Hum/En 54 - Introduction to English Renaissance Poetry

This course will provide an introduction to English poetry in the 16th and 17th centuries, with an emphasis on exploring how poems served as vehicles to make sense of the political and social contradictions of early modern England. How do Sir Philip Sidney and William Shakespeare's sonnets blend themes of unrequited desire with political critique? How does Hester Pulter develop early ideas of physics through her lyrics, like imagining the apocalypse through the dissolution of atoms? Other authors covered in the course may include Katherine Philips, John Donne, Margaret Cavendish, and John Milton.