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Landmarks of English Poetry

What do you expect when you read a poem from old English or from the early modern Century.

The language is different Themes are different Rhymes and meters are different

The earliest poem was written in a kind of English that is now difficult to understand.

Modern English started around the time of William Shakespeare, towards the end of the 16th century.

Literary Periods

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Click on a literary period to learn more about it


Old English Middle English Renaissance Neoclassical

Romanticism

Victorian

Modernism

Postmodernism

Review Question

Old English
Years 450-1066 Difficult to read the language Literary Example: Beowulf, author unknown The oldest epic poem- Beowulf- appeared probably in the 7th century

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Hwt! We Gardena in geardagum, eodcyninga, rym gefrunon, hu a elingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaena reatum,

Beowulf

5 monegum mgum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Syan rest wear feasceaft funden, he s frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weormyndum ah, ot him ghwylc ara ymbsittendra 10 ofer hronrade gomban gyldan. cyning! hyran scolde, t ws god

Let us Listen to this Prologue of Beowulf

Middle English
Years 1066-1500

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Literary Example
Sir Thomas Malory- Le Morte DArthur Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)Canterbury Tales (31 people- each of them- 2 stories but 23 stories only)different people different society

Renaissance
Years 1500-1660 Flourishing of arts and literature Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Milton wrote during this time Literary Example: John Miltons Paradise Lost

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Shakespeare is most famous for his plays. His sonnets ,however, belong to the best English poetry.

John Donne

John Keats

Byron

John Milton

Robert Frost

Wordsworth

Neoclassical
Years 1660-1785 Includes The Restoration. Poetic example: The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope

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Romanticism
Years 1785-1830 Includes the Gothic Period Poetic Example: Adonais, by Shelly

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Modernism
Years 1914-1945 Literature begins taking a more recognizable form Poetic Example: The Waste Land, by T. S. Eliot.

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Postmodernism Contemporary
Years 1950-present Our current literary period

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Review Question
During which literary period did Shakespeare write? A. Middle English B. Renaissance C. Neoclassical

Incorrect.
Middle English was before Shakespeare, and included The Canterbury Tales.

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Correct!
Good job! Shakespeare wrote during the Renaissance, which occurred from 15001660.

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Incorrect.
The Neoclassical period came after Shakespeare, and included Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift.

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True or false questions:


1.Poetry often follows special patterns of rhythm and rhyme. 2. The earliest English poetry is easy to understand now. 3. Modern English came into being around the middle of the 17th century.

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