As the twelve original essays collected in this volume demonstrate, to study the wit of seventeenth-century poetry is necessarily to address concerns at the very heart of the period's shifting literary culture. It is a topic that raises persistent questions of thematics and authorial intent, even as it interrogates a wide spectrum of cultural practices. These essays by some of the most renowned scholars in seventeenth-century studies illuminate important authors and engage issues of politics and religion, of secular and sacred love, of literary theory and poetic technique, of gender relations and historical consciousness, of literary history and social change, as well as larger concerns of literary production and smaller ones of local effects. Collectively, they illustrate the vitality of the topic, both in its own right and as a means of understanding the complexity and range of seventeenth-century English poetry.
Alistair Fowler's celebrated anthology includes generous selections from the work of all the century's major poets, notably Donne, Jonson, Milton, Drayton, Herbert, Marvell, and Dryden. It strikes a balance between Metaphysical wit and intellect and Jonsonian simplicity, while also accommodating hitherto neglected popular verse. The result is a truer, more Catholic representation of seventeenth-century verse than any previous anthology.
One-stop resource offering complete textbook for courses in seventeenth-century literature - progressing from introductory topics through to overviews of current research.
First published in 1985, Seventeenth-Century Poetry considers the way the poetry of the major seventeenth-century writers functioned in a social context: how it grew out of the poets’ social circumstances and ambitions, enhance their relationships with friends and patrons, how it proposed ideals of conduct and the good life. In the case of religious verse, the poetry is read within its devotional context, which in turn is related to the fortunes of the Church of England in Stuart and Commonwealth times. The book also pays serious attention to the millenarian strain which ran through religious poetry at this time. Graham Parry has selected nine poets, both well and lesser known: Jonson, Donne, Herrick, Milton, Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan, Traherne and Marvell. For each, he considers individual volumes of poetry as they originally appeared and by analysing their structure and layout, as well as the content of the poems, he shows us what effects the poets aim to produce on their audience. In bypassing conventional groupings of seventeenth-century poets, and in emphasising the historical and social context in which they wrote, the author provides students with a fresh and illuminating perspective on their work. This is a must read for students and scholars of English literature.
Written by various experts in the field, this volume of thirteen original essays explores some of the most significant theoretical and practical fault lines and controversies in seventeenth-century English literature. The turn into the twenty-first century is an appropriate time to take stock of the state of the field, and, as part of that stocktaking, the need arises to assess both where literary study of the early modern period has been and where it might desirably go. Hence, many of the essays in this collection look both backward and forward. They chart the changes in the field over the past half century, while also looking forward to more change in the future.
This title was first published in 2003. The secular song of the 17th century represents a relatively neglected area of German culture. In this book, Anthony J. Harper first studies the songs of the two great models of the time, Martin Opitz and Paul Fleming, following this with an analysis of the song-books and collections from three regions: the North-East, Central Germany, and the North. The procedure is thus both historical and geographical. The texts of these songs are examined in relation to structural principles, thematic range and stylistic treatment. Harper establishes common features and regional variations of this genre, which involves love-poetry, songs of manners with colourful portrayals of everyday life, and comic songs in a lower stylistic register. Particular attention is paid to the work of Albert and Dach in Konigsberg, Finckelthaus, Schirmer, Krieger and Schoch in Leipzig and Dresden, and Rist, Voigtlander, Zesen, Greflinger and Stieler in the Hamburg region. Where appropriate, the book assesses the role of musical settings, while not seeking to offer technical insights into musical matters. Of value to scholars of German literature, this study should also be of interest to musicologists working on the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
First Published in 1951, The Monarch of Wit presents John Donne’s poetry in its proper context. The chief purpose of the book is to enable the reader to approach Donne’s poetry without preconceptions of what ‘metaphysical’ poetry is or ought to be. Some of the questions which the author constantly has in mind are these: What are the main resemblances and differences, on the one hand, between Donne’s poetry and Ben Jonson’s, and, on the other hand, between Donne’s poetry and that of poets who are commonly regarded as his disciples? How much of Donne’s poetry may be appropriately described as "metaphysical", as personal or autobiographical, or as the expression of what has been called a "unified sensibility"? This book is a must read for scholars and researchers of English poetry, English literature, and European literature.
Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the Oppenheimer Award. Adapted to an Emmy Award-winning television movie, directed by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson. Margaret Edson's powerfully imagined Pulitzer Prize–winning play examines what makes life worth living through her exploration of one of existence's unifying experiences—mortality—while she also probes the vital importance of human relationships. What we as her audience take away from this remarkable drama is a keener sense that, while death is real and unavoidable, our lives are ours to cherish or throw away—a lesson that can be both uplifting and redemptive. As the playwright herself puts it, "The play is not about doctors or even about cancer. It's about kindness, but it shows arrogance. It's about compassion, but it shows insensitivity." In Wit, Edson delves into timeless questions with no final answers: How should we live our lives knowing that we will die? Is the way we live our lives and interact with others more important than what we achieve materially, professionally, or intellectually? How does language figure into our lives? Can science and art help us conquer death, or our fear of it? What will seem most important to each of us about life as that life comes to an end? The immediacy of the presentation, and the clarity and elegance of Edson's writing, make this sophisticated, multilayered play accessible to almost any interested reader. As the play begins, Vivian Bearing, a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the intricate, difficult Holy Sonnets of the seventeenth-century poet John Donne, is diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. Confident of her ability to stay in control of events, she brings to her illness the same intensely rational and painstakingly methodical approach that has guided her stellar academic career. But as her disease and its excruciatingly painful treatment inexorably progress, she begins to question the single-minded values and standards that have always directed her, finally coming to understand the aspects of life that make it truly worth living.
