Course Title：English Renaissance Poetry

This course aims to cover some of the key poetic texts of the English Renaissance over 18 1.5hr lectures. It will specifically consider the ways these texts explore the relationship between the human – love, death, politics – and that which lies beyond the human – the ideal, the metaphysical, and God. Poems by Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, Donne, Herbert, and Milton will be covered. These are some of the most important figures in English literature, but whose language and chronological distance make them daunting to many students. This course will not only make them more accessible, but it will teach students methods of close reading which will give them the skills to read other similarly difficult texts in the future.