English Literature / Unit 6 ENL 0506 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Surrey, Blank Verse and the English Sonnet
Captions available
The idea
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, a nobleman beheaded in fifteen forty-seven, was the first to use blank verse in English, in translating books two and four of Virgil's Aeneid. The witness credits him with the English sonnet's rhyme and division into quatrains.
In practice
Blank verse begins with Surrey.
Where people slip
Surrey's verse was printed posthumously.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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