Immagine dell'autore.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517–1547)

Autore di Poems

17+ opere 109 membri 4 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Fonte dell'immagine: Wenceslaus Hollar [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Opere di Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Opere correlate

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (2000) — Collaboratore — 1,258 copie
English Poetry, Volume I: From Chaucer to Gray (1910) — Collaboratore — 525 copie
The Oxford Book of English Verse (1999) — Collaboratore — 471 copie
The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse: 1509-1659 (1992) — Collaboratore — 285 copie
Silver Poets of the Sixteenth Century (1947) — Collaboratore — 222 copie
The Standard Book of British and American Verse (1932) — Collaboratore — 114 copie
Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English, 1500-2001 (2014) — Collaboratore — 42 copie
Selected sonnets, odes, and letters (1966) — Traduttore, alcune edizioni39 copie
Masters of British Literature, Volume A (2007) — Collaboratore — 20 copie

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Recensioni

I picked this up after seeing one of its poems excerpted by a modern author, and I enjoyed reading it but it was a challenge. A lot of these poems are difficult to read due to the way that the words were spelled. Here are a few excerpts for example:

It semde vnhap had him long hatched

In middes of his dispayres.

As one forlorne was he;

Vpon his heade alwaies he ware

A wreath of wilow tree.

His beastes he vept vpon the hyll,

..

Our coostes to them contrarie be thei aie,

I craue of God; that our streames to ther fluddes;

Arrnes vnto arrnes; & of springe of ech race!

...

This saing, sche hir hid in the clos nycht.

Than terrible flguris apperis to my sycht

Of greit goddis, semand with Troy aggrevit

And tho beheld I all the citie mischevit,

Fair Ilion all fall in gledis doun,

And, fra the soill, grete Troy, Neptunus toun.

Ourtumbllt to the ground.

Personally I'm familiar enough with Early Modern English spelling that reading the book this way wasn't impossible, but I'd recommend most people find a book with modernized spelling. I think I'd have enjoyed it more if I'd done so myself.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
wishanem | May 27, 2021 |
Two volume set titled: The Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and of Sir Thomas Wyatt, The Elder.

Volume One opens with a 280 page biography of Henry Howard followed by 490 pages of his poetry and letters.

Volume Two opens with a 168 page biography of Sir Thomas Wyatt, The Elder, followed by 620 pages of his poetry and letters.

 
Segnalato
lynnbyrdcpa | Dec 7, 2020 |
[The poems of Henry Howard Earl of Surrey] by Frederick Morgan Padelford
Henry Howard (1517-1547) was executed during the very last days of the reign of Henry VIII. Born of noble blood his short but eventful life as a courtier, soldier, roustabout was combined with claims for him to be the most important English poet since the days of Chaucer. In Tottel’s Miscellany (published 1557) which was the first ever printed anthology of English verse Henry Howard was given pride of place and almost all of the poems attributed to him were published in that volume. During his lifetime his poems would have been circulated amongst friends and courtiers and what a life it was.

Imprisoned at least three times, once in Windsor Castle for smacking a fellow courtier in the grounds of the Kings Palace, once in Fleet Prison London for eating meat during lent and smashing windows with a stone bow in the more well-to-do districts of London and finally in the Tower of London on a charge of high treason. In an age of hot blooded courtiers he seemed to be more hot bloodied than most and that along with his pride of his noble blood and his name made him a target at court. Henry Howard Earl of Surrey was probably a catholic in an age of reformation. The Howard family were continually at odds with the more protestant Seymours and the changing face of fortune at King Henry VIII’s court was not something that a man like Henry Howard found it easy to negotiate. As a youth he was chosen to be a companion to Henry VIII’s bastard son the Duke of Richmond and so had pride of place at court. The Duke of Richmond died in his late teens and Henry Howard’s next career was as a soldier supporting his father the Duke of Norfolk who was engaged in putting down the great northern rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. After his spell in prison for his window smashing exploits Henry VIII sent him to France as head of a 5000 strong advance force intent on invasion. After leading an ill fated sortie outside of Boulogne he was replaced by one of the Seymour family and returned to England and it wasn’t long before intrigues at court led to him being imprisoned in the Tower on a charge of high treason.

