Sir Thomas Wyatt, born about 1503 and dead on 11 October 1542, stands at the beginning of the English Renaissance lyric. He was not the first English poet to write about love, loss, faith, or fortune, but he altered the sound, scale, and inwardness of English poetry. In his hands, verse became a place where private desire could collide with public danger, where a courtier could confess exhaustion without naming its c…
“Never to play upon any man's unhappiness or deformity, for that is inhuman; nor on superiors, for that is saucy and undutiful; nor on holy matters, for that is irreligious.”
Neighbourhood:
Elizabethan Poets, Love Poets, Renaissance Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Despair
John Ford, baptized on 17 April 1586 and last securely documented in 1639, was one of the most daring and emotionally penetrating dramatists of England’s late Renaissance. Although he is commonly remembered as a playwright rather than as a poet in the narrower sense, poetry is inseparable from his dramatic achievement. His finest plays are built from a grave, musical, concentrated blank verse that gives private suffe…
“Men, as they are all the sons of their mothers, are all the subjects of misery; born to live few days in many dangers.”
Neighbourhood:
Cavalier Poets, Death & Mortality, Devotional Poets, Dramatic Poets, Love Poets, Metaphysical Poets, Renaissance Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Wonder, Sorrow
