Date of Award
Fall 1998
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Advisor
Bodden, Mary C.
Second Advisor
Hoeveler, Diane L.
Third Advisor
Block, Ed.
Abstract
Chong Chul, a sixteenth-century Korean poet and courtier, wrote several pieces of long verse in Korean, not in Chinese, which was the dominant official, diplomatic medium of communication as well as the language of serious literature of the time. While in exile from the court, he wrote a series of "song of Thinking the Beautiful One," in which he lamented the separation from his beloved and longed for reunion with his beloved. Of course Chong Chul referred to his king, Sun-Cho, as his beloved, the Beautiful One. Thomas Wyatt drew my attention at first because he reminded me of the Korean poet, Chong Chul. Their apparent similarities, such as their careers as courtiers and poets, and their use of the erotic theme alluding to politics, became the point of departure for this study of Tudor poetry. My further reading of Wyatt's poems led me to Philip Sidney, another Tudor poet, who transformed his disappointing political career under Elizabeth I into a series of literary works. I discuss the Petrarchan convention as the major link between Wyatt and Sidney, for both used the convention as a vehicle to speak of their political situations.