Contexts of British Poetry to 1660

If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every Shepherd’s tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move,
To live with thee, and be thy love.
 
Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When Rivers rage and Rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb,
The rest complains of cares to come.
 
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields,
To wayward winter reckoning yields,
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.
 
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of Roses,
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten:
In folly ripe, in reason rotten.
 

Thy belt of straw and Ivy buds,
The Coral clasps and amber studs,
All these in me no means can move
To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last, and love still breed,
Had joys no date, nor age no need,
Then these delights my mind might move
To live with thee, and be thy love.


The author of this poem was a contemporary of which of the following poets?

A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruel markes of many"a bloudy fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

Who is the author of this poem?

A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruel markes of many"a bloudy fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

When was this poem published?

A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruel markes of many"a bloudy fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

Which of the following was the closest contemporary of this author?

A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruel markes of many"a bloudy fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

This poem praises which of the following monarchs?

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote       
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,        
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,         
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;           
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth             
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth  
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne       
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,       
And smale fowles maken melodye,     
That slepen al the night with open ye,         
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages...

Who is the author of this work?

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote       
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,        
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,         
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;           
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth             
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth  
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne       
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,       
And smale fowles maken melodye,     
That slepen al the night with open ye,         
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages…

What important event was occurring at the time of this work’s publication?

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote       
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,        
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,         
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;           
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth             
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth  
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne       
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,       
And smale fowles maken melodye,     
That slepen al the night with open ye,         
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages…

When was this poem written?

In a somer seson,
Whan softe was the sonne,
I shoop me into shroudes
As I a sheep weere,
In habite as an heremite
Unholy of werkes,
Wente wide in this world
Wondres to here;
Ac on a May morwenynge
On Malverne hilles
Me bifel a ferly,
Of fairye me thoghte.

Who is the author of this poem?