Textuality » 4A Interacting
In England the Renaissance is usually thought of as beginning with the accession of the House of Tudor to the throne in 1485.
The term "Renaissance" means "New born"...it means a new political situation, a developed of classic literature and, last but not list, a new study of Classics.
England, as an insular country followed a course of social and political history which was to a great extent independent of what was going on in Europe and this assisted the country in preserving its cultural independence.
Poetry was mainly concerned with "courtly" love; Ladies were considered a distant ideal and they were loved by poets that expressed their passion for those "unattainable and distant women".
There were two kinds of woman in Ballad: woman could be like the Madonna
(a perfect mother and wife) or like Eva: a dangerous, temptress woman.
As for Sonnet, the woman was considered beautiful, virtues and perfect ; she represented the desire, so she was unattainable.
Ballads, as Sonnets, is a form of poetry written to be sung, but there are some differences between them.
Firs of all, Ballad was a popular form of poetry, while Sonnet was an aristocratic form of poetry wrote in courts.
When a poet write a ballad, he tells about a tragic love story, or supernatural, or battles between England and Scotland, while sonnets usually tell about a suffering love: infect its addressee is usually a lover.
The Sonnet is composed by an octave(which usually describe us a problem) and a sestet (which give us the solution of the problem), while the Ballad is organized in dialogue form or in narration and dialogue.