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This course opens a window into the vibrant world of British poetry and drama from the 14th to the 17th centuries—a period when English literature discovered its voice and vision. From Chaucer’s lively portraits of human nature to the spiritual grace of Spenser and Donne, and the dramatic brilliance of Marlowe and Shakespeare, students will explore how poets and playwrights gave artistic form to the dreams, doubts, and desires of their age. Through a close study of representative works, learners will encounter a literary landscape alive with moral questioning, wit, passion, and philosophical depth. Each text reveals how language evolved into a powerful medium of imagination and inquiry—transforming private emotion into public art, and mirroring the shifting currents of faith, power, and identity. Intended for undergraduate students of English literature, the course cultivates critical insight, aesthetic appreciation, and interpretive confidence. It invites learners to experience poetry and drama as living dialogues between art and life—works that continue to reveal the enduring truths of human thought, emotion, and imagination.1.Geoffrey ChaucerThe Wife of Bath’s Prologue,Philip Sidney‘Sonnet 1’2.Edmund SpenserSelections from Amoretti:Sonnet LXVII ‘Like as a huntsman...’ Sonnet LVII ‘Sweet warrior...’Sonnet LXXV ‘One day I wrote her name...’John Donne ‘The Sunne Rising’ ‘Batter My Heart’“Valediction: forbidding mourning’3.Christopher MarloweDoctor Faustus4.William ShakespeareMacbeth5.William Shakespeare Twelfth Night
