Towards Redefinition of Cavalier Poetics

Abstract

The problem with the term “Cavalier Poets”, as Peter Davidson has pointed out, is that it “identifies a school by allegiance and period, rather than by a distinguishing literary feature”. But if we were to redefine the Cavalier poets in terms of “a distinguishing literary feature”, what exactly would that feature be? Understanding the Cavalier poets in terms of their interest in contemporary continental poetry, and its translation and imitation in English, rather than in terms of political allegiance, can help preserve the utility of “Cavalier poets” as a critical term. A reconstruction of the interests of both pre- and post-war Cavaliers in Italian baroque and French libertin poetics can shed some new light on their intellectual and philosophical, as well as literary, preoccupations. It should also prompt a reassessment of what an anthology of verse that retains the title of “Cavalier Poets” might look like.