Cavaliers, Kings, and Puritans: Poetry of the 17th Century

This course will explore the rich and tumultuous landscape of 17th-century British poetry and the profound political and theological upheavals that marked the era, including the rise of Puritanism, the English Civil War, and the Restoration of the monarchy. We will read representative works of notable poetic genres of the period, including lyric, cavalier, devotional, metaphysical, epic, and baroque, tracing how 17th century poets grappled with personal, political, and spiritual crises (and with each other) through verse. The course will cover major works by: John Donne, George Herbert, John Milton, Andrew Marvell, Aemilia Lanyer, Mary Wroth, Richard Crashaw, Robert Southwell, Margaret Cavendish, John Wilmot, Katherine Philips, King Charles I, early American poet Anne Bradstreet, and several other poets and critics essential to an understanding of English literature in the seventeenth century.