EN165 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Knowledge Extraction, Courtly Love, Petrarch
EN165 September 23rd, 2016
➢ Renaissance Poetry
➢ Renaissance Period: 1500-1660
➢ “Rebirth” after the middle ages, rekindling of humanity and human knowledge –
discovery, philosophy, etc.
o Columbus, Descartes, Machiavelli, Shakespeare
➢ Poetry was often written by wealthy influential people, such as those who were part of
the Royal Court (courtiers), ambassadors, diplomats, military leaders
o Renaissance ideal: being a master of multiple different things – the “renaissance
man”
➢ Renaissance poetry is influenced by the courtly love tradition
o Developed by Italian poet Petrarch, then spread into the rest of Europe
o Characteristics:
▪ the lover serves his lady with the same obedience that a knight would have
shown his lord
▪ the lady is portrayed as being in complete control of the relationship,
whereas the man offers his obedience and submission
▪ relationships were not usually between husband and wife, but instead
about extramarital affairs – common themes are the seduction of married
women and virgins
▪ poems are addressed directly to the woman in question
▪ narrator praises his lover and places her very highly, with superlative
adjectives
• blazon: an exaggerated description of a woman’s physical
characteristics (eyes like stars, hair as bright as the sun, etc.)
▪ poet dwells on his experiences of being in love, both positive and negative
– misery of love or loss of it, sometimes images of suicide are used
▪ poet does not take credit for the poetry, but claims that is was his lover
who inspired it
▪ poet promises to immortalize his lover, to preserve her throughout time
▪ usually written in the form of song
• sonnet: a poem of 14 lines, that is written in a very rigidly defined
rhyme scheme
• rhyme scheme: the pattern of rhyming in a poem
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