Elizabethan Poetry

Poetry in the Renaissance period took a new trend. It was the poetry of the new age of discovery, enthusiasm
and excitement. Under the impact of the Renaissance, the people of England were infused with freshness
and vigour, and these qualities are clearly reflected in poetry of that age.

The poetry of the Elizabethan age opens with publications of a volume known as Tottel’s Miscellany (1577).
This book which contained the verse of SirThomas Wyatt (1503?-1542) and the Earl of Surrey, (1577?-
1547) marks the first English poetry of the Renaissance. Wyatt and Surrey wrote a number of songs,
especially sonnets which adhered to the Petrarcan model, and which was later adopted by Shakespeare. They
also attempted the blank verse which was improved upon by Marlowe and then perfected by Shakespeare.
They also experimented a great variety of metres which influenced Spenser. Thus Wyatt and Surrey stand in
the same relation to the glory of Elizabethan poetry dominated by Spenser and Shakespeare, as Thomson
and Collins do to Romantic poetry dominated by Wordsworth and Shelley.

Another original writer belonging to the early Elizabethan group of poets who were mostly courtiers, was
Thomas Sackville (1536-1608). In his Mirror for Magistrates he has given a powerful picture of the
underworld where the poet describes his meetings with some famous Englishmen who had been the victims
of misfortunes. Sackville, unlike Wyatt and Surrey, is not a cheerful writer, but he is superior to them in
poetic technique.

The greatest of these early Elizabethan poets was Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586). He was a many-sided
person and a versatile genius—soldier, courtier and poet—and distinguished himself in all these capacities.
Like Dr. Johnson and Byron he stood in symbolic relation to his times. He may be called the ideal
Elizabethan, representing in himself the great qualities of that great age in English history and literature.
Queen Elizabeth called him one of the jewels of her crown, and at the age of twenty-three he was considered
‘one of the ripest statesmen of the age’.

As a literary figure, Sidney made his mark in prose as well as in poetry. His prose works are Arcadiaand the
Apologie for Poetrie (1595). With Arcadiabegins a new kind of imaginative writing. Though written in
prose it is strewn with love songs and sonnets. The Apologie for Poetrie is first of the series of rare and very
useful commentaries which some English poets have written about their art. His greatest work, of course, is
in poetry—the sequence of sonnets entitled Astrophel and Stella, in which Sidney celebrated the history of
his love for Penelope Devereax, sister of the Earl of Essex,- a love which came to a sad end through the
intervention of Queen Elizabeth with whom Sidney had quarrelled. As an example of lyrical poetry
expressing directly in the most sincere manner an intimate and personal experience of love in its deepest
passion, this sonnet sequence marks an epoch. Their greatest merit is their sincerity. The sequence of the
poet’s feelings is analysed with such vividness and minuteness that we are convinced of their truth and
sincerity. Here we find the fruit of experience, dearly bought:

Desire; desire; I have too dearly bought

With price of mangled mind. Thy worthless ware.
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should my mind to higher prepare.

Besides these personal and sincere touches, sometimes the poet gives a loose reign to his imagination, and
gives us fantastic imagery which was a characteristic of Elizabethan poetry.

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Spenser (1552-1599)

The greatest name in non-dramatic Elizabethan poetry is that of Spenser, who may be called the poet of
chivalry and Medieval allegory. The Elizabethan Age was the age of transition, when the time-honoured
institutions of chivalry, closely allied to Catholic ritual were being attacked by the zeal of the Protestant
reformer and the enthusiasm for latters of the European humanists. As Spenser was in sympathy with both
the old and the new, he tried to reconcile these divergent elements in his greatest poetic work—The Faerie
Queene. Written in the form of an allegory, though on the surface it appears to be dealing with the petty
intrigues, corrupt dealings and clever manipulations of politicians in the court of Elizabeth, yet when seen
from a higher point of view, it brings before us the glory of the medieval times clothed in an atmosphere of
romance. We forget the harsh realities of life, and lifted into a fairy land where we see the knights
performing chivalric deeds for the sake of the honour Queen Gloriana. We meet with shepherds, sylvan
nymphs and satyrs, and breathe the air of romance, phantasy and chivalry.

