English Literature

Week 8

Please read:

Historical background, pp. 159-165.

Sir Thomas Wyatt:

• "Whoso List to Hunt", p. 166.

A fairly complete selection of Wyatt's poetry is available at the Luminarium site, as well as some biographical information.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey:

• “A Lover's Vow”, p. 168.
• “Alas, So All Things Now Do Hold their Peace”, p. 168.

Two translations from Petrarch:

• Wyatt, “The Long Love”
• Surrey, “Love, that in my Heart”
• Petrarch, “Amor, che nel penser mio vive e regna” (140)

This latter is the source for both of these poems (I have given you the original Italian for your amusement and a very literal translation into uninspired English as a comparison).

The Luminarium site also has a fairly complete selection of Surrey’s poetry, as well as some biographical information. Latin students (or Western Lit to Dante students) may wish to see what he has done with Bk. II of Vergil's Aeneid.

Consider as you read:

• What is a translation, and what can it do? What can it not do?
• How is the translator’s art defined, and what do these poems say about their respective poets?
• What are the general characteristics of the period and its forms of literature?

Since this is our first occasion to deal with text that is not translated, I would like to take the opportunity to explore what “close reading” is really about. See how much you can wring out of these poems by looking at them closely. Then, when you have had a chance to read these poems and think about them a bit, have a look at my own close reading of the two translations. It was not written for a high school audience in particular, and contains some words you might not know, but it should not offer any difficulties you can't crack with a dictionary.

Please take the background quiz for Unit III.