English Love Poetry: Origins, Connections and A Personal Revelation

[ofcatslives]

This week's lecture on English love poetry was truly eye-opening. Throughout my academic career I have read Shakespeare, Donne, Spencer, Wyatt and of course Dante and Petrarch many times; however, I never made the connections between them or noticed the over-ridding similarities between their love poems and this is because I never considered the

Comments

[may_posa1]

The connection between love and the unattainable is the foundation for which the work we read for this past week is based, it makes me wonder what was discussed in tutorial and what great examples Professor Kuin gave that I missed. Courtly love eh? You have for sure helped me recall the past history of the sonnet and have made an excellent statement by saying that history is not chronological, its mostly taught to us like that in high school because its the easist way to understand. We are constsntly searching for an origin, and in this search we get side tracked, perhaps an idea is always a rip off of something else, a true origin should not be of interest, but many origins ahould provoke and excite the mind.
-Lesley-Anne

[ofcatslives]

Thanks for commenting Lesley-Anne. In tutorial we looked at a poem by Sir Philip Sydney (p. 213 in our Norton) entitled, "Astrophil and Stella". I particularly enjoyed this poem, you may as well. Besides that we discussed the poems listed in our course outline, as well as, the form of a sonnet, amongst other things. Furthermore, I am so glad to hear that you had a similar experience in high school, where one is led to believe that history is linear. Of course, I am not exactly pleased that you had this experience, but that I am not the only one who did.

Janice

[roger_kuin]

Excellent post, Janice. One correction: Sir Thomas Wyatt did not invent the English or "Shakespearean" sonnet: his younger friend Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, did.

[ofcatslives]

I will make that correction in my post, thanks.

Janice

[tricia_stewart]

Hi Janice, I just wanted say that your post was both entertaining and educational as always. I too, was led to believe that Shakespeare invented the English sonnet and romantic poetry besides. I also apologize on the lateness of my comment. Wonderfully done.