Old and New: A Public Poetry Project

Welcome to my public poetry project! For my project, I focused on bringing poems written in the 16th and 17th centuries to subbies and freshmen at Uni. Students were given seven poems to choose from, or had the option of choosing their own poem from the time period. They read the poem, wrote a short summary, and then wrote a poem in response to and/or inspired by the original poem. On this blog, you will find the results of the project: the original poems side-by-side with the poems written by the subbies and freshmen. Note that some of the students requested to not have their poems as part of the blog, so more students participated in the project than are listed on this blog. As a bonus, you will also find a few poem recommendations from the students. Enjoy! 

  Anything written by  Amanda Gorman   "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (William Wordsworth) I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed—and gazed—but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. "Nothing Gold Can Stay"...

     (image credit: literariness.org ) About Henry Vaughan "Henry Vaughan was born on April 17, 1622, in Llansantffraed, Breconshire, Wales. He was educated in Oxford and studied law in london before being recalled home after the English Civil War broke out." "Vaughan is the author of several volumes of poetry, including  Poems, with the Tenth Satyre of Juvenal Englished  (1646). He was considered a Metaphysical poet, alongside John Donne and George Herbert. He practiced medicine in the latter half of his life, and died in Llansantffraed on April 23, 1695."  Source: https://poets.org/poet/henry-vaughan   To read more about Henry Vaughan and read some of his poems, refer to https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/henry-vaughan .  " The Water-fall" (Henry Vaughan, 1655)      With what deep murmurs through time’s silent stealth      Doth thy transparent, cool, and wat’ry wealth      Here flowing fall, ...

   (image credit: poetryfoundation.org ) About Andrew Marvell "Andrew Marvell is surely the single most compelling embodiment of the charge the came over English society and letters in the course of the 17th century. In an era that makes a better claim than most upon the familiar term transitional, Marvell wrote a varied array of exquisite lyrics that blend Cavalier grace with Metaphysical wit and complexity." "The son of the Reverend Andrew Marvell and Anne Pease Marvell, Andrew Marvell spent his boyhood in the Yorkshire town of Hull, where his father, a clergyman of Calvinist inclination, was appointed lecturer at Holy Trinity Church and master of the Charterhouse when teh poet was three years old...at the age of twelve in 1633, Marvell was sent up to Trinity College, Cambridge." "Marvell's death [is], generally attributed to a fever, on August 16, 1678."  To read more about Andrew Marvell and read some of his poems, refer to https://www.poetryfounda...

       (image credit: allpoetry.com ) About Lady Mary Wroth "Lady Mary Wroth was the first Englishwoman to write a complete sonnet sequence as well as an original work of prose fiction. Although earlier women writers of the 16th century had mainly explored the genres of translation, dedication, and epitaph, Wroth openly transgressed the traditional boundaries by writing secular love poetry and romances." "The eldest daughter of Sir Robert Sidney and Lady Barbara Gamage, Wroth was probably born on October 18, 1587, a date derived from the Sidney correspondence. She belonged to a prominent literary family, known for its patronage of the arts. Wroth was influenced by some of her uncle's [Sir Philip Sidney] literary works." "The only record of Wroth's death occurs in a Chancery deposition of 1668, in which the event is said to have occured in 1651, or more likely in 1653. No literary works survive from the last 30 years of her life."  To read more abou...

   (image credit: poets.org ) About Robert Herrick "Born on August 24, 1591, Robert Herrick was the seventh child and fourth son born to a London goldsmith...When Herrick was fourteen months old, his father died. At age sixteen, Herrick began a ten-year apprenticeship with his uncle. The apprenticeship ended after only six years, and Herrick, at age twenty-two, matriculated at Saint John's College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1617." "Over the next decade, Herrick became a disciple of Ben Jonson, about whom he wrote five poems. In 1623, Herrick took holy orders, and six years later he became vicar of Dean Prior in Devonshire...[he died in] 1674." "Herrick was influenced by classical Roman poetry and wrote on pastoral themes, dealing mostly with English country life and village customs."  To read more about Robert Herrick and read some of his poems, refer to https://poets.org/poet/robert-herrick .  " To Daffodils" (Robert Herrick, 1648)         ...

      (image credit: Internet Shakespeare )      About Ben Jonson      "Ben Jonson is among the best-known writers and theorists of English Renaissance literature, second           in reputation only to Shakespeare. A prolific dramatist and a man of letters highly learned in the                     classics, he profoundly influenced the Augustan age through his emphasis on the precepts of Horace,           Aristotle, and other classical Greek and Latin thinkers. While he is now remembered primarily for his           satirical comedies, he also distinguished himself as a poet, preeminent writer of masques, erudite                defender of his work, and the originator of English literary criticism."        To read mo...

 (image credit: Encyclopedia Britannica ) About Sir Walter Raleigh "One of the most colorful, politically powerful members of the court of Queen Elizabeth I, Walter Raleigh (sometimes spelled Ralegh) is one personification of the English Renaissance. Born at Hayes Barton, Deveonshire, most likely in 1554, Raleigh came from a prominent family long associated with seafaring. In his mid-teens, Raleigh interrupted his education to fight with Huguenot forces in France. After returning to England in 1572, he attended Oxford University for two years and left without earning a degree to study law in London." "One of the first examples of Raleigh's poetry appeared in 1576 as the preface to George Gasciogne's satire  The Stele Glas ." "He was knighted in 1585 and in 1587 was named captain of the Queen's personal guard. The majority of Raleigh's poetry was written during this period, much of it designed to flatter Elizabeth and secure her royal favor....

 (image credit: https://poets.org/poet/thomas-wyatt )  About Sir Thomas Wyatt "Sir Thomas Wyatt was born in 1503 at Allington Castle in Kent, England...He attended St. John's College, Cambridge, and married Elizabeth Brooke in 1520. Although she bore him two children, they separated shortly after marriage." "Wyatt, like his father before him, worked in the court of Henry VIII...[where] he served first as esquire of the king's body and clerk of the king's jewels in 1524...By 1527, he began a diplomatic career with missions to France and Rome, where he grew acquainted with the French and Italian prosody that would later have profound influence on his literary life." "Although Wyatt's poems circulated among many of the members of Henry's court, they did not appear in print until after his death...[his] poems, satires, and lyrics would remain in manuscript and slowly come into print during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Along with the E...