It is fortunate I suppose that his time in prison allowed him to concentrate on his poetry and Padelford points to three reasons why he should be considered as one of greats in the early canon. Firstly it was his insistence that the metrical accent should fall upon words which are naturally stressed because of their importance, and upon the accented, rather than the unaccented syllables of such words. This went against the grain of much poetry at the time and because of the development of the English language during Tudor times, making it much more recognisable to modern readers than the language of Chaucer (a century and a half earlier) it makes it easier to understand. The second reason was his establishment of the sonnet form known as the English sonnet whose rhyming scheme abab, cded, efef, gg would be taken to such great heights by Shakespeare half a century later. He has also been credited with the introduction of blank verse through his translations of the Æneid. Thirdly his use of alliteration and his experimentation with other verse forms set a pattern for other poets to follow.

So what is the modern reader to make of the forty or so original poems by Henry Howard in existence today. Firstly some of the more famous sonnets are not really original being loose translations either of Petrarch’s Italian renaissance poetry or taken from classical authors. However it was Howards adaption into the English sonnet form and his addition of more personal and imaginative lines and phrases that make them so very readable today: Here is an example from poemhunter on the internet:

Alas! so all things now do hold their peace,
Heaven and earth disturbed in nothing.
The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease,
The night{:e}s chare the stars about doth bring.
Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less:
So am not I, whom love, alas, doth wring,
Bringing before my face the great increase
Of my desires, whereat I weep and sing
In joy and woe, as in a doubtful ease.
For my sweet thoughts sometime do pleasure bring,
But by and by the cause of my disease
Gives me a pang that inwardly doth sting,
When that I think what grief it is again
To live and lack the thing should rid my pain.


This was adapted from a poem by Petrarch and shows Howards willingness to adapt the rhyming scheme to fit his needs.

Howards range of poetry was quite astonishing. There are love poems, autobiographical poems, moral and didactic poems, elegiac poems, tributes to other poets and of course his translations. There are sonnets, six line stanzas, tetrameter quatrains with alternate rhymes and a real product of his times Poulters measure. Poulters measure is an iambic couplet of 12 and 14 syllable lines that produces a curious sing song effect and has long since gone out of fashion.

Here is an extended sonnet written by Henry Howard written in the Tower of London when facing death following his trial for treason. He faces death with courage and remembrance of a life with no regret, but he is also at pains to express his disdain on the cowardly courtiers that have triumphed over him and his family.

THE STORMS are past; the clouds are overblown;

And humble chere great rigour hath represt.

For the default is set a pain foreknown;

And patience graft in a determined breast.

And in the heart, where heaps of griefs were grown,

The sweet revenge hath planted mirth and rest.

No company so pleasant as mine own.
. . . . . . . .

Thraldom at large hath made this prison free.

Danger well past, remembered, works delight.

Of ling’ring doubts such hope is sprung, pardie!

That nought I find displeasant in my sight,

But when my glass presented unto me

The cureless wound that bleedeth day and night.

To think, alas! such hap should granted be

Unto a wretch, that hath no heart to fight,

To spill that blood, that hath so oft been shed,

For Britain’s sake, alas! and now is dead!


And so we find Henry Howard belligerent to the end. He may well have been pumped up with pride and ruthless in his pursuit of power and influence, but he was no different from others at the court of Henry VIII. Perhaps Henry Howard lacked the subtlety to survive such a bear pit; he refers to himself in one of his poems as a man of war and in another who lives

“The rakehell life that longs to loves disported”

I found his writing for the most part clear and direct with much interest for the modern reader with an interest in Tudor times. Padelfords book which is free on the internet at archive.org contains as much as you might want to know. For me a five star read.
… (altro)
2 vota
Segnalato
baswood | Jul 22, 2016 |
Thomas Wyatt -- Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey -- Philip Sidney -- Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke -- Walter Ralegh
 
Segnalato
ME_Dictionary | Mar 19, 2020 |

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Statistiche

Opere
17
Opere correlate
12
Utenti
109
Popolarità
#178,011
Voto
4.0
Recensioni
4
ISBN
9

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