What impact did the so-called "Renaissance" have on English poetry of that period?

The word "Renaissance" -- closely related to a very
similar Italian word of the period -- suggests the idea of "rebirth." The term refers to
a rebirth of interest in Greek and Roman culture, especially classical literature.
Interest in the classical past had never by any means died out during the so-called
"middle ages," but such interest became especially intense during the Renaissance.  The
Renaissance began in Italy and is often associated with the fourteenth-century Italian
poet Francesco Petrarca (or "Petrarch," in English). Petrarch's sonnet sequence known as
the Rime sparse ("Scattered Rhymes") was especially influential on
subsequent Renaissance literature in many European countries. By the early 1500s, the
impact of the Renaissance in general, and of Petrarch in particular, was beginning to be
felt in England.

The main project of the "Renaissance" was
to try to determine how the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans were relevant to
contemporary Christians. The rationale behind this quest was simple: since Christianity
was the Truth with a capital T, anything discovered in the classical past that was true
was, by definition, compatible with Christianity. Renaissance Christians felt enormous
respect for the so-called "virtuous pagans," such as Plato, Aristotle, and Seneca,who
had used reason alone to discover so much truth. Reason was a gift from God, and the
virtuous pagans had used it wisely and well. Even though they did not have access to the
full Truth (contained in the Bible), they had nevertheless discovered much truth simply
by using the reason God gives to all human beings.

This
admiration for the "virtuous pagans" can be seen, for example, in Sir Thomas Wyatt's
poem "Farewell, Love." Wyatt is usually considered one of the very first, and most
influential, of the English Renaissance poets.  In "Farewell, Love," the speaker turns
his back on Cupid, since Cupid is the symbol of selfish desire (as opposed to true
spiritual love). The speaker announces that Cupid's

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. . . baited hooks shall tangle me no
more;

Senec and Plato call me from thy
lore,

To perfect wealth my wit for to endeavor.
(2-4)

These lines are utterly
typical of Renaissance poetry. Cupid (i.e., selfish desire) tries to entice us with his
deceptive, baited hooks of temptation, as if we were as lacking in reason as fish are.
However, virtuous pagans, such as the Roman philosopher Seneca and the Greek philosopher
Plato, can help call us away from Cupid's "lore" (his teachings) and his "lure" (the
bait on his hook). In other words, the virtuous pagan philosophers can help teach us to
achieve "perfect" moral and intellectual "wealth" by teaching us to endeavor to employ
our "wit" (or reason) properly. This poem is just one of many pieces of English
Renaissance literature that makes essentially the same point: that Renaissance
Christians should strive to be at least as virtuous as the "virtuous pagans"
were.