Renaissance Poetry

Renaissance Poetry

The Passionate Shepard to His Love

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove,

That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the Rocks,

Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow Rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing Madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of Roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of Myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool

Which from our pretty Lambs we pull;

Fair lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and Ivy buds,

With Coral clasps and Amber studs:

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me, and be my love.

The Shepherds’ Swains shall dance and sing

For thy delight each May-morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me, and be my love.

Humanism

• Humanism was an intellectual movement that occurred during the Renaissance period.
• The name comes from the study of the humanities (philosophy, history, languages, and the arts).
• People during this era used the Bible as well as Latin and Greek classics to combine classical ideals with traditional Christian thought to teach people how to live and work
• People asked questions such as “What is a human being? What is a good life? How do I live a god life?”

The Renaissance

Christopher Marlowe

1564-1593

The Printing Press

• Most people living in this period could not read, and those who could read almost exclusively read religious works.
• The printing press was invented in around 1455 by Johannes Gutenburg.
• People's love for language was revived, and more people learned to read and write as a result of the circulation of written works.

• The Renaissance was an intellectual movement that took place during the 1400s, 1500s, and 1600s.
• "Renaissance" is a French word that means rebirth, and it refers to a renewed interest in classical learning and in a renewal of the human spirit, of curiosity and creativity.
• People no longer relied on the religious beliefs of the Middle Ages, but they became more interested in expanding their knowledge of history, art, science, and the classics from ancient Greece and Rome.

Poetic Devices in "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"

• He was only 2 months older than Shakespeare, and Marlowe's career ended about the time Shakespeare's began
• Before completing his studies in 1587 he became a spy for Queen Elizabeth to keep track of Roman Catholics
• He led an exciting and often dangerous life, and was put into jail on more than one occasion
• He was stabbed above the eye and died instantly in a violent fight
• BUT there are theories that he lived on to write all of Shakespeare's works for him...that's how good he was!

• Meter: rhyming pattern
• Iambic Tetrameter: 8 syllbles per line, making each line go daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, each daDUm (1 unstressed and 1 stressed syllable), daDUM=1 iamb (so there are 4 iambs per line)

Poetic Devices in "The Passionate Shephard to His Love"

• Quatrain: 4 line units
• Couplet: rhyming 2 line units
• Rhyme Scheme: pattern of rhyming words labeled A, B, C....
• Example:
• Come live with me, and be my love,
• And we will all the pleasures prove
• That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
• Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

What types of poetry were popular during the Renaissance?

• Pastoral
• A literary theme where the characters are usually simple country people but the language used is sophisticated which gives the poems an elegance that doesn’t correspond with the setting, many express a nostalgia or longing for simpler times
• Carpe Diem
• A literary theme that urges living and loving in the present moment since life and earthly pleasures cannot last