| Work/Collection | Date | Key Facts & MCQ Points |
|---|---|---|
| Songs and Sonnets | Written 1590s-1610s Published 1633 | Major Poems: • "The Good-Morrow" - "I wonder by my troth..." • "The Sun Rising" - "Busy old fool, unruly Sun" • "The Canonization" - Lovers as saints • "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" - Compass conceit • "The Flea" - Seduction poem • "The Ecstasy" - Platonic love • "The Funeral" - Bracelet of hair • "Death, be not proud" - Holy Sonnet X Themes: Love, death, religion, wit |
| Holy Sonnets | c. 1610-1619 Published 1633 | • 19 sonnets (religious) • Sonnet X: "Death, be not proud" • Sonnet XIV: "Batter my heart, three-person'd God" • Petrarchan sonnet form • Violent religious imagery |
| Anniversaries | 1611-1612 | • The First Anniversary: "An Anatomy of the World" • The Second Anniversary: "Of the Progress of the Soul" • Elegy for Elizabeth Drury (15-year-old) • Cosmic meditation on decay |
| Devotions upon Emergent Occasions | 1624 | • Prose work • Written during serious illness • Meditation XVII: "No man is an island" • "For whom the bell tolls" • 23 meditations |
| Other Poems | Various | • "A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day" • "The Relic" • "Twicknam Garden" • Satires (5 satires, 1590s) • Elegies (20 elegies) |
| Poem | Famous Conceit/Image |
|---|---|
| "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" | Compass conceit: Lovers like compass legs (one fixed, one roams but returns) |
| "The Flea" | Flea as marriage bed (mingled blood) |
| "The Sun Rising" | Lovers' bed as center of universe |
| "The Canonization" | Lovers canonized as saints of love |
| "Batter my heart" | God as violent lover/conqueror |
| Critic | Comment |
|---|---|
| John Dryden | "Affects the metaphysics" (negative) "Perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy" |
| Samuel Johnson | Defined Metaphysical Conceit: "Discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike" "Heterogeneous ideas yoked by violence together" |
| T.S. Eliot | Praised "unified sensibility" (thought & feeling fused) Revived Donne's reputation (20th C) |
| Ben Jonson | "Donne, for not keeping of accent, deserved hanging" |
| Coleridge | Admired wit and passion |
| Work | Date | Key Facts |
|---|---|---|
| The Temple | 1633 (posthumous) | • Complete poetic works (160+ poems) • Religious poetry collection • Published by Nicholas Ferrar Famous Poems: • "The Altar" - shaped poem (visual pattern) • "Easter Wings" - shaped poem • "The Collar" - rebellion against God • "Love (III)" - "Love bade me welcome" • "The Pulley" - God's gift of restlessness • "Virtue" - "Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright" • "The Pearl" - knowledge of Christ • "Redemption" - sonnet (Christ as landlord) Themes: Devotion, humility, spiritual struggle Style: Simple diction, complex form, pattern poems |
| A Priest to the Temple (The Country Parson) | 1652 (posthumous) | • Prose manual for clergy • Practical advice for rural priests |
| Poem | Date | Key Facts & Quotes |
|---|---|---|
| "To His Coy Mistress" | c. 1650s | • Carpe Diem poem • Three sections: If/But/Therefore • Famous lines: "Had we but world enough, and time..." "Time's winged chariot hurrying near" "The grave's a fine and private place" "Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball" |
| "The Garden" | c. 1650s | • Contemplative poem • Nature vs. society • "Two paradises 'twere in one / To live in paradise alone" • Green world imagery |
| "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" | 1650 | • Political poem • Ambivalent about Cromwell • Classical ode form • Execution of Charles I mentioned |
| "The Definition of Love" | c. 1650s | • Impossible love • Geometric imagery • "Magnanimous Despair" |
| "Bermudas" | c. 1653 | • Religious lyric • Puritan emigrants • Island paradise |
| "The Mower" poems | c. 1650s | • "The Mower to the Glow-worms" • "The Mower's Song" • "Damon the Mower" • Pastoral with edge |
| Work | Date | Key Facts |
|---|---|---|
