Literature of the 17th century.

In a now-famous note added to the second edition of Paradise Lost in 1674, Milton characterized the poem as an example of “ancient liberty recover’d to heroic Poem from the troublesom and modern bondage of Rimeing.” Written in the aftermath of the radical social and political experiments of the 1640s and 1650s, the note appears to suggest that literary form is an impediment to freedom. But Paradise Lost isn’t written in free verse, and as the note explains, what is at stake in Milton’s claim is to distinguish rhyme, which he characterizes as “vexation, hindrance, and constraint” from the “true Ornament(s)” of verse. What, then, is a “true ornament,” and how is it different from an untrue one? When do forms constrain freedom, and when do they license creation? Does free speech have a form peculiar to it? These are some of the questions we’ll discuss in the context of works by Mary Sidney, William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson, Aemilia Lanyer, George Herbert, Katherine Phillips, Robert Herrick, John Milton, Andrew Marvell, and others.

This class satisfies the Pre-1800 Major Requirement
https://english.berkeley.edu/major-requirements


Required Texts: All texts on bCourses

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills