context

• Who So List:

  • Wyatt was a courtier for King Henry VIII and his ambassador to France and Italy. 
  • Wyatt’s travels abroad exposed him to different forms of poetry, which he adapted for the English language - Wyatt was known as the father of the sonnet
  • Rumoured to be Anne Boleyn’s lover, he spent a month in the Tower of London until she was executed for adultery. The poem was rumoured to be about Anne Boleyn
  • Wyatt’s sonnet is a loose translation of Petrarch’s Rime 190
• Sonnet 116:

  • Shakespeare published 154 sonnets - 126 were written for a young man and 28 for an unknown dark lady
  • Sonnet 116 is distinct from the rest of the poems which are virtually all addressed in the second person. This poem is still rumoured to be about the young man.
  • It employs classical rhetoric of an argument to explain the nature of ‘true love’ 
• The Flea:

  • Founder of metaphysical poetry - rebellious, satirical, witty style
  • Wrote love verse in his early years and religious poetry later in life. Conflict between sex and religion seen throughout his poetry career.
  • The young ‘Jack Donne’ is often reflected by the misogynistic, lusty, and cynical persona in his early ‘erotic’ poetry - typified in The Flea
  • Inspired by ‘Ovid’ (Classical Roman writer) to write his flea conceit
  • Reveals double standards in society
  • Donne had training in law, which explains the legal jargon and argument
• To His Coy Mistress:

  • Metaphysical poet and satirist - THCM is a Carpe Diem poem
  • Also known as a cavalier poet
  • Poem addresses patriarchal expectations of women and purity
  • Marvell lived through the 1640s Civil War
  • Politics had a large amount of impact on his life so he attempted to remove elements from his poems
• The Garden of Love:

  • Romantic poet writing at the time of the American and French Revolutions
  • The Romantics believed in social change
  • Blake was trained in art and illustration from a young age
  • He was born to Dissenter parents and was a devout Christian, and his poetry showed frustration with church/monarchy and financial institutions
  • The Garden of Love was a criticism of organised religion
• Ae Fond Kiss:

  • Robert Burns was a Scottish national bard, and wrote during the Scottish Romantic period
  • Used the dialect and referred to the landscape of Scotland
  • Ae Fond Kiss was intended as a farewell letter to Mrs Agnes MacLehose after a 7 year affair which was apparently platonic
• At An Inn:

  • Thomas Hardy was a late Victorian realist novelist and poet, who sympathised with feminist ideas
  • It was inspired by an unfulfilled relationship with a married woman, Florence Henniker