Introduction

This book examines how the creation of complex poetic subjectivity in the sonnet sequences of the English Renaissance can be directly tied to representations of failure. While success confirms us in our our beliefs and reassures us about our view of the world, failure forces the speaking subject to face the limits of what is known and to create something new in its stead. In thus adapting to the changing shape of the world, the mind turns back on itself, highlighting the process of its own thoughts. To represent a character dealing with failure is to throw into high relief the complex ways a mind can think about itself. In this light, the limits and pressures of failure—the way it constrains and channels and shapes a poetic subject&s;s responses to his own thoughts and expectations—can be seen as one of the formative influences on the Renaissance lyric.