Poetry anthology: context

• Who's so list (context):

  • Renaissance period
  • believed to be written about Anne Bolyne
  • illegal to hunt anything on King's ground
  • Wyatt was put in Tower of London by Henry VIII
  • hunting was a very popular sport at the time
  • he was one of the first English poets to use the Italian form
  • poem wasn't published during his lifetime to avoid suspicion
• Who's so list (form/structure):

  • Italian sonnet
  • however there is a rhyming couplet as the final two lines
• Sonnet 116 (context):

  • renaissance period
  • marriage was more driven by money and status, Shakespeare presents a more pure view
  • Shakespeare typically presents time as love's enemy
  • links to stars are common ideas linked to fate and free will
• Sonnet 116 (form/structure):

  • typical English sonnet
  • What love is ~ what love is not ~ love and time ~ if he is wrong, love does no exist
  • iambic pentameter
• The Flea (context):

  • Renaissance period
  • metaphysical poem
  • a flea was a common image at time
  • was believed that blood mixes during sex
  • religious references reflects the christian society at the time
  • he was a Roman Catholic which was illegal in England
• The Flea (form/structure):

  • couplets and rhyme scheme reflect the consistency of his persuasion
• The Scrutiny (context):

  • written to be laughed at, meant to be light hearted
  • a cavalier poet and meant to be performed at court infront of the king
• The Scrutiny (form/structure):

  • ABABB - meant to sound songlike
  • iambic tetrameter - meant to sound nice
  • the end stopping shows how he is clear and confident, not changing his mind
• The Garden of Love (context):

  • Romantic poet
  • he was devoutly religious
  • he uses more colloquial language to avoid elitism
• The Garden of Love (Form/Structure):

  • Regular and simplistic structure
  • internal rhymes
  • endstopped lines