The Poem, the Garden, and the World

How an early modern understanding of place and movement are embedded in a performative theory of literature How is a garden like a poem? Early modern writers frequently compared the two, and as Jim Ellis shows, the metaphor gained strength with the arrival of a spectacular new art formthe Renaissance pleasure gardenwhich immersed visitors in a political allegory to be read by their bodies movements. The Poem, the Garden, and the World traces the Renaissance-era relationship of place and movement from garden to poetry to a confluence of both. Starting with the Earl of Leicesters pleasure garden for Queen Elizabeths 1575 progress visit, Ellis explores the political function of the entertainment landscape that plunged visitors into a fully realized golden worlda mythical new form to represent the nation. Next, he turns to one of that gardens visitors: Philip Sidney, who would later contend that literatures golden worlds work to move us as we move through them, reorienting readers toward a belief in English empire. This idea would later be illustrated by Edmund Spensers Faerie Queen; as with the pleasure garden, both characters and readers are refashioned as they traverse the poems dreamlike space. Exploring the artistic creations of three of the eras major figures, Ellis argues for a performative understanding of literature, in which readers are transformed as they navigate poetic worlds.