Golden Worlds and Brazen Lies : Astronomy and Poetry in English Renaissance Poetics

Title data

Klaeger, Florian:
Golden Worlds and Brazen Lies : Astronomy and Poetry in English Renaissance Poetics.
In: Müller-Wood, Anja ; Adamczewski, Tymon ; Gill, Patrick (ed.): Translating Renaissance Experience. - Montréal : Éditions québécoises de l’œuvre , 2021 . - pp. 45-66 . - (Vita Traductiva ; 12 )
ISBN 978-2-924337-17-2

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Abstract in another language

At a time when 'science' and 'art' had not yet emerged as separate systems, English Renaissance writers on poetics refer to astronomy and its close cognate, astrology, with remarkable frequency. They compare the work of poets to that of astronomers in order to define the nature and effects of poetry more precisely. This essay charts, very briefly, their purposes in choosing astronomy as a foil for poetry, and suggests common denominators that made the comparison salient. One key concern was the process by which the two domains translated experience into knowledge differently; another is the object of experience itself.