Reading Sixteenth-Century Poetry

The Pleasures and Uses of Sixteenth-Century Poetry.

Part I 1500–1558. Reading Early Tudor Poetry: Henrician, Edwardian, Marian.

1 Voice.

The Poetic Style of Character: Plain and Eloquent Speaking.

2 Perception.

The Crisis of the Reformation, or, What the Poet Sees: Self, Beloved, God.

3 World.

The Poet’s Ecology of Place: Sky, Sea, Soil.

4 Form.

The Idea of a Poem: Elegy, Pastoral, Sonnet, Satire, Epic.

5 Career.

The Role of the Poet in Society: Skelton, Wyatt, and Surrey.

Part II 1558–1600. Reading Elizabethan Poetry.

6 Voice.

The Poetic Style of Character: From Plain Eloquence to the Metaphysical Sublime.

7 Perception.

What the Poet Sees, and the Advent of Modern Personage: Desire, Idolatry, Transport, Partnership.

8 World.

The Poet’s Ecology of Place: Cosmos, Colony, Country.

9 Form.

Fictions of Poetic Kind: Pastoral, Sonnet, Epic, Minor Epic, Hymn.

10 Career.

The Role of the Poet in Society: Whitney, Spenser, and Marlowe.

Part III A Special Case.

11 Shakespeare: Voice, Perception, World, Form, Career.

Conclusion.

Retrospective Poetry: Donne and the End of Sixteenth-Century Poetry.

Bibliography.

Index.