Early Modern English Poetry: A Critical Companion / Edition 1

by Patrick Cheney, Andrew Hadfield, Garrett A. Sullivan

Overview

Early Modern English Poetry: A Critical Companion presents twenty-eight original essays on the major poems of the English Renaissance. Each essay is written by a leading scholar and examines a poem in the context of an important topic in early modern culture. The selections provide groundbreaking scholarship on subjects ranging from the invention of English verse, Petrarchism, pastoral, elegy, and satire to women's religious verse, the politics of town, the place of homoeroticism, and Cavalier poetry.
An ideal supplement to both primary texts and anthologies of Renaissance literature, Early Modern English Poetry offers fresh approaches to poems by Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Aemilia Lanyer, John Donne, John Milton, and many others. The first three chapters set the rest of the volume in context with coverage of the sixteenth-century invention of verse, print and manuscript culture in early modern England, and Renaissance treatises on the art of poetry. The remaining chapters are structured around authors and their works—which are each related to a specific issue in early modern culture—and organized chronologically according to the dates of composition or publication of the poems discussed. This innovative and flexible design corresponds perfectly with courses in which students first read a primary text and then expand their understanding of the work with detailed critical commentary. The book is enhanced by a general introduction, recommended reading lists at the end of each chapter, and a chronology of Renaissance poetry tailored to the book's contents. Early Modern English Poetry provides an accessible introduction both to a key selection of canonical poetic works in English and to historical and cultural topics that illuminate them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195153873
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/31/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.18(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

The Pennsylvania State University

University of Sussex

The Pennsylvania State University

Table of Contents

Contents: Thematic and GenericPrefaceSelect Chronology, 1503-1681Introduction: Reading Renaissance Poetry1. Inventing English Verse, Susanne Woods2. Print, Manuscripts, and Miscellanies, Arthur F. Marotti3. Tudor and Stuart Defenses of Poetry, Peter C. Herman4. Wyatt, Surrey, and the Henrician Court, Catherine Bates5. Spenser's iMay/i Eclogue and Mid-Tudor Religious Poetry, John N. King6. Early Courtier Verse: Oxford, Dyer, and Gascoigne, Steven May7. Sidney's iAstrophil and Stella/i and Petrarchism, William J. Kennedy8. Spenserian Pastoral, Bart van Es9. Spenser's Poetry and the Apocalypse, John Watkins10. Spenser, Virginity, and Sexuality, Elizabeth D. Harvey11. Raleigh, the Queen, and Elizabethan Court Poetry, William A. Oram12. Marlowe's Erotic Verse, Alan Sinfield13. Literary Criticism, Literary History, and the Place of Homoeroticism, Jonathan Goldberg14. "The Phoenix and the Turtle," Renaissance Elegies, and the Language of Grief, Lynn Enterline15. Shakespeare's Literary Career and Narrative Poetry, Patrick Cheney16. Shakespeare's iSonnets/i and English Sonnet Sequences, Sasha Roberts17. Mary Sidney Herbert and Women's Religious Verse, Danielle Clarke18. Lady Mary Wroth and Women's Love Poetry, Naomi J. Miller19. Donne's iSongs and Sonets/i and Artistic Identity, Andrew Hadfield20. Satire and the Politics of Town, Andrew McRae21. Donne's Religious Poetry and the Trauma of Grace, Achsah Guibbory22. Lanyer and the Poetry of Land and Devotion, Helen Wilcox23. Jonson, King, and Court, Julie Sanders24. Herbert, God, and King, Michael Schoenfeldt25. Crashaw and Religious Bias in the Literary Canon, Lowell Gallagher26. Cavalier Poetry and Civil War, Laura Lunger Knoppers27. Marvell and Pastoral, Thomas Healy28. Milton, the Nativity Ode, the Companion Poems, and iLycidas/i, Barbara K. LewalskiNotes on ContributorsIndex

Editorial Reviews

"In this densely packed, compact book, Kendall covers a great deal of territory, and delivers extremely sharp and insightful judgments and distinctions that also have the virtue of being relatively brief and pithy."—Stephen E. Tabachnick, English in Literary Transition

"An enjoyable read with potentially immense pedagogical value." —Sixteenth Century Journal

From the Publisher