Elizabethan Poetry: An Anthology

by Bob Blaisdell (Editor)

The relative peace and prosperity of the Elizabethan age (1558–1603) fostered the growth of one of the most fruitful eras in literary history. Lyric poetry, prose, and drama flourished in sixteenth-century England in works that blended medieval traditions with Renaissance optimism.
This anthology celebrates the wit and imaginative creativity of the Elizabethan poets with a generous selection of their graceful and sophisticated verse. Highlights include sonnets from Astrophel and Stella, written by Sir Philip Sidney — a scholar, poet, critic, courtier, diplomat, soldier, and ideal English Renaissance man; poems by Edmund Spenser, whose works combined romance with allegory, adventure, and morality; and sonnets by William Shakespeare, whose towering poetic genius transcends the ages. Other celebrated contributors include John Donne ("Go, and catch a fallen star"), Ben Jonson ("Drink to me only with thine eyes"), and Christopher Marlowe ("The Passionate Shepherd to His Love"). The poetry of lesser-known figures such as Michael Drayton, Samuel Daniel, and Fulke Greville appears here, along with verses by individuals better known in other fields — Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth I, and Walter Raleigh — whose poems offer valuable insights into the spirit of the age.

Genres: Poetry, Renaissance

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2005

About the author

Bob Blaisdell is a published adapter, author, editor, and an illustrator of children's books and young adult books. He teaches English in Brooklyn at Kingsborough Community College. He is a reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle and Christian Science Monitor and the editor of more than three dozen anthologies for Dover Publications. Email him at Robert.Blaisdell@Kingsborough.edu

Reviews

[Daniel Golden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emotionally I would give this 1 star, but I decided to give 3 stars purely out of respect for the cultural impact that these poets had on Britain and the wider Western World. But goodness gracious was it mentally draining to get through this. All the “dost’s” and “doth’s,” “thee’s” and “thou’s” made it remarkably difficult to read more than a handful of pages at a time. Other than the occasional footnote, there was no translation of sorts to show what was being said or what the author meant. It was a DRAG to get through this. The only reason I finished it as quickly as I did was because I didn’t want to have to read it anymore. I wanted to get it over with and be done with it. It’s similar to how as a kid I used to eat my vegetables first so that I could move on to the tastier part of the meal, like steak or fish or pork chops. Plowing through this book felt a lot like the reading equivalent of eating those vegetables.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the low cover price, this a perfect anthology of period verse, even if many of the individual works don't hold up so well more than four hundred years after they were written.

There's lots of flowery, romantic poetry in these pages, and much of it is rather mundane, although period superstars Ben Jonson ("To My Book") and John Donne ("The Sun Rising", "To His Mistress Going to Bed") bring the flavor, while more obscure lines from John Harington ("The Author to His Wife") and Chidiock Tichborne ("Elegy") manage to stand out from the pack with their powerfully evocative work.

And in the trivia department, I learned that Thomas Dekkers' "Lullaby" provided the lyrics for Paul McCartney's "Golden Slumbers", as recorded by The Beatles.

[Natalie Ciampichini · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I just don't like poetry from this era as much as I thought I would. I was excited to read more Campion, who I had read in another poetry assortment, plus Shakespeare of course. I liked a few others but overall, it wasn't for me. Unfortunately, I am rating this book only on how much it held my interest, not by the quality or depth of Elizabethan poetry it contains. I think if you do enjoy sonnets or other poetry from that time period, then you would probably like this book. Myself, I think I enjoy ballads and folksongs more than sonnets.

[علي أل سراي · Rating 5 out of 5]

gooooooood

[Becky]

A very appropriate find in Ashland. I'm excited because it has Thomas Campion!