Poetry written before 1914

‘Poetry written before 1914’ covers a wide range, encompassing the works of Chaucer, written in the thirteenth century, to the poems written in the year that World War One began. There is a huge variety of poetry covered by the period and you encounter features when studying it that you do not find in more modern poetry. For example:

• Some of the language used might be archaic (old-fashioned words and phrases that we don’t use anymore) so you might have to look up the meanings of particular words. The language of Chaucer is an obvious example of this.
• The poem might be to do with ideas or themes that we no longer relate to in our own time.
• The poem might contain references that meant something to the reader at the time the poem was written but which you now need to look up to fully understand.
• The style in which the poet writes might be unfamiliar to you today.

You sometimes need to work at a poem in order to begin to develop an understanding of it.

Some of these factors could apply to modern poetry too, but you are more likely to encounter them in poetry that was written some time in the past.

Now read the following poem, On my first Sonne by Ben Jonson in 1616.

On my first Sonne

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;

My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy,

Seven yeeres tho’wert lent to me, and I thee pay,

Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.

O, could I loose all father, now. For why

Will man lament the state he should envie?

To have so soone scap’d worlds, and fleshes rage,

And, if no other miserie, yet age?

Rest in soft peace, and ask’d say here doth lye

Ben Jonson his best piece of poetrie.

For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vowes be such,

As what he loves may never like too much.

What immediately strikes you about Jonson’s language here?
There are obviously some differences between Jonson’s 1616 spelling and our modern spelling – ‘sinne’ instead of ‘sin’ and ‘yeeres ’ instead of ‘years’, for example. However, for the most part, the language is little different to what we use today.

The occasion that gave rise to Jonson’s poem, however, is a universal one, which we can relate to today just as much as Jonson did in his own time – he is writing about the death of his first son (in fact, none of Jonson’s children survived into adulthood). This is the context of the poem.

Tichborne’s Elegy is another poem in which the historical context in which it was written is closely linked to the content of the poem and the ideas it expresses.

Read the poem through carefully.

Tichborne’s Elegy

Written with his own hand in the Tower before his execution

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares

My feast of joy is but a dish of pain;

My crop of corn is but a field of tares,

And all my good is but vain hope of gain.

The day is past, and yet I saw no sun;

And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard, and yet it was not told,

My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green;

My youth is spent, and yet I am not old,

I saw the world, and yet I was not seen.

My thread is cut, and yet it is not spun;

And now I live, and now my life is done.

I sought my death, and found it in my womb,

I looked for life and saw it was a shade;

I trod the earth, and knew it was my tomb,

And now I die, and now I was but made.

My glass is full, and now my glass is run;

And now I live, and now my life is done.

Chidiock Tichborne 1586

This poem is called an ‘elegy’, which is usually a poem that mourns the loss of something and is often sad or melancholy in tone. This poem is sometimes called Elegy for Himself, which gives you a major clue as to what it is about. Chidiock Tichborne (1558?86) and his father were devout Catholics. At that time, though, the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Catholics were regarded with much suspicion. In 1586, Tichborne became involved in a plot to replace Queen Elizabeth with her Catholic cousin, Mary (Queen of Scots). The plot was discovered and the conspirators arrested, Tichborne amongst them. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London and hanged on 20th September 1586. He is said to have written the poem on the night before his execution.

Make notes on your interpretation of the poem. Here are some questions to help you focus your ideas:

• What does Tichborne have to say?
• What tone does he create?
• How does he use language to create his effect?

Here are some ideas:

• He is lamenting the fact that his life is being cut short and feels the waste bitterly.
• Not surprisingly, the tone is melancholy and regretful as he dwells on the fact that he is not old but his life is over.
• His use of ‘frost’ gives a sense of the cold of death ? ‘cares’, ‘pain’, ‘vain hope’ give a negative feel and helplessness that he no longer controls his fate.
• Repetition of ‘yet’ balances what could have been against what will be.
• Imagery is used to suggest death and how this was destined to be.
• The repetition at the end of each stanza of ‘…and now my life is done’ emphasises the overall message of the poem.

Make sure you use specific details of language from the poem to support your ideas.