wyatt, Surrey, Isabella Whitney, Gascoigne, Philip Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Mary Sidney Herbert, Donne, and Shakespeare
- Presents a separate study of all five of Shakespeare's major poems - Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, 'The Phoenix and Turtle,' the Sonnets, and A Lover's Complaint- in the context of his dramatic career
- Discusses major works of literary criticism by Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, Philip Sidney, George Puttenham, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Seamus Heaney, Adrienne Rich, and Helen Vendler
Inhalt
Introduction 1
The Pleasures and Uses of Sixteenth-Century Poetry
Part I 15001558. Reading Early Tudor Poetry: Henrician, Edwardian, Marian 19
1 Voice 21
The Poetic Style of Character: Plain and Eloquent Speaking
2 Perception 43
The Crisis of the Reformation, or, What the Poet Sees: Self, Beloved, God
3 World 66
The Poet's Ecology of Place: Sky, Sea, Soil
4 Form 90
The Idea of a Poem: Elegy, Pastoral, Sonnet, Satire, Epic
5 Career 115
The Role of the Poet in Society: Skelton, Wyatt, and Surrey
Part II 15581600. Reading Elizabethan Poetry 139
6 Voice 141
The Poetic Style of Character: From Plain Eloquence to the Metaphysical Sublime
7 Perception 163
What the Poet Sees, and the Advent of Modern Personage: Desire, Idolatry, Transport, Partnership
8 World 185
The Poet's Ecology of Place: Cosmos, Colony, Country
9 Form 208
Fictions of Poetic Kind: Pastoral, Sonnet, Epic, Minor Epic, Hymn
10 Career 231
The Role of the Poet in Society: Whitney, Spenser, and Marlowe
Part III A Special Case 255
11 Shakespeare: Voice, Perception, World, Form, Career 257
Conclusion 280
Retrospective Poetry: Donne and the End of Sixteenth-Century Poetry
Bibliography 288
Index 323