Pre-1900 Poetry Anthology - Whole Text Notes
Who so list to hount I knowe where is an hynde
● Courtly love poem - petrarchan sonnet
● Exploring societal boundaries and perceptions of love and Wyatt is clearly angered
by them
○ Resentful of boundaries - marriage, societal class
○ But arguably she is the biggest barrier BUT this is through the perception of
patriarchal views?
■ ‘Wylde for to hold though i seme
tame’
■ He feels led on but he is pursuing
her - it is a ‘hount’ where she is in
danger
■ Fitzgerald explores this through the
narration of nick (white upper class
man) who arguably unfairly blames
Daisy for Gatsby’s death - he shakes
Tom’s hand at the end
● Paradoxical nature of pursuit - unable to accept his failure
○ ‘Faynting I followe’
Sonnet 116
● True love is unchanging, unaffected and stays the same
throughout time - Shakespeare is attempting to define
what true romantic love is
○ ‘Alters when it alteration findes’ - polyptoton
● Arguably this view of love is very restrictive and too
idealistic
○ ‘Beares it out’
○ ‘Ever fixed marke’
○ This is the view that Gatsby holds and that Fitzgerald is sceptical and critical of
because he believes that society has made it impossible.
Metaphysical Poetry: The Flea and To His Coy Mistress
● Both are exploring how sexual relations can exist outside marriage in a backdrop of a
conservative religious society - lust can exist outside marriage
○ Fitzgerald explores how these relationships can be destructive and a form of
exploitation - Tom exploits Myrtle for her sexuality
and leads her on
● The Flea uses Christian imagery alongside a ridiculous
conceit in order to subvert the traditional and
repressive views of sexuality
○ 3 stanzas - represents man, woman and flea
while also representing Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.
● To His Coy Mistress shows how courtly love is
unrealistic and that lust and sexual relations can be rewarding and satisfying
○ ‘Tear our Pleasures … Thorough the Iron gates of Life’
, ○ Is both uplifting and humorous but also serious - he vastly overexaggerates
courtly love but at the same time is reminding readers of mortality.
● Both are trying to persuade these women to sleep with them and neither represents
the female voice but at the same time, they are revealing the stupidity of the concept
of virginity
Cavalier Poetry: The Scrutiny and A Song (Absent from Thee)
● Both are comedic forms of entertainment exploring instant gratification and desire
● Lovelace is searching for the most ‘pleasant’ sex
○ Very objectifying and narcissistic
○ ‘I must search the black and fair like skilful
minteralists that sound for treasure in
un-plowed-up ground’
○ Demonstrates the hypocrisy of society - he
wants to have lots of sex but with virgins
● Wilmot is less honest but the humour of his poem
demonstrates that the use of ‘Torments’ is deeply ironic -
he is making fun of the puritanical views (this is against the backdrop of the English
Civil War between puritans and royalists).
● Neither of these poets are actually concerned with the problematic societies that they are
presenting, this is different to Fitzgerald who is concerned by the materialistic and wasteful
1920s America.
The Garden of Love
● Blake is concerned with the institutions of the time and the impacts
it has on love and relationships - not necessarily focussed on
romantic love
○ Institutions such as social barriers and social expectations
but also more physical / real institutions such as the church
- ‘priests in black gowns’
● Lots of Romantic tropes to demonstrate the destruction and control
(the corruption of love) - revolutionary period concerned with
societal oppression of the time.
○ Loss of nature - ‘flowers’ to ‘graves and tomb-stones’ -
turns from playful to much darker - look at the rhyming
point.
■ Use of nature is similar to that of Fitzgerald’s - America
is turned from ‘green’ to an industrial and materialistic
place by the 1920s because of humans and their social boundaries
○ Loss of innocence linked to childhood - ‘where I used to play on the green’
● Rhyming structure is at first lyrical and adds a rhythmic joy but then creates a darker
and more disturbing tone
Song (Ae fond kiss)
● He is exploring the tragic nature of the loss of love and how people attempt to hold
onto it despite the damaging consequences
● Repetitive structure of being unable to move forward
Who so list to hount I knowe where is an hynde
● Courtly love poem - petrarchan sonnet
● Exploring societal boundaries and perceptions of love and Wyatt is clearly angered
by them
○ Resentful of boundaries - marriage, societal class
○ But arguably she is the biggest barrier BUT this is through the perception of
patriarchal views?
