THE CONTRIBUTION OF JOHN WYCLIFFE
LIFE & CAREER: John Wycliffe (c. 1328-1384) was an English
scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer,
Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of Oxford.
He was one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. The
politico-ecclesiastical theories that he developed required the church
to give up its worldly possessions, and in 1378 he began a systematic
attack on the beliefs and practices of the church. The Lollards, a
heretical group, propagated his controversial views.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS: Wycliffe’s greatest contribution to church
history was his elevation of the Bible to its supreme place and his
insistence that it be made available to all Christians in their own
language. John Wycliffe inspired and organized the work of providing
such a Bible.
CONFLICT WITH THE CHURCH: Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible was
denounced by the Church as unauthorized and inaccurate. Wycliffe
was repeatedly summoned to appear before royal and Church
officials.
LEGACY: Most of Wycliffe’s post-Reformation, Protestant
biographers see him as the first Reformer, fighting almost alone the
hosts of medieval wickedness. He was called the ‘Morning Star of the
Reformation’ by Protestant historians, meaning that his ideas were
thought to have laid the foundations of the religious reform which
took place in England in the 1530s.
THE RISE OF BALLAD
ORIGINS: A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative, set to music.
Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and
song of Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages (1000-1500
AD) until the 19th century. European ballads have generally been
classified into three major groups: traditional, broadside, and
literary.
ELEMENTS OF A BALLAD: A ballad tells a compact story that begins at
the moment when the narrative has turned toward its catastrophe or
resolution. Focusing on a single climactic situation, the ballad leaves
the inception of the conflict and the setting to be inferred.
Characterisation is minimal, the characters revealing themselves in
their actions or speeches; overt moral comment on the characters’
behaviour is suppressed and their motivation is rarely explicitly
detailed.
NOTEWORTHY POETS: Literary or lyrical ballads grew out of an
increasing interest in the ballad form among social elites and
intellectuals, particularly in the Romantic movement from the later
18th century. In the early part of the 18th century, Jonathan Swift
adapted the style for several jocular bagatelles. Poets such as Swift,
Matthew Prior, and William Cowper in the 18th century and Thomas
Hood, W.M. Thackeray, and Lewis Carroll in the 19th century made
effective use of the jingling metres, forced rhymes, and unbuttoned
style for humorous purposes. William Wordsworth and Samuel
Taylor Coleridge produced a collection of ‘Lyrical Ballads’ in 1798.
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and John Keats were attracted to the simple
and natural style of folk ballads and tried to imitate it.
ENGLISH CHAUCERIAN
CHAUCER’S CONTRIBUTION: Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s-1400) was
an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The
Canterbury Tales. He has been called the “father of English literature.
He is seen as crucial in legitimizing the literary use of Middle English.
Almost two thousand words are first attested to Chaucerian
manuscripts.
INFLUENCE & PROMINENT WRITERS: English Chaucerian is the name
given to a group of 15th century English writers and associated texts
written after Geoffrey Chaucer’s death. These writings reflect
Chaucerian form, content, tone, vocabulary, and style.
This group includes John Lydgate, Thomas Hoccleve, Benedict Burgh,
George Ashby, Henry Bradshaw, George Ripley, Thomas Norton, and
Osbern Bokenam. The texts include Apocrypha: The Tale of Gamelyn,
The Tale of Beryn (The Second Merchant’s Tale), La Belle Dame sans
Merci, The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, the Assembly of Ladies, The
Flower and Leaf, and The Court of Love.
Hoccleve held Chaucer in great esteem. A decade after Chaucer’s
death in 1400, Thomas Hoccleve composed this long poem to the
future King Henry V using Chaucer’s rhyme royal, the seven-line
rhyming verse. Earlier writers would have chosen Latin or French.
SCOTTISH CHAUCERIAN
ORIGIN: The 15th century reflected as a transitional period in the
political and social era. This period was in misery from the death of
Geoffrey Chaucer, and in a state of disorder due to the disregard of
law. But there were imitators of Chaucer that are called English and
Scottish Chaucerians who modelled their writing after Chaucer.
Poetry during this era was kept flourishing by these writers.
PROMINENT POETS: Chaucer's influence on 15th-century Scottish
literature began towards the beginning of the century with King
James I of Scotland (1394-1437), followed by a second phase,
comprising the works of Robert Henryson (1403-1506), and William
Dunbar (1460-1530).
NOTEWORTHY WORKS: The popular semi-autobiographical love
allegory written by James I is “King’s Quair”.
Robert Henryson gained popularity through one of his best poems
“Testament of Criseyde”, which is a continuance of Chaucer’s work
“Troilus and Criseyde”. Some other notable works by Henryson are
“Orpheus and Eurydice”, “Robene and Makyne”, “The Morall Fabillis
of Esope the Phrygian”.
Some of William Dunbar’s very famous love allegories are “Golden
Barge” and “Thistle and the Rose”. Dunbar had also penned some
satirical works like “Tidings from the Sessions, “Satire on Edinburgh,
“Dance of Seven Deadly Sins”, “The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie”,
“The Visitation of St. Francis”, and “The Two Mary Women”.
ITALIAN AND ENGLISH SONNETS
ORIGIN: A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry
composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the
Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13 th century poet Giacomo da Lentini is
credited with the sonnet’s invention. The term “sonnet” is derived
from the Italian word sonetto (meaning little song). By the 13 th
century, it signified a poem of 14 lines that followed a strict rhyme
scheme and structure. The sonnet traditionally reflects upon a single
sentiment, with a clarification or “turn” of thought in its concluding
lines.
ITALIAN SONNET: The Petrarchan sonnet, or Italian sonnet, perfected
by the Italian poet Petrarch, divides the 14 lines into two sections: an
eight-line stanza (octet) rhyming ABBA ABBA, and a six-line stanza
(sestet) rhyming CDCDCD or CDECDE. John Milton’s “When I
Consider How my Light Is Spent” and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s
“How Do I Love Thee” employ this form.
ENGLISH SONNET: The sonnet was brought to England by Sir Thomas
Wyatt and Henry Howard in the 16 th century. Wyatt and Surrey
developed the English (or Shakespearean) sonnet, which condenses
the 14 lines into one stanza of three quatrains (4 lines) and a
concluding couplet (2 lines), with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD
EFEF GG. George Herbert’s “Love (II),” Claude McKay’s “America,”
and Molly Peacock’s “Altruism” are English sonnets.
THE METAPHYSICAL POETRY
DEFINITION: Metaphysical poetry is a blend of emotion and
intellectual ingenuity, characterised by conceit or “wit” – that is, by
the sometimes violent yoking together of apparently unconnected
ideas and things to that the reader is startled and forced to think
through the argument of the poem. Metaphysical poetry is less
concerned with expressing feeling than with analyzing it, with the
poet exploring the recesses of his consciousness.
HISTORY: The term ‘metaphysical poets’ was coined by the critic
Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of 17th-century English
poets whose work was characterised by the inventive use of
conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrical
quality of their verse. In his initial use of the term, Johnson quoted
just three poets: Abraham Cowley, John Donne, and John Cleveland.
Other metaphysical poets are Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell,
George Herbert and Richard Crashaw.
CHARACTERISTICS: In metaphysical poetry, poets often use allusions,
metaphors, conceits, imagery, and colloquial diction. The themes
that are most common to metaphysical poetry are love/lust, religion,
and morality.
NOTEWORTHY WORKS: Some noteworthy examples of metaphysical
poetry are: The Flea by John Donne, The Collar by George Herbert,
The Retreat by Henry Vaughan, In His Coy Mistress by Andrew
Marvell.