Seventeenth-Century

Robert Herrick, Sir John Suckling, Richard Lovelace, and Andrew Marvell are often classed as Cavalier Poets

Part of this classification is political, but poetically, their verses are like those of Ben Jonson, with smooth rhythms and classical forms

Robert Herrick

uses his smooth verse to write some unique light poetry

Herrick ended up as an Anglican minister, though he never meant to be one

intended to be a professional student in London, but his family forced him to enter the ministry

His parish in Devonshire took him far away from the social life of the city

A lifelong bachelor, the lonely minister invented dozens of imaginary mistresses to whom he addressed his poems

His ministerial and poetic life contrasts with those of Donne and Herbert

Sometimes Herrick called his point of view "personal paganism"

When the Puritans took over the government, Herrick was dispossessed of his parish and moved to London until 1660 when the parish was returned to him at the Restoration

During his time in London, he published one volume of poetry in two parts:

Hesperides (secular verse) and Noble Numbers (religious verse). His poems appear trivial, but are, in reality, finely crafted.

poems appear trivial, but are finely crafted

theme of one of Herrick's most famous poems, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time," is echoed by another Cavalier poet, Andrew Marvell, in "To His Coy Mistress."

Both poems are seduction poems, and both play on the themes of tempus fugit (time flies) and carpe diem (seize the day)

In Marvell's case,
the Cavalier designation is not political

John Milton's personal secretary in the Puritan government and stayed on to serve Charles II

Marvell seems to have been an indispensable government functionary

intervened to get Milton released from prison and perhaps saved his life after the Restoration

JOhn Milton

John Milton appears on any list of the greatest English authors along with Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Spenser

Milton is impossible to sum up in just a few sentences:

he was the last Renaissance poet; he was a Puritan Christian; and his breadth of learning made him perhaps the last Renaissance humanist

But this neat package of statements hides the many tensions in Milton's life.

He was a pampered son of the middle class who excelled in upper-class learning

supporter of the Puritan revolution, he married the daughter of a Royalist who left him for 3 years after a few weeks of marriage−and then came back

served the Puritan government as Latin Secretary (Secretary of State); supported the execution of Charles I; and wrote pamphlets defending freedom of the press, promoting republican government, and advocating divorce

went blind around 1650, was stripped of his property, and almost executed at the Restoration

wrote some of his best poetry during his years of blindness and impoverishment

a poetic prodigy with an ego to match

wrote masques and pageants, elegies, sonnets, and pastorals while still young

His various epics and his greatest works were written later:

Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Regained (1671), and Samson Agonistes (1671).

Upcoming

• Read Paradise Lost
• Complete corresponding CPA