Reading Sixteenth–Century Poetry

Reading Sixteenth–Century Poetry combines close readings of individual poems with a critical consideration of the historical context in which they were written. Esteemed Early Modern critic Patrick Cheney emphasises the accessibility of poetry written during the sixteenth century by illuminating the dynamic and enduring nature of these works and their ability to influence readers′ lives. A broad range of poetic genres are discussed, including lyric, narrative, and the dramatic, featuring a variety of poets, such as Skelton, Wyatt, Surrey, Isabella Whitney, Gascoigne, Philip Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Mary Sidney Herbert, Donne, and Shakespeare. Informative and original, this book has been carefully designed to enable readers to understand, enjoy, and be inspired by sixteenth–century poetry.

Introduction. 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.

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 Sublim e (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 .

“Highly useful in addressing the formal and generic concerns of sixteenth–century poets, and thus in demonstrating close reading , Reading Sixteenth–Century Poetr y fails to address the equally important political and theoretical period discourses or the methodologies needed to address them. The unbalanced infatuation with authorial vocation and authorial perspectives thus limits the usefulness of the text. Cheney’s companion text may thus represent a more widespread return to traditional author–centered interpretive theories and a turn away from poststructural approaches.”  ( Journal of the Northern Renaissance , 1 December 2012) "Cheney′s eye for such intertextual allusion transforms what could have been a series of isolated close readings into a delicately unified exposition of a century′s worth of literary dialogue." (Times Literary Supplement, 23 December 2011) "A carefully selected bibliography that focuses on background sources as well as on primary works and significant critical material is a valuable supplement to the author′s consideration of the poetry. Cheney develops his thesis clearly and makes an important contribution to Renaissance scholarship. Recommended. Upper–division undergraduates through faculty." (Choice, 1 October 2011)