Presents a separate study of all five of Shakespeare's major poems - Venu
Trade Review
“Highly useful in addressing the formal and generic concerns of sixteenth-century poets, and thus in demonstrating close reading, Reading Sixteenth-Century Poetry fails to address the equally important political and theoretical period discourses or the methodologies needed to address them. The unbalanced infatuation with authorial vocation and authorial perspectives thus limits the usefulness of the text. Cheney’s companion text may thus represent a more widespread return to traditional author-centered interpretive theories and a
turn away from poststructural approaches.” (Journal of the Northern Renaissance, 1 December 2012)
"Cheney's eye for such intertextual allusion transforms what could have been a series of isolated close readings into a delicately unified exposition of a century's worth of literary dialogue." (Times Literary Supplement, 23 December 2011) "A carefully selected bibliography that focuses on background sources as well as on primary works and significant critical material is a valuable supplement to the author's consideration of the poetry. Cheney develops his thesis clearly and makes an important contribution to Renaissance scholarship. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." (Choice, 1 October 2011)
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
The Pleasures and Uses of Sixteenth-Century Poetry
Part I 1500–1558. Reading Early Tudor Poetry: Henrician, Edwardian, Marian 19
1 Voice 21
The Poetic Style of Character: Plain and Eloquent Speaking
2 Perception 43
The Crisis of the Reformation, or, What the Poet Sees: Self, Beloved, God
3 World 66
The Poet’s Ecology of Place: Sky, Sea, Soil
4 Form 90
The Idea of a Poem: Elegy, Pastoral, Sonnet, Satire, Epic
5 Career 115
The Role of the Poet in Society: Skelton, Wyatt, and Surrey
Part II 1558–1600. Reading Elizabethan Poetry 139
6 Voice 141
The Poetic Style of Character: From Plain Eloquence to the Metaphysical Sublime
7 Perception 163
What the Poet Sees, and the Advent of Modern Personage: Desire, Idolatry, Transport, Partnership
8 World 185
The Poet’s Ecology of Place: Cosmos, Colony, Country
9 Form 208
Fictions of Poetic Kind: Pastoral, Sonnet, Epic, Minor Epic, Hymn
10 Career 231
The Role of the Poet in Society: Whitney, Spenser, and Marlowe
Part III A Special Case 255
11 Shakespeare: Voice, Perception, World, Form, Career 257
Conclusion 280
Retrospective Poetry: Donne and the End of Sixteenth-Century Poetry
Bibliography 288
Index 323
