The Elizabethan Poetry

A Brief Introduction

The Elizabethan poetry was the poetry of the new age of discovery, enthusiasm and excitement. Under the impact of Renaissance, freshness and vigour are clearly reflected in poetry of that age.

Important Facts to Remember

1. Tottel’s Miscellany’ containing the verse of Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey marks the first English poetry of the Elizabethan age.

2. They also attempted blank verse, improved upon by Marlowe and then perfected by Shakespeare.

3. Sonnets are the forms of Elizabethan poetry. Italian Sonnet is known as the Petrachan sonnet. It is called the classical sonnet.

4. Elizabethan sonnet is known as the Shakespearean Sonnet. It is also called the English Sonnet.

5. Spenser is the greatest name in non-dramatic Elizabethan poetry.

6. Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton, Spenser, Henry Constable and Shakespeare are called the Elizabethan Sonneters.

7. Ballad is a term often lossely used of folk song in general. It is one of the oldest forms in English.

8. The Parody of the Ballad is known as the ‘Mock Ballad’.

9. Sidney is a prince among the Elizabethan lyric poets and Sonneteers. His collection of Sonnets is known by “Astrophel and Stella”.

10. Milton is the last Elizabethan Sonneteer, but he did not follow the Surry/Shakespeare model of the Sonnet. His Sonnets are called the ‘Miltonic Sonnet.