Configurations: A Topomorphical Approach to Renaissance Poetry

English literary scholar Maren-Sofie Rostvig presents an investigation of the significant role played by orthodox theology and biblical exegesis in the shaping of the structurally oriented poetics typical of the Renaissance. Rostvig shows how the use of symbolic numbers and ratios is subordinated to a system of linkage created by verbal repetition and the repetition of similar themes or events. Examining primarily the epic tradition, including Augustine, Tasso, Spenser, and Milton, she also looks at the religious sequence represented by Quarles's Emblemes, and the religious lyric by Herbert, Vaughan, and Traherne, as well as the panegyric by John Dryden.