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146 Unit 2 ■ Analyzing Comparisons and Representations UNIT 2

the hell)next IDEAS IN LITERATURE TIME PERIOD
minute i was back in neutral tried and
15 again slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. ing(my Thought and Feeling IDEAS IN LITERATURE 1485–1600
The English Renaissance
lev-er Right- Renaissance Ideas are included in both Ideas
oh and her gears being in The transition from the medieval period to the Renaissance in England (and Collections in this unit as well as in the Ideas
A 1 shape passed Europe) was a complex political, social, economic, religious, and cultural pro- Collection (Power and Control) in Unit 3.
from low through cess that occurred over two centuries. In fact, no one living at that time would
20 second-in-to-high like have used renaissance — a French word meaning “rebirth” — to describe the era: IDEA BANK
greasedlightning)just as we turned the corner of Divinity nineteenth-century historians first applied the term to the period. But the idea CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERIOD
of a rebirth captures many elements integral to this revival of Greek and Roman Beauty Renaissance Printing Press
avenue i touched the accelerator and give Carpe Diem
classical culture — and the subsequent flowering of art, science, literature, philos- Monarchy Humanism
her the juice,good ophy, politics, and music. Continuity King Henry VIII Idealism
In a sense, the Renaissance shifted Western culture from being institutionally Culture
(it Desire Queen Elizabeth I Pastoral Poems
centered (especially the institutions of the church and monarchy) to being more
25 was the first ride and believe i we was human-centered. We can see the implications of this humanism in the Protestant Exaggeration Catholic Church Sonnets
Metaphysical Poetry
Protestant
happy to see how nice she acted right up to reformation that was underway throughout Europe. In England, King Henry VIII Feelings
the last minute coming back down by the Public (1491–1547) broke away from the authority of the Catholic Church when the Humanism Reformation
Gardens i slammed on Pope denied him a divorce. But a more important change was already occurring. Inquiry Church of England
Protestants (i.e., Puritans, Calvinists, Quakers, and others) argued that individuals Learning Calvinism
the had a personal, intellectual, and emotional relationship with God: a faith rooted Love
30 internalexpanding in “knowing” God through their own individual experiences, rather than a faith Passion
& mediated by the Catholic Church — an institution that Protestants viewed as cor- Reformation CONNECTING TO BRITISH
externalcontracting rupt. Certainly, the first English translations of the Bible — the Geneva Bible in Renaissance LITERATURE
brakes Bothatonce and 1560 and the King James Bible in 1611 — nurtured this view. For the first time, an
increasingly literate public could interpret the word of God on their own. Thought Pastoral Poems and Sonnets
brought allofher tremB But the consequences of humanism went far beyond religion. In contrast to the Transformation
35 -ling medieval period, when authority emanated solely from the church and the divinely Wonder Christopher Marlowe
to a:dead. ordained king, the Renaissance saw the emergence of a new authority: individual Sir Philip Sidney
experience, perception, and judgment. In England, for example, the philosopher, Sir Walter Raleigh
stand-
Edmund Spenser
;Still)
William Shakespeare
The Last Supper, 1495-97 (tempera and oil on plaster)/Vinci, Leonardo da (1452-1519)/MAURO RANZANI (IMAGINART)/ monastery of Santa
Humanists and Spiritual Writers
The Last Supper,
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: Comparisons Copyright (c) 2023 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Uncorrected proofs were used with this sample chapter.
Sir Thomas More

Leonardo da Vinci,
1. The poem uses a metaphor to make a comparison. What two things are being 1495. The painting Sir Francis Bacon
John Milton

compared? Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.
covers an end wall of
2. What characteristics are shared by both objects of comparison? the dining hall at the John Bunyan
3. Why does e.e. cummings use the comparisons he does, and what associations Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy/Bridgeman Images Metaphysical Poets
can we make through the figurative comparisons? Maria delle Grazie in John Donne
Milan, Italy.
George Herbert
How does this painting
reflect the spirit of the
Renaissance period?
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Ideas in Literature Thought and Feeling 147

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