AP Lit Notes Part 1

Anglo-Saxon Poetry

Written in Old English, utilized alliteration, themes of heroes, battle narratives, and religious works. Example:Beowulf.

Middle English Poetry

Influenced by Norman invasion, emphasized food order, featured romance, taught moral lessons, and had Arthurian influence.

Renaissance and Metaphysicals

Emphasized form, meter, and structure, with religious and mystical subject matter, lengthy metaphors, and rebellion against ornamentation.

18th Century Poetry

Known for "Augustan" poets, heroic couplets, satire, neoclassical style, and prominent poets like Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.

Romanticism

Focused on emotion, nature, and beauty, opposed excessive logic, featured poets like Wordsworth, Blake, and Keats.

Victorian Poetry

Associated with Tennyson, Rossetti, and Browning, had some distance from emotion, and Gerard Manley Hopkins bridged Victorian and modern poetry.

Modernism

Featured poets like T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, and William Butler Yeats, experimented with form and imagery, and was diverse post-World War I.

More Recent Poetry

Highly experimental, featuring free verse, and poets like Beat Poets, Seamus Heaney, and Robert Pinsky.