Though Spenser’s fame rests mainly on The Faerie Queene, he also wrote some other poems of great merit.
His Shepherd’s Calendar (1579) is a pastoral poem written in an artificial classical style which had become
popular in Europe on account of the revival of learning. Consisting of twelve parts, each devoted to a month
of the year, here the poet gives expression to his unfruitful love for a certain unknown Rosalind, through the
mouth of shepherds talking and singing. It also deals with various moral questions and the contemporary
religious issues. The same type of conventional pastoral imagery was used by Spenser in Astrophel (1586),
an elegy which he wrote on the death of Sidney to whom he had dedicated the Calendar. Four Hymns which
are characteried by melodious verse were written by Spenser in honour of love and beauty. His Amoretti,
consisting of 88 sonnets, written in the Petrarcan manner which had become very popular in those days
under the influence of Italian literature, describes beautifully the progress of his love for Elizabeth Boyle
whom he married in 1594. His Epithalamion is the most beautiful marriage hymn in the English language.

The greatness of Spenser as a poet rests on his artistic excellence. Though his poetry is surcharged with
noble ideas and lofty ideals, he occupies an honoured place in the front rank of English poets as the poet of
beauty, music and harmony, through which he brought about a reconciliation between the medieval and the
modern world. There is no harsh note in all his poetry. He composed his poems in the spirit of a great
painter, a great musician. Above all, he was the poet of imagination, who, by means of his art, gave an
enduring to the offsprings of his imagination. As a metrist his greatest contribution to English poetry is the
Spenserian stanza which is admirably suited to descriptive or reflective poetry. It is used by Thomson in The
Castle of Indolence, by Keats in The Eve of St. Agnes, by Shelley in The Revolt of Islam and by Byron in
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. On account of all these factors, Spenser has been a potent influence on the
English poets of all ages, and there is no exaggeration in the remark made by Charles Lamb that “Spenser is
the poets’ poet.”

(c) Elizabethan Prose

The Elizabethan period was also the period of the origin of modern English prose. During the reign of
Elizabeth prose began to be used as a vehicle of various forms of amusement and information, and its
popularity increased on account of the increased facility provided by the printing press. Books on history,
travel, adventures, and translations of Italian stories appeared in a large number. Though there were a large
number of prose-writers, there were only two-Sidney and Lyly who were conscious of their art, and who
made solid contributions to the English prose style when it was in its infancy. The Elizabethan people were
intoxicated with the use of the English language which was being enriched by borrowings from ancient

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authors. They took delight in the use of flowery words and graceful ,grandiloquent phrases. With the new
wave of patriotism and national prestige the English language which had been previously eclipsed by Latin,
and relegated to a lower position, now came to its own, and it was fully exploited. The Elizabethans loved
decorative modes of expression and flowery style.

John Lyly (1554-1606)

The first author who wrote prose in the manner that the Elizabethans wanted, was Lyly, whose Euphues,
popularized a highly artificial and decorative style. It was read and copied by everybody. Its maxims and
phrases were freely quoted in the court and the market-place, and the word ‘Euphuism’ became a common
description of an artificial and flamboyant style.

The style of Euphues has three main characteristics. In the first place, the structure of the sentence is based
on antithesis and alliteration. In other words, it consists of two equal parts which are similar in sound but
with a different sense. For example, Euphues is described as a young man “of more wit than wealth, yet of
more wealth than wisdom”. The second characteristic of this style is that no fact is stated without reference
to some classical authority. For example, when the author makes a mention of friendship, he quotes the
friendship that existed between David and Jonathan. Besides these classical allusions, there is also an
abundance of allusion to natural history, mostly of a fabulous kind, which is its third characteristic. For
example, “The bull being tied to the fig tree loseth his tale; the whole herd of dear stand at gaze if they smell
sweet apple.”

The purpose of writing Euphues was to instruct the courtiers and gentlemen how to live, and so it is full of
grave reflections and weighty morals. In it there is also criticism of contemporary society, especially its
extravagant fashions. Though Puritanic in tone, it inculcates, on the whole, a liberal and humane outlook.

Sidney’s Arcadia is the first English example of prose pastoral romance, which was imitated by various
English authors for about two hundred years. The story related in Arcadia in the midst of pastoral
surrounding where everything is possible, is long enough to cover twenty modern novels, but its main
attraction lies in its style which is highly poetical and exhaustive. One word is used again and again in
different senses until its all meanings are exhausted. It is also full of pathetic fallacy which means
establishing the connection between the appearance of nature with the mood of the artist. On the whole,
Arcadiagoes one degree beyond Euphues in the direction of Sfreedom and poetry.

Two other important writers who, among others, influenced Elizabethan prose were: Malory and Hakluyt.
Malory wrote a great prose romance Morte de Arthur dealing with the romantic treasures of the Middle
Ages. It was by virtue of the simple directness of the language, that it proved an admirable model to the
prose story-tellers of the Renaissance England. Richard Hakluyt’s Voyages and other such books describing
sea adventures were written in simple and unaffected directness. The writer was conscious of only that he
had something to tell that was worth telling.

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