Comprehensive links to poems, plays, prose, and more!

DRINK 1 to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;....

Did Christopher Marlowe fake his own death and then go on to write most, or all, of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare?

An online audio recording of Martowe's The Passionate Shepherd to His Love from LibriVox.

The speaker strikes a tone between high, chivalric love and a suggestive sensuality. ‘All the pleasures prove’ carries a playful sexual connotation, where ‘prove’ means to test or experience, it also brings to mind a contest or duel between knights.

The full text of one of the best known and most significant examples of the pastoral lyric poem.

The Internet Public Library presents a comprehensive set of links to literary criticism related to the works of Edmund Spenser.

The Faerie Queene, a moral allegory written in praise of Elizabeth I, intended, through a total of twenty-four books, to emphasize twenty-four different virtues. Although incomplete, it is still one of the longest poems in English. It brought Spenser political favor and a 50 pounds per year pensi

This poem, poem written by Elizabeth I of England sometime around 1570, is a reprimand of the Roman Catholic conspirators who tried to remove Elizabeth from the throne and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.

This is the print version from Bartleby.com .

This is a downloadable LibriVox recording of the sonnet Astrophil and Stella by Philip Sidney, an Elizabethan poet and courtier. It details the frustrated love of Astrophil (whose name means "star-lover") for his beloved Stella (whose name means "star").

Born at Penshurst, Kent, Sidney was the eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley. He was important as a translator and as a patron of poetry. His notable works include The Defence of Poesie, Astrophil and Stella, and Astrophil and Stella.

From the Poetry Foundation: Thomas Campion's importance for nondramatic literature of the English Renaissance lies in the exceptional intimacy of the musical-poetic connection in his work. While other poets and musicians talked about the union of the two arts, only Campion produced complete songs wh

Thomas Campion's "When Thou Must Home to Shades of Underground" & other poems

From the 'Critical Introduction' by H. R. Reichel: As scholar, writer, lawyer, and perhaps diplomatist, More was the foremost Englishman of his time. Colet, Erasmus, and More were the three leaders who created the Oxford or Humanist Reform movement; ... He wrote in English and Latin, in prose and ve

Utopia, originally written in Latin, is More's attempt to describe a utilitarian, rational society as a criticism of the tumultuous European world he saw around him. From the Gutenberg Project.

The complete online works of Sir Thomas Wyatt from the University of Michigan

Criticism related to Petrarchan Love and the English Sonnet, Wyatt and Surrey and the New Poetry, Wyatt's 'They Flee from Me' , Wyatt's 'Madame, Withouten Many Wordes', Wyatt's 'Hevyn and erth and all that here me plain', Country Mouse and Towny Mouse: Truth in Wyatt, English Court Poets and Petrarc

Whoso List to Hunt or The lover despairing to attain unto his lady's grace relinquisheth the pursuit, is a poem thought to be about Anne Boleyn, with whom the author had a relationship before the king became interested in her. Also has an online audio reading of the poem.

Written in response to Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love", 'The Nymph’s Reply'..inverts Marlowe's imagery in an attempt to undermine the author's offer, showing all that he offers is transitory.

A short analysis of the poem from shakespeare-online.com .

Writing an essay on a Shakespearean sonnet can be quite a challenge. The following are a few tips to help you start the process...

Sites about Collected Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare from the Internet Public Library.

Shakespeare’s sonnets comprise a collection of 154 poems in sonnet form that deal with such themes as love, beauty, politics, and mortality. Here them read online by Librivox volunteers.