English Literature: Unseen Poetry: literary time periods

When was the Renaissance period?

Late 16th to early 17th century

Who were the key Renaissance writers

• Shakespeare

• Marlowe

• Sidney

• Chaucer

• Petrarch

• Spenser

When was the Cavalier period?

Mid 17th century

Who were the key figures of Cavalier literature?

• Carew

• Lovelace

• Suckling

• Herrick

• Waller

When was the Metaphysical period?

Mid 17th century

Who were the key metaphysical poets?

• Donne

• Herbert

• Marvell

• Vaughan

When was the Restoration period?

Late 17th century

Who were the key restoration poets?

• Milton

• Dryden

• Wilmot (Earl of Rochester)

• Aphra Behn <3

When was the Romantic period?

Late 18th to early 19th century

Who were the key romantic poets?

• Keats

• Blake

• Wordsworth

• Shelley

• Coleridge

• Byron

When was the Victorian period?

Late 19th century

Who were the key Victorian poets?

• Robert/Elizabeth Barrett Browning

• Tennyson

• Rossetti

• Hopkins

• Carroll

When was the modernist period?

Late 19th to mid-20th century

Who were the key modernist poets?

• E.E Cummings

• William Williams

• Yeats

• Ezra Pound

• T.S Eliot

• Hilda Doolittle

When was postmodernism?

Roughly 1945+ but NOT EVERYTHING IN THIS TIME FIT THE MOVEMENT!!

Who were the key postmodernist poets?

• Allen Ginsberg

• Bukowski

• Diane Di Prima

• Charles Olsen

• Ashberry

When was ‘The Movement’?

1960’s+

Who were the key poets of ‘The Movement’?

• Larkin

• Amis

• Davie

• Enright

• Wain

• Conquest

What are the 3 key features of a Renaissance poem?

• Often used sonnets

• Focus on love, fate and emotions

• Heavy Classical influences, i.e., Greek, Roman, Dante…

What are 3 key features of Metaphysical poetry?

• Conceit used

• Confusing, big ideas such as religion or feelings or society

• Contemplative

What are the 3 key features of Cavalier poetry?

• It’s about either war or sex

• Royalist

• ‘Ode’ or uses a woman’s name in the title

What are 3 key features of Restoration poetry?

• Often satirical

• Focus on the ‘Rake’ and sex

• Pokes fun at the government

What are 3 key features of Romanticism?

• Nature focus

• Freedom and innocence as themes

• Philosophical

What are 3 key features of Victorian poetry?

• Focus on traditionalism, family values, domesticity- can be presented negatively in order to be a form of morality tale for example My Last Duchess

• Monologues, they loved monologues!

• A lot of patriotism

What were 3 key features of modernism?

• Stream of consciousness

• “Make it new.”

• Stupid short or stupid long

What are 3 key features of postmodernism?

• Never use sonnets, very rarely use proper form

• Irony and sarcasm often used

• Optimistic nihilism (?)