| Silex Scintillans ("The Flashing Flint") | 1650, 1655 | • Religious poetry collection • Influenced by Herbert's The Temple Famous Poems: • "The Retreat" - childhood innocence • "The World" - "I saw Eternity the other night" • "Bright shootes of everlastingnesse" (characteristic imagery) • "They Are All Gone into the World of Light" • "The Waterfall" - spiritual meditation Themes: Mysticism, childhood, eternity, nature Imagery: Light, brightness, radiance |
| Work | Key Facts |
|---|---|
| Steps to the Temple (1646) | • Religious poems (title honors Herbert) • "The Flaming Heart" (St. Teresa) • "A Hymn to the Name and Honor of the Admirable Saint Teresa" • Erotic mysticism |
| "The Weeper" | • About Mary Magdalene • Excessive imagery (tears) |
| Poem | Date | Key Facts |
|---|---|---|
| "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" | 1629 | • Written age 21 • Ode • First major poem |
| "L'Allegro" | 1631 | • Grace invoked: Mirth • Companion poem to "Il Penseroso" • Cheerful, active life • Octosyllabic couplets |
| "Il Penseroso" | 1631 | • Grace invoked: Melancholy • Contemplative, scholarly life • Paired with "L'Allegro" |
| "Lycidas" | 1637 | • Pastoral elegy • For Edward King (fellow student at Cambridge, drowned) • Attacks corrupt clergy • "Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new" • Irregular rhyme scheme • Monody (single voice) |
| Comus (A Masque) | 1634 | • Masque performed at Ludlow Castle • Theme: Chastity vs. temptation • The Lady (virtuous heroine) • Comus (son of Bacchus, tempter) • 1000+ lines |
| "On Shakespeare" | 1630 | • Tribute to Shakespeare • "Thou in our wonder and astonishment / Hast built thyself a live-long monument" |
| Work | Date | Key Facts |
|---|---|---|
| Paradise Lost | 1667 (10 books) 1674 (12 books, revised) | • Epic poem (10,000+ lines) • Theme: "Justify the ways of God to men" • Opening: "Of man's first disobedience..." • Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) • Written while blind (dictated) Characters: • Satan (protagonist/antagonist) • Adam & Eve • God • Son of God • Angels: Michael, Raphael, Gabriel • Fallen angels: Beelzebub, Moloch, Belial, Mammon Settings: • Heaven • Hell (Pandemonium = Satan's palace) • Chaos • Eden Structure: 12 books • Books I-II: Hell, Satan's council • Books III-IV: Heaven, Eden • Books V-VIII: Raphael's visit, creation story • Books IX-X: Fall, judgment • Books XI-XII: Future revealed, expulsion Famous Lines: • "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (Satan) • "The mind is its own place" (Satan) • "Awake, arise, or be forever fallen" • "Long is the way / And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light" |
| Paradise Regained | 1671 | • Brief epic (4 books, 2000+ lines) • Jesus resists Satan's temptations • Sequel to Paradise Lost • Based on Gospels (temptation in wilderness) • Quieter, more austere than PL |
| Samson Agonistes | 1671 | • Closet drama (not for stage) • Greek tragedy model • Samson's last day (blinded, enslaved) • Autobiographical elements (Milton blind) • Chorus of Danites • Dalila visits • Destruction of Philistine temple • "Eyeless in Gaza" |
| Work | Date | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| Areopagitica | 1644 | • Against censorship • For freedom of press • Famous quote: "Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature...but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself" • "A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit" • Addressed to Parliament |
| The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce | 1643 | • Argued for divorce on grounds of incompatibility • Personal (wife Mary left him) |
| Of Education | 1644 | • Educational reform • Humanist curriculum |
| The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates | 1649 | • Justified execution of Charles I • People's sovereignty |
| Eikonoklastes | 1649 | • Attack on Eikon Basilike (royalist propaganda) |
| The Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth | 1660 | • Last-ditch attempt to prevent Restoration • Failed |
| Play | Date | Key Facts |
|---|---|---|
| Every Man in His Humour | 1598 | • Comedy of humours • Shakespeare acted in it • Four humours theory (blood, phlegm, choler, melancholy) • London setting |
