By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) is that rare thing: both of interest from a historical perspective (he lived through one of the most interesting periods of English history) and genuinely innovative and stylistically accomplished. Here are ten of Thomas Wyatt’s best poems, with some information about each of them.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-47) is not read or studied as much as his near-contemporary, Sir Thomas Wyatt, although his importance to the development of English literature was arguably greater. Certainly, in terms of technical innovation, the name of Henry Howard is worth knowing for two very important reasons, discussed below. In this post we offer a very brief introduction to the life and work of Howard, focusing on the most interesting and noteworthy aspects.
Many biographies of Renaissance writers are at best only partially complete, and although in Howard’s case we know some very intriguing details – for instance, that he counted among his cousins both Anne Boleyn, doomed second wife of King Henry VIII, and Catherine Howard, doomed fifth wife of King Henry VIII – other things remain uncertain.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Below is our pick of some of the finest very short poems from the Renaissance. We’ve had to exclude several favourites, such as Tichborne’s Elegy and the anonymous song ‘Weep you no more sad fountaines’, since they are just a little too long for our self-imposed 14-line limit – but we had to draw the line somewhere, and the length of a traditional sonnet seems appropriate, given that that verse form flourished during the Renaissance.