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17th Century Poems & Poets

In the opening to his book on John Donne, Yale University professor and leading critic Harold Bloom observes that 17th century poets sought to repair a pervasive "rhetorical division between body and soul" caused by the traumas of the Middle Ages and the trite romantic conventions of the Renaissance. By affirming the sensuousness of human existence and sexuality as a way to achieve spirituality, John Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughn and others sought to mend this perceived fracture between body and soul.

  1. Bard of Avon

    • Coming off a successful decade in the 1590s, Shakespeare was London's leading poet.

      William Shakespeare, the greatest poet and playwright of the day, and -- arguably -- of the English language, died in 1616. Already a superstar by the 17th century, Shakespeare wrote some of his best work in the last 16 years of his life, including "Hamlet," "King Lear," "Othello," "Macbeth" and "The Tempest." Shakespeare's complete collection of 154 sonnets, begun in 1593, was finally published in 1609.

    Milton's Paradise Lost

    • Pious Milton became distressed about Satan's popularity.

      Being thrown in jail by the King may rank among the best things that ever happened to John Milton. Upon his release, he moved to the country and in 1667 published what is widely regarded as one of the greatest epic poems ever composed: Paradise Lost and its sequel, Paradise Regained. Milton's Paradise Lost, the real masterpiece, is concerned with Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden; but the real star of the work is Satan. Exhibiting great rhetorical skill and passion, Satan is a tragic antihero: imprisoned by necessity, craving free will. As he states in Book 1, "Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."

    Metaphysical Poets

    • Since the Middles Ages, tradition had dictated that body and soul were distinct.

      Touchy-feely is how the metaphysical school of poets might be described in 2011 terms. Samuel Johnson, writing in 1779, named the group -- pejoratively -- in an essay on Abraham Crowley: "They were men of learning, and to show their learning was their whole endeavor." Often libidinous, Donne, George Herbert and other metaphysical poets used erotic imagery and slang in new and unusual ways. Absorbed by thoughts of love, death and spirituality, the best metaphysical poetry -- such as Donne's "Death Be Not Proud" -- is considered slyly witty, subtle and profound.

    Anne Bradstreet

    • "A sourcing -- whom my lost candle like the firefly loves." (John Berryman, "Homage to Mistress Bradstreet")

      Across the Atlantic in America, the country's first poet, Anne Bradstreet, was eking out a living in the fledgling colonies. Originally from Northamptonshire, England, Bradstreet, her husband and their eight children moved from colonies in Salem and Ipswich before finally settling in Andover, Massachusetts. Her first book of poetry, "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, By a Gentlewoman of Those Parts," was published in 1650 and enjoyed success in England. A second collection of poems followed posthumously.

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Poetry

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