| Volpone (The Fox) | 1606 | • Beast fable satire • Venice setting • Characters (animals): - Volpone (Fox) - pretends dying - Mosca (Fly) - parasite/servant - Voltore (Vulture) - lawyer - Corbaccio (Raven) - old man - Corvino (Crow) - merchant • Theme: Greed • Moral ending (all punished) |
| The Alchemist | 1610 | • Comedy • London setting (during plague) • Characters: - Face (servant/butler) - Subtle (alchemist/con man) - Dol Common (prostitute) • Con artists trick greedy victims • Lovewit (master) returns • Satire on greed, credulity |
| Epicoene (The Silent Woman) | 1609 | • Called "Aristophanic" by Swinburne • Morose (hates noise) marries "silent woman" • Epicoene revealed as boy in disguise • Complex plot, wit • Social satire |
| Bartholomew Fair | 1614 | • London fair setting • Satirizes Puritans • Puppet show within play |
| Sejanus His Fall | 1603 | • Roman tragedy • Senecan style • Failed on stage |
| Catiline | 1611 | • Roman tragedy • Classical scholarship • Also failed |
| Work/Poem | Key Facts |
|---|---|
| "To Penshurst" | • Country house poem • Sidney family estate • Classical influence |
| "On My First Son" | • Elegy for son Benjamin (died age 7) • "Farewell, thou child of my right hand" |
| "To Celia" | • "Drink to me only with thine eyes" • Song (set to music) |
| "Inviting a Friend to Supper" | • Horatian imitation • Convivial verse |
| Epigrammes (1616) | • Collection of short poems • Classical epigram style |
| The Forest (1616) | • Poetry collection |
| Underwoods (1640) | • Posthumous poetry |
| Concept | Details |
|---|---|
| Masque | • Elaborate court entertainment • Music, dance, spectacle • Allegorical • Nobility often performed • Function: Represents order, harmony, virtue |
| Anti-Masque | • Introduced by Jonson • Contrasts with masque • Function: Represents chaos, disorder, vice • Comic, grotesque • Precedes main masque |
| Famous Masques | • The Masque of Blackness (1605) • The Masque of Queens (1609) - first anti-masque • Collaboration with Inigo Jones (designer) • Later quarreled with Jones |
| Work | Details |
|---|---|
| Timber, or Discoveries | • Prose commonplace book • Literary criticism • Classical learning • Views on poetry, drama, language • Published 1640 (posthumous) |
| Play | Key Facts |
|---|---|
| A New Way to Pay Old Debts | • Comedy • Sir Giles Overreach (villain) • Social satire |
| The Fatal Dowry | • Tragedy • Co-written with Nathan Field |
| Genre | Anti-tragi-comedy (mentioned in PDF) |
| Play | Key Facts |
|---|---|
| The White Devil | • Tragedy (1612) • Italian setting • Vittoria Corombona • Dark, violent |
| The Duchess of Malfi | • Tragedy (1614) • Duchess marries below station • Brothers torture her • Famous line: "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle" • Gothic horror |
| Work | Details |
|---|---|
| Collaboration | • Wrote 10-15 plays together • Popular, sophisticated comedies & tragicomedies |
| The Maid's Tragedy | • Tragedy • Court intrigue |
| Philaster | • Tragicomedy • Romance plot |
| The Knight of the Burning Pestle | • Comedy (Beaumont solo) • Parodies chivalric romance • Meta-theatrical |
| Category | Item | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Epithets | George Herbert | "Saint of Metaphysical School" |
| Henry Vaughan | "The Silurist" | |
| John Milton | "Last great poet of Renaissance" | |
| Ben Jonson | "Rare Ben Jonson" (tomb) | |
| John Donne | "Jack Donne" (youth), "Dr. Donne" (priest) | |
| First Works | First Anti-Masque | The Masque of Queens (Jonson, 1609) |
| First Metaphysical Poet | John Donne | |
| King of Great Britain | James I (first to use title, 1603) | |
| Carpe Diem Poem | Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" | |
| Famous Lines | "No man is an island" | Donne (Meditation XVII) |
| "Had we but world enough and time" | Marvell ("To His Coy Mistress") | |
| "Better to reign in Hell" | Milton (Paradise Lost, Satan) | |
| "Bright shootes of everlastingnesse" | Vaughan | |
| Critical Terms | Metaphysical Conceit | "Occult resemblances" (Dr. Johnson) |
| "Affects the metaphysics" | Dryden on Donne | |
| "Tribe of Ben" | Jonson's disciples (Cavalier poets) |