POETRY
THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD
- Fueled by rediscovery of the writings of Ancient Greece and Rome
- Characterized by a massive renewal of interest in learning and discoveries
- The creativity, subjectivity, and agency of the individual was emphasized and championed
- Elizabethan poetry:
• Poets were inspired to experiment with many types of poems
LOVE’S FAREWELL
MICHAEL DRAYTON
Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part,—
Nay I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free;
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of love's latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
—Now if thou would'st, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover!
NOTES
- Sonnet form
- Written to the speakers lover (‘Idea’)
- Discusses the end of the speaker and their lover’s relationship - thematically and literally ends
with a shift in tone where it is made evident that the relationship isn’t quite over and that there is
still hope for the relationship
1
,Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part, —
Nay I have done, you get no more of me;
- Begins suddenly, as if we’ve interrupted a private conversation
- The dash at the end of the line followed by ‘Nay ’suggests that a person in this conversation has
tried to respond but been ignored
- First 2 and 4th stanza - the speaker uses personal pronouns reinforcing the idea that we are
listening in on a conversation
Now at the last gasp of love’s latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
- Love is personified and is taking his last breath
- Shift in tone from definitive, already ended love
NO LONGER MOURN FOR ME WHEN I AM DEAD
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell;
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if (I say) you look upon this verse,
When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.
NOTES
2
,- Not unusual at the time
- Speaker contemplates own mortality
- Admonishes lover (younger man) not to overly mourn him
- Apostrophe - addressed to an unidentified person
- Old man urging younger man from grieving his death
- 3 quatrains and 1 rhyming couplet - rhyming couplet usually offers a twist - offers a summary
here
- Iambic pentameter (unstressed followed by stressed syllable) (10 beats each line)
- Feeling that speaker is definitely in love with the younger man - might not be requitted
- Wrote the sonnet to maintain the fame he pretends to eschew (reject)
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
- Suggests lover is already mourning
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
- Bells tolling at someone’s funeral
- Mourning should only last as long as the funeral when the bell is tolling
- Very unsentimental with grieving - speaker is pragmatic
- Alliteration of s highlights sadness
- Bell is personified as surly and sullen - surly -unpleasant or ill tempered. Sullen - morose or sad
- Bell is not sullen but the sadness and grieving of the attendees are
- Give warning to the world that I am fled
- Notify the world that I have died
- Unemotional implication about moving on to the next world
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell;
- ‘vile ’said with derision/scours/criticism towards the world - it’s a terrible world you must not
mourn for me
- Alliteration of v and w
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so,
3
, - ‘This line ’and ‘the hand ’- synecdoche - where a part represents a whole (this line - the
- whole poem) (the hand - reference to the poet who wrote this verses)
- You must not grieve for me and now you must not remember who wrote these poems - ironic -
every time these poems are read, the person who wrote the poems will be remembered - the
reading of the sonnet is remembering the poet
- Also ironic because sonnets allow for poets immortality through his sonnets
- Shakespeare even discusses this in other sonnets
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
- Would rather be forgotten than to make his love sad by thinking about him
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
- Woe - noun that stands for intense sadness - used as a verb - to cause you to sorrow
O, if (I say) you look upon this verse,
When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,
- Compounded with clay - the body decomposing and turning to clay - matter-of-fact image
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
- Rehearse - idea of repeating
But let your love even with my life decay,
- Suggestion that the mans love for the speaker should whither away in the same way his body
would decay
- Exhorting/instructing with urgency the lover not to mourn and to move on
- This young man has a life to live and he needs to move on
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
- Look into your moan - investigate
- Wise world - ironic - the rest of the world would see themselves as wise but the speaker does
not
And mock you with me after I am gone.
4
THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD
- Fueled by rediscovery of the writings of Ancient Greece and Rome
- Characterized by a massive renewal of interest in learning and discoveries
- The creativity, subjectivity, and agency of the individual was emphasized and championed
- Elizabethan poetry:
• Poets were inspired to experiment with many types of poems
LOVE’S FAREWELL
MICHAEL DRAYTON
Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part,—
Nay I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free;
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of love's latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
—Now if thou would'st, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover!
NOTES
- Sonnet form
- Written to the speakers lover (‘Idea’)
- Discusses the end of the speaker and their lover’s relationship - thematically and literally ends
with a shift in tone where it is made evident that the relationship isn’t quite over and that there is
still hope for the relationship
1
,Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part, —
Nay I have done, you get no more of me;
- Begins suddenly, as if we’ve interrupted a private conversation
- The dash at the end of the line followed by ‘Nay ’suggests that a person in this conversation has
tried to respond but been ignored
- First 2 and 4th stanza - the speaker uses personal pronouns reinforcing the idea that we are
listening in on a conversation
Now at the last gasp of love’s latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
- Love is personified and is taking his last breath
- Shift in tone from definitive, already ended love
NO LONGER MOURN FOR ME WHEN I AM DEAD
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell;
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if (I say) you look upon this verse,
When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.
NOTES
2
,- Not unusual at the time
- Speaker contemplates own mortality
- Admonishes lover (younger man) not to overly mourn him
- Apostrophe - addressed to an unidentified person
- Old man urging younger man from grieving his death
- 3 quatrains and 1 rhyming couplet - rhyming couplet usually offers a twist - offers a summary
here
- Iambic pentameter (unstressed followed by stressed syllable) (10 beats each line)
- Feeling that speaker is definitely in love with the younger man - might not be requitted
- Wrote the sonnet to maintain the fame he pretends to eschew (reject)
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
- Suggests lover is already mourning
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
- Bells tolling at someone’s funeral
- Mourning should only last as long as the funeral when the bell is tolling
- Very unsentimental with grieving - speaker is pragmatic
- Alliteration of s highlights sadness
- Bell is personified as surly and sullen - surly -unpleasant or ill tempered. Sullen - morose or sad
- Bell is not sullen but the sadness and grieving of the attendees are
- Give warning to the world that I am fled
- Notify the world that I have died
- Unemotional implication about moving on to the next world
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell;
- ‘vile ’said with derision/scours/criticism towards the world - it’s a terrible world you must not
mourn for me
- Alliteration of v and w
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so,
3
, - ‘This line ’and ‘the hand ’- synecdoche - where a part represents a whole (this line - the
- whole poem) (the hand - reference to the poet who wrote this verses)
- You must not grieve for me and now you must not remember who wrote these poems - ironic -
every time these poems are read, the person who wrote the poems will be remembered - the
reading of the sonnet is remembering the poet
- Also ironic because sonnets allow for poets immortality through his sonnets
- Shakespeare even discusses this in other sonnets
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
- Would rather be forgotten than to make his love sad by thinking about him
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
- Woe - noun that stands for intense sadness - used as a verb - to cause you to sorrow
O, if (I say) you look upon this verse,
When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay,
- Compounded with clay - the body decomposing and turning to clay - matter-of-fact image
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
- Rehearse - idea of repeating
But let your love even with my life decay,
- Suggestion that the mans love for the speaker should whither away in the same way his body
would decay
- Exhorting/instructing with urgency the lover not to mourn and to move on
- This young man has a life to live and he needs to move on
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
- Look into your moan - investigate
- Wise world - ironic - the rest of the world would see themselves as wise but the speaker does
not
And mock you with me after I am gone.
4
