Question

Poetry and drama can each present its own set of challenges in reading comprehension. While you explored literature from the English Renaissance, you probably encountered some obstacles in understanding the texts.
Think about the students who will take this course in the coming years. What advice would you give to help them prepare for reading plays, sonnets, and poetry of the Renaissance? What types of challenges would you prepare them to face? Consider different strategies that they might use to gain a better understanding of the text.

Answer 1

It wasn’t the form itself that was important, but the guy who wrote them, Petrarch.

His sonnets were considered among the best poems and it sparked a wave of imitations in Italy and later in England.

I hope my answer has come to your help. God bless and have a nice day ahead!

Answer 2

There are several strategies that these students could use to prepare themselves for reading plays, sonnets and poetry of the Renaissance. For example, they can try to find books that have annotations in modern English that explain some of the difficult passages. They can also familiarize themselves with the time period and the culture of the age.

I would prepare them to face the challenges of not being able to read modern English. This means that they will most likely find many unknown words in the texts, as well as sayings and figures of speech. I would also prepare them for the fact that Elizabethan culture was very different from our own, which means that many situations can be confusing or unexpected.