Readings are also available by session.
Required Texts
Sidney, Philip. An Apology for Poetry and Astrophil and Stella: Texts and Contexts. Boston, MA: College Publishing, 2001. ISBN: 0967912113.
Donne, John and A. J. Smith, ed. John Donne: The Complete English Poems. New York, NY: Penguin, 1986. ISBN: 0140422099.
Marvell, Andrew, Frank Kermode, ed., and Keith Walker, ed. Andrew Marvell. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN: 0192822713.
Shakespeare, William and Stephen Booth, ed. Shakespeare's Sonnets. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977. ISBN: 0300019599.
In addition, copies of poems by Petrarch, Ovid Wyatt, Spenser and others, along with secondary material (historical and critical) will be made available on the MIT Server for this course at appropriate moments in the term. Some of these are noted in the readings, but there will be others that I will decide on, depending upon how the class discussions progress.
Readings by Session
| Lec # | topics | readings |
|---|---|---|
| Lines of Influence: Petrarch and Ovid | ||
| 1 | Introduction | Ovid's "Apollo and Daphne." |
| 2 | Petrarch and Ovid | Petrarch Sonnets: 1 through 6, 12, 17, 18, 21, 31, 32, 35, 36, 44 through 46, 52, 61, 76, 82, 90, 101, 102, 107, 108, 110, and 111. Ovid: "Echo and Narcissus," "Orpheus and Eurydice," and "Actaeon." |
| 3 | Petrarch | Sonnets: 122, 123, 132 to 134, 144, 145, 150, 151, 159, 161, 171, 182, 183, 189, 196, 197, 211, 292, 311, 326, 327, 343, 344, 355, and 356. |
| Sidney and the Contexts of Renaissance Verse | ||
| 4 | Sidney's Precursors: Wyatt and Surrey | |
| 5 | Constructing the Poetic Self | Astrophil and Stella. |
| 6 | Sidney | Sidney's A Defense of Poetry. Astrophil and Stella. |
| 7 | Screening of Man for All Seasons | |
| 8 | The English Court under Elizabeth I |
Astrophil and Stella. Additional Reading: Marotti, Arthur. "'Love is not Love': Elizabethan Sonnet Sequences and the Social Order." ELH 49, no. 2 (Summer 1982): 396-428. |
| 9 | The English Court under Elizabeth I (cont.) |
Astrophil and Stella. Additional Reading: King, John N. "Queen Elizabeth I: Representations of the Virgin Queen." Renaissance Quarterly 43, no. 1 (Spring 1990): 30-74. |
| Sidney to Spenser and Shakespeare | ||
| 10 | Edmund Spenser | Edmund Spenser's Amoretti (Selections). |
| 11 | Edmund Spenser (cont.) | Spenser's Amoretti (Selections). |
| 12 | Shakespeare's Sonnets (Selections) |
Shakespeare's Sonnets at The Literature Network Shakespeare's Sonnets Gutenberg E-text |
| 13 | Shakespeare's Sonnets (Selections) (cont.) | |
| Donne and Marvell | ||
| 14 | John Donne, Songs and Sonnets (Selections) |
Additional Reading: Marotti, Arthur. John Donne, Coterie Poet. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986, chapter 1. ISBN: 0299104907. |
| 15 | Money, Colonialism and Gender | Donne's "Elegy XI: The Bracelet," "Elegy XVIII: Loves Progress ," "Elegy XX: To His Mistress Going to Bed," "Sermon to the Virginia Company," and "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning"; and Andrew Marvell's "To his Coy Mistress," and "Bermudas." Additional Reading: Raman, Shankar. "Can't Buy me Love: Money, Gender, and Colonialism in Donne's Erotic Verse." Criticism 43, no. 2 (Spring 2002): 135-168. |
| 16 | Cartography and Poetry: Maps and Bodies | Extracts from Donne's Devotions, and "Hymn to God, My God, In My Sickness." |
| 17 | Renaissance Neo-Platonism | Donne and Marvell: Donne's "Air and Angels," and "The Ecstasy"; Andrew Marvell's "Dialogue Between the Soul and the Body," "On a Drop of Dew," and "The Garden." |
| 18 | Andrew Marvell: Pastoral Poems | Marvell's Mower poems: "The Mower, Against Gardens," "Damon The Mower," "The Mower to the Glow-Worms," "The Mower's Song." |
| Poetry and Religion | ||
| 19 | John Donne: New Science and Doubt | Donne: "The Anniversary," and "A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day." |
| 20 | John Donne (cont.) | Donne's "Satire 3," and Selected Holy Sonnets. |
| 21 | George Herbert | George Herbert (Selections). |
| 22 | George Herbert, Mary Wroth, Amelia Lanyer | George Herbert (Selections); Mary Wroth (Selected sonnets); and Amelia Lanyer's "Defense of Eve." |
| Poetry, Place, History | ||
| 23 | Amelia Lanyer, Ben Johnson, Andrew Marvell | Amelia Lanyer's "To Cookham"; Ben Jonson's "To Penshurst"; Andrew Marvell's "Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax." |
| 24 | The Civil War | "Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax," and Marvell's "Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return From Ireland." |
| 25 | Student Meetings to Discuss Final Essay Draft | |
| 26 | The Civil War (cont.) | "Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax," and "Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return From Ireland." |
| 27 | Student Meetings to Discuss Final Essay Draft (If necessary) (cont.) | |