Undergraduate Course: Echoing Song: Early Modern Poetry in Context (ENLI10442)
Course Outline
| School | School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will introduce students to the study of poetry from the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries, and to modes of reading such poetry which set it in the context of its production and reception in the period. It will also explore the media of manuscript and print in which lyric poetry was circulated, introducing students to the ways in which such poetry found its readers and how that can lead us to new interpretations and understandings of even the most canonical text. Among the range of subgenres, the course will further students' knowledge of and engagement with love lyric, devotional lyric, pastoral, elegy, estate poetry, panegyric and satire. It will draw on a range of editions to provide students with appropriately accessible texts, while comparing these highly edited and polished texts to the poems as first composed and circulated in manuscript and print. |
| Course description |
This course aims to familiarize students with lyric poetry in English from the early modern period, drawing on a range of work written between 1580 and 1670. It will explore the various genres or kinds of lyric, and the particular formal resources used by poets. This key focus on questions of form and genre will be combined with a study of the cultural contexts that illuminate their significance in the period, a combination which will be mediated through specific attention to the material culture of poetic production and distribution legible in surviving manuscripts and printed books from the period. To this end, students will not only work with modern editions but will also be introduced to this poetry in its first forms, in early modern manuscripts and printed books. The course is also designed to give parity to men and women poets of the period, enabling us to foreground the significance of gender for the early modern organization of cultural production, exchange and reception.
The course will be taught in 2-hour seminars for all but weeks 4 and 9, and each seminar will cover selected works by two poets, one male and one female. A possible selection of poets could be: Philip Sidney, Mary Sidney, John Donne, Mary Wroth, Amelia Lanyer, Ben Jonson, John Donne, Anne Bradstreet, Henry Vaughan, Katherine Philips, Andrew Marvell, Lucy Hutchinson and John Wilmot.
In weeks 4 and 9 there will be a 1-hour plenary lecture for all students on the course and a 1-hour library session for each seminar group. In week 4 this will focus on poetry in early modern print, looking at some of the editions in which poets on the course found their readers, paying attention to the ways in which the material form of the book adds a dimension of meaning to their poetry and how that might be legible for us in the present. In week 9, the focus will be on manuscript poetry, with the same key questions in view.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Available to students studying on the English and Scottish Honours degree programmes. Available to visiting students in English and Scottish literature. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
172 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Assessment will be by coursework, and made up of two components:
1. Reflective essay (1,500 words): a reflection by each student on the basis of their experience of the lectures and library sessions in weeks 4 and 9, focusing on the challenges and merits of encountering the poetry studied in early print and manuscript, as those pertain to the work of two authors (one male, one female) on the course.
2. Critical essay (2,500 words): a critical exploration of the work of three poets on the course (not all of the same gender) in response to one of a list of 4 questions provided.
In addition, a formative reflective submission of 500 words will be submitted in week 5-6, for which feedback will be provided. This will serve in particular to prepare students for the reflective essay submitted later in the course.
Formative and Summative Reflective essay meet LO1, LO3, LO4, LO5
Critical essay meets LO1, LO2, LO3, LO5
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| Feedback |
Feedback will be provided on both written components.
Students will be asked to draft a 500 word formative assignment after the lecture and library session in week 4, using the same criteria and instructions for the final submission of the reflective assignment but with a narrower focus. This will be submitted in week 5, and formative feedback will be provided by week 7. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Develop and communicate clear and coherent arguments about the meaning and significance of early modern poetry in historical context
- Substantiate those arguments with analysis of course texts
- Situate those analyses within considerations of form, genre and medium
- Demonstrate an understanding of the material form in which early modern poetry was circulated
- Find, evaluate and engage with ideas from a range of secondary sources to inform and substantiate your arguments and understanding of the primary course texts
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Reading List
| https://eu01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/leganto/public/44UOE_INST/lists/59692464820002466?auth=SAML |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course will aid students in developing their skills in research and enquiry by focusing on critical analysis and different methods of study. In choosing their focus for both assessments, and developing their ideas and skills via formative feedback, as well as in their engagement with collective preparation tasks in Autonomous Learning Groups, they will develop their personal and intellectual autonomy. Taking responsibility for their learning and engaging with each other in ALGs and classes will help them develop as effective and proactive individuals. Communication - both verbal and written, formal and informal - is key to the working of the course, and students will be developing their skills in this area through participation in its activities. |
| Keywords | Early Modern,Poetry,Printed Book,Manuscript,Lyric |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof James Loxley
Tel: (0131 6)50 3610
Email: James.Loxley@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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