Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog where I share my passion for literature and history. Today I want to write about Henry Howard and his works.
Henry Howard was a poet who lived in the 16th century, during the reign of Henry VIII. He was also known as the Earl of Surrey, a title he inherited from his father, the Duke of Norfolk.
Henry Howard was one of the first English poets to introduce the styles and metres of the Italian humanist poets, such as Petrarch and Dante. He is credited with developing the Shakespearean form of the sonnet, which consists of three quatrains and a couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg.
He wrote many love poems and elegies, some of which were addressed to his wife, Lady Frances de Vere, or to his friend and cousin, Anne Boleyn.
Henry Howard was also a translator and a scholar. He translated two books of Virgil’s Aeneid into English blank verse, a form that he also introduced to English poetry. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter, which means it has ten syllables per line with a stress on every second syllable. He also translated some Psalms and Ecclesiastes from the Bible.
Henry Howard had an eventful life as a soldier and a courtier. He was involved in many political intrigues and conflicts, as he was related to some of the most powerful and controversial figures of his time. He was a childhood companion to Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, who was Henry VIII’s illegitimate son.
He was also a first cousin to Anne Boleyn, who became Henry VIII’s second wife and was later executed for treason. Henry Howard himself was accused of treason by his enemies at court and was executed in 1547, shortly before Henry VIII’s death.
Henry Howard’s poetry is remarkable for its elegance, sophistication, and emotion. He influenced many later poets, such as Edmund Spenser, Philip Sidney, and William Shakespeare. His works are collected in Tottel’s Miscellany (1557), which is one of the first printed anthologies of English poetry.
I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to Henry Howard and his works. If you want to read more about him and his poems, you can check out these websites:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/henry-howard
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Howard-Earl-of-Surrey
Luminarium https://www.luminarium.org/renlit/henrybib.htm
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more posts on literature and history!