The Silver Poets

Poetry has over the centuries grouped poets or poems into many different themes and movements.Amongst its most unusual movements are the English wordsmiths, The Silver Poets.This select band lived during the sixteenth century reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st. Amongst their storied ranks were Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Philip Sidney, Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Davies, Michael Drayton and Mary Sidney (Herbert), the Countess of Pembroke.The theme The Silver Poets most often took to their pens was Love. Their offerings on the subject came in many poetic forms from the beginning of the English renaissance till the end of the Elizabethan Age. In this regard it broke with previous approaches and re-identified this complex emotion in new ways.Allied to this these poets spoke on many subjects, including faith and politics, in new ways against a background of a century riven by religious conflicts as it turned from the suffocating and corrupt Catholic faith to welcome, and at times reject, the purer form of Protestantism. Across Europe new ideas brought turmoil, the threat of invasion, new expressions of art and many other elements to these shores.It was also an age when England began to confidently survey the horizon and look to a future that promised much, including a golden age of literature, and fleets venturing overseas in search of trade, dominions and ideas.1 - The Silver Poets - An Introduction2 - My Lute Awake by Sir Thomas Wyatt3 - They Flee From Me by Sir Thomas Wyatt4 - And Wilt Thou Leave Me Thus by Sir Thomas Wyatt5 - The Forsaken Lover Consoleth Himself With Rememberances of Past Happiness by Sir Thomas Wyatt6 - Farewell Love and All Thy Laws Forever by Sir Thomas Wyatt7 - A Satire Against the Citizens of London by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey8 - London Hast Thou Accursed Me by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey9 - The Fraility and Hurtfulness of Beauty by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey10 - Life by Sir Walter Raleigh11 - My Last Will by Sir Walter Raleigh12 - Farewell To The Court by Sir Walter Raleigh13 - My True Love Hath My Heart and I Have His by Sir Phillip Sidney14 - Ode by Sir Philip Sidney15 - Sonnet I from Astrophil and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney16 - Leave Me O Love by Sir Philip Sidney17 - The Smokes of Melancholy by Sir Philip Sidney18 - The Doleful Lay of Clorinda by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke19 - O by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke20 - O Lord in Me There Lieth Naught by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke21 - To My Most Dearly Beloved Friend by Michael Drayton22 - To His Coy Love by Michael Drayton23 - The Ballad Of Agincourt by Michael Drayton24 - Glastonbury from Poly-Olbion by Michael Drayton 25 - Woodstock. Rosamond to King Henry by Michael Drayton26 - Sonnet I by Sir John Davies27 - A Lover Out of Fashion by Sir John Davies28 - Man by Sir John Davies