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 Introduction

2 - My Lute Awake by Sir Thomas Wyatt

3 - They Flee From Me by Sir Thomas Wyatt

4 - And Wilt Thou Leave Me Thus by Sir Thomas Wyatt

5 - The Forsaken Lover Consoleth Himself With Rememberances of Past Happiness by Sir Thomas Wyatt

6 - Farewell Love and All Thy Laws Forever by Sir Thomas Wyatt

7 - A Satire Against the Citizens of London by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

8 - London Hast Thou Accursed Me by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

9 - The Fraility and Hurtfulness of Beauty by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

10 - Life by Sir Walter Raleigh

11 - My Last Will by Sir Walter Raleigh

12 - Farewell To The Court by Sir Walter Raleigh

13 - My True Love Hath My Heart and I Have His by Sir Phillip Sidney

14 - Ode by Sir Philip Sidney

15 - Sonnet I from Astrophil and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney

16 - Leave Me O Love by Sir Philip Sidney

17 - The Smokes of Melancholy by Sir Philip Sidney

18 - The Doleful Lay of Clorinda by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke

19 - O by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke

20 - O Lord in Me There Lieth Naught by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke

21 - To My Most Dearly Beloved Friend by Michael Drayton

22 - To His Coy Love by Michael Drayton

23 - The Ballad Of Agincourt by Michael Drayton

24 - Glastonbury from Poly-Olbion by Michael Drayton

25 - Woodstock. Rosamond to King Henry by Michael Drayton

26 - Sonnet I by Sir John Davies

27 - A Lover Out of Fashion by Sir John Davies

28 - Man by Sir John Davies