■ ‘Wylde for to hold though i seme
tame’
■ He feels led on but he is pursuing
her - it is a ‘hount’ where she is in
danger
■ Fitzgerald explores this through the
narration of nick (white upper class
man) who arguably unfairly blames
Daisy for Gatsby’s death - he shakes
Tom’s hand at the end
● Paradoxical nature of pursuit - unable to accept his failure
○ ‘Faynting I followe’
Sonnet 116
● True love is unchanging, unaffected and stays the same
throughout time - Shakespeare is attempting to define
what true romantic love is
○ ‘Alters when it alteration findes’ - polyptoton
● Arguably this view of love is very restrictive and too
idealistic
○ ‘Beares it out’
○ ‘Ever fixed marke’
○ This is the view that Gatsby holds and that Fitzgerald is sceptical and critical of
because he believes that society has made it impossible.
Metaphysical Poetry: The Flea and To His Coy Mistress
● Both are exploring how sexual relations can exist outside marriage in a backdrop of a
conservative religious society - lust can exist outside marriage
○ Fitzgerald explores how these relationships can be destructive and a form of
exploitation - Tom exploits Myrtle for her sexuality
and leads her on
● The Flea uses Christian imagery alongside a ridiculous
conceit in order to subvert the traditional and
repressive views of sexuality
○ 3 stanzas - represents man, woman and flea
while also representing Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.
● To His Coy Mistress shows how courtly love is
unrealistic and that lust and sexual relations can be rewarding and satisfying
○ ‘Tear our Pleasures … Thorough the Iron gates of Life’
, ○ Is both uplifting and humorous but also serious - he vastly overexaggerates
courtly love but at the same time is reminding readers of mortality.
● Both are trying to persuade these women to sleep with them and neither represents
the female voice but at the same time, they are revealing the stupidity of the concept
of virginity
Cavalier Poetry: The Scrutiny and A Song (Absent from Thee)
● Both are comedic forms of entertainment exploring instant gratification and desire
● Lovelace is searching for the most ‘pleasant’ sex
○ Very objectifying and narcissistic
○ ‘I must search the black and fair like skilful
minteralists that sound for treasure in
un-plowed-up ground’
○ Demonstrates the hypocrisy of society - he
wants to have lots of sex but with virgins
● Wilmot is less honest but the humour of his poem
demonstrates that the use of ‘Torments’ is deeply ironic -
he is making fun of the puritanical views (this is against the backdrop of the English
Civil War between puritans and royalists).
● Neither of these poets are actually concerned with the problematic societies that they are
presenting, this is different to Fitzgerald who is concerned by the materialistic and wasteful
1920s America.
The Garden of Love
● Blake is concerned with the institutions of the time and the impacts
it has on love and relationships - not necessarily focussed on
romantic love
○ Institutions such as social barriers and social expectations
but also more physical / real institutions such as the church
- ‘priests in black gowns’
● Lots of Romantic tropes to demonstrate the destruction and control
(the corruption of love) - revolutionary period concerned with
societal oppression of the time.
○ Loss of nature - ‘flowers’ to ‘graves and tomb-stones’ -
turns from playful to much darker - look at the rhyming
point.
■ Use of nature is similar to that of Fitzgerald’s - America
is turned from ‘green’ to an industrial and materialistic
place by the 1920s because of humans and their social boundaries
○ Loss of innocence linked to childhood - ‘where I used to play on the green’
● Rhyming structure is at first lyrical and adds a rhythmic joy but then creates a darker
and more disturbing tone
Song (Ae fond kiss)
● He is exploring the tragic nature of the loss of love and how people attempt to hold
onto it despite the damaging consequences
● Repetitive structure of being unable to move forward
