Studies in Poetry: From the Sonneteers to the Metaphysicals
English love poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, taught through MIT OpenCourseWare. The course surveys sonneteers like Sidney and Spenser through to the metaphysical poets such as Donne and Marvell, reading their amatory verse closely alongside the historical and social contexts that shaped it. Sessions pair selected poems with discussion of courtship conventions, patronage, and print culture in early modern England, tracing how poetic form and language shift across the period. Materials include a syllabus, reading assignments drawn from primary poems and critical essays, and writing assignments asking students to practice close reading and contextual analysis. As with other MIT OCW offerings, all materials are free to access, with no certificate offered. The course suits readers wanting a structured introduction to Renaissance and metaphysical poetry rather than a survey of English literature broadly.