Elizabethan Literature

Elizabethan Poetry and Proseshift from narrative to lyric poetry

popular lyric form - sonnetsonnets by Sir Philip Sydney, Edmund Spenser, form perfected by Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s sonnet form became known as English sonnet replacing Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet.

other popular type of poetry - pastoral poems - celebrates a simple life in the country

PROSEmonumental prose achievement of era - King James Bible

fifty-four scholars worked seven years to translate into English

Lyric Poetry Lyric poetry - expresses observations and feelings of a single speaker

Sonnet (type of lyric poem)14 linessingle themeiambic pentameterspecific rhyme scheme/stanza form

Sonnet Sequence series of sonnets written to one person or on one theme

each sonnet can stand on its own or viewed as a series to trace trace a relationship

Iambic Pentameter five sets of “feet” consisting of a weak beat followed by a strong beat

Rhyme Scheme the pattern in which the end words rhyme