Some Longer Elizabethan Poems — Story, Setting & Ideas

Philosophy and Play in Davies's Verse

Sir John Davies's two long poems, placed first in the collection, present contrasting modes of inquiry. Orchestra (1596) uses the conceit of dancing to argue for universal harmony, while Nosce Teipsum (1599) is a didactic poem on human knowledge and the soul's immortality. The editor's introduction notes Davies's education at Winchester and Oxford, and his escape from the pecuniary cares that plagued other writers. The poems share a concern with order—cosmic in Orchestra, psychological in Nosce Teipsum—but their tones differ: the former is playful and courtly, the latter sober and philosophical. Davies also contributes Hymns of Astræa, acrostic verses in praise of Queen Elizabeth, where formal ingenuity serves panegyric. Together, these works illustrate how Elizabethan poets could move between intellectual seriousness and festive wit within a single career.

Barnfield's Pastoral and Satirical Modes

Richard Barnfield's poems, marked with asterisks as new additions to the English Garner, occupy a substantial portion of the volume. The Affectionate Shepheard (1594) adapts Virgil's second eclogue into a homoerotic complaint: Daphnis loves Ganymede, a boy formed from snow and blood, who is "wholy to chastity inclinde." The sonnets that follow play with Petrarchan conventions, including a gloved transformed into "loue" by removing the letter 'g'. In contrast, The Encomion of Lady Pecunia (1598) satirises greed, and The Combat betweene Conscience and Covetousnesse dramatises an internal moral struggle. Barnfield's range—from idealised pastoral to allegorical satire—demonstrates the flexibility of Elizabethan poetic forms, though the excerpts show his persistent interest in desire and its objects, whether a boy or money.

Elegy, Translation, and the Sidneian Circle

The volume includes a group of elegies on Sir Philip Sidney, printed as an appendix to Spenser's Colin Clouts come home again (1595). These poems, by Spenser and others, mourn Sidney as a paragon of nobility and poetic achievement. The collection also features translations: six idylls of Theocritus rendered into English verse (anon., 1588), and J. C.'s Alcilia (1595), a Ovidian verse epistle. Antony Scoloker's Daiphantus (1604) presents "The Passions of Love" alongside "The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage." These works, while less known than Davies's or Barnfield's, reflect the period's engagement with classical models and the cult of Sidney. The editorial choice to group them suggests a desire to represent the broader literary networks of the Elizabethan era, from pastoral translation to elegiac tribute.

Readers approaching this collection should attend to the editorial framing: Bullen's introduction and Seccombe's classification shape how these poems are presented as a coherent group. The volume rewards comparison between poems that share themes—such as love, mortality, or the value of poetry—but treat them in different genres and tones. The asterisked additions indicate that this edition expands the original Garner, so readers may note which poems were newly included. For those interested in Elizabethan poetics beyond the canonical sonnet sequences, this anthology offers a varied and carefully edited selection.

I keep thinking about how those Elizabethan poems hold human longing so carefully, especially Barnfield’s shepherd. It reminded me of that quiet ache in Pine Tree Ballads: Rhymed Stories of Unplaned Human Natur' up in Maine — Reading Notes, where plain folks carry the same tender weight. Strange how four centuries apart, sorrow still sounds like home.