ELIZABETHAN POETRY

Henry Howard Earl of Surrey “Th' Assyrians' king, in peace with foul desire”

1. The poem is about king Sardanapalus, but Howard never mentions his name, although his educated readers would certainly guess it. Why does the poet leave the blank instead of the king's name?

2. What ideas of “manhood” and “royalty” does the poem employ? How does the king fall short of them?

3. How do the piling up of differing consonants (making pronunciation or enunciation difficult) in lines 1-4 help express their content?

4. How does this sonnet illustrate the combination of the English pattern of 4-4-4-2 and Italian pattern of 8-6? How do grammar, punctuation, and content demarcate the units?

Philip Sidney “Astrophil and Stella”, Sonnet 2

1. How is the process of falling in love presented in the poem?

2. What is the speaker's attitude towards his `slavery'?

3. The poem is also, in a sense, a poem about writing poems. What role does writing poetry play in the final couplet of this sonnet?

Edmund Spenser „Amoretti”, Sonnet 64

1. How does the blazon progress? (Where does it start? Where does it end?) How is the progression meaningful?

2. Using flower comparisons when describing a woman's beauty is fairly standard. What twist does Spenser use when employing his flower imagery?

3. The couplet does not continue the blazon but instead provides a shift in meaning. What does the couplet say? How does this add to the praise of the woman?

4. How does the poem allude to religion?

5. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?

---