Literary Periods Context- Unseen Poetry

When was the Renaissance?

1485-1660

What poetic forms were used in the Renaissance?

The lyric, tragedy, elegy or pastoral

When was the Elizabethan Era?

1558-1603

Who were some of the main poets in the Elizabethan Era?

Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser

What features does Elizabethan poetry include?

Sonnet form (Shakespearean, Petrarchan), blank verse (unrhymed lines) and the use of classical material, iambic pentameter

What were the significant themes in Elizabethan poetry?

Love (both romantic and unrequited), time, the eternalisation of beauty, the value of writing

What is the Elizabethan Era often hailed?

The literary height of the English Renaissance

What is a Petrarchan conceit?

A hyperbolic comparison where the lover is compared to a grand physical object like sun, moon, diamonds, etc.

When was the Jacobean Era?

1603-1625

How did Jacobean poetry tend to differ from Elizabethan poetry?

Focused more on sin, rather than on love

Who was writing in the Jacobean Era?

Shakespeare, John Donne, Jonson

What were the two groups of poets during the Jacobean Era?

The Cavaliers (originated by Jonson) and the Metaphysicals (originated by Donne)

Who were the metaphysical poets?

Donne, Herbert and Marvell

What time period were the Metaphysicals?

17th Century

What type of things did the Metaphysicals include in their poetry?

Metaphysical conceits, intellectual wit, learned imagery and a subtle argument

Often used irony and paradox

What is a metaphysical conceit?

An extended metaphor which creates an unconventional comparison between two very dissimilar things

When was the English Civil War?

1642-1649

What did the Cavalier poets' work focus on?

Enjoyment of the moment, 'Carpe Diem'
or
War, honour and duty to their king

What were their poems often written for?

Entertainment

What was their work NOT focused on?

Religion, philosophy and the arts

Who were their poems often addressed to?

Mistresses with fanciful names like Anthea, Althea, Lucasta, or Amarantha

Who were the Cavalier poets?

Lovelace, Herrick, Suckling, Wilmot

Who were the Cavaliers loyal to and what years did he reign?

Charles I (1625-49)

What happened between 1649-1660?

England was a republic under Cromwell

What happened in 1660?

Charles II was restored as monarch

What happened after this?

A period of 'Restoration' poetry

When was the Restoration Period?

1660-1700

What did this begin?

The Enlightenment

What features did Restoration poetry often include?

Iambic pentameter, age of satire about culture and religion

Moderation, Realism and Reason

Focused more on the glory and powerful potential of human beings to understand and improve the world

Importance of writing about oneself

Who were the Restoration poets?

Wilmot, Marvell, Dryden

What was the Restoration Period influenced by?

French poetry, art and literature

When was the Enlightenment?

1660-1790

Why was it also known as the Neoclassical Period?

Marked a return to the classic Greek and Roman conventions of poetry.

What did major characteristics of Enlightenment poetry include?

The use of allusions, the heroic couplet, strict meter and rhyme, and topics discussed in the public sphere.

When was the Age of Johnson?

1750-1790

What happened in this period?

Marked transition from Neoclassical to the Romanticism

How did Classicism and Romanticism differ?

Classical poetry:
-Deficient in emotion and imagination
-No love for the mysterious or the supernatural
-Formal and artificial

Romanticism:
-Encouraged emotion and passion
-Interested in nature
-Revived the romantic spirit- love of the supernatural, mysterious and dim past
-Opposed the artificial and formal style

Who were the Neoclassical writers in The Age of Johnson?

Dr Johnson, Boswell, Gibbon

Who were responsible for the Romantic Revival?

William Blake, Robert Burns, Thomas Gray

Therefore who were considered to be the First Wave Romantics?

Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge

The Lake Poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey)

When was the Romantic Period?

1790-1830

Who were the Second Wave Romantics?

Byron, Shelley and Keats

What were the differences between the first and second wave Romantics?

First Wave- focused more on unity between intellect and emotion
Idealised and omnipotent view of nature
Hope in salvation
Belief in continuity of memories
Feelings are innocent and eternal
They wrote songs and ballads.


Second Wave- passion, emotion, supernatural
Less serious and more sensual
General disillusionment (clash between real and ideal)
Continuity is impossible
Turning to Romanticism in a strictly more personal variety
Feelings are fatal and deceptive
They wrote more classical poems like odes, sonnnets and elegies.

What are the works by the Second Wave Romantics often labelled as?

A poetry of conflicts

What followed the Romantic Period?

The Victorian Period and the 19th Century (1832-1901)

What can Victorian Poetry be divided into?

The High Victorian Poetry and The Pre-Raphaelite Poetry

What are the characteristics of Victorian poetry?

Rich imagery, rhythmic quality, more lyrical and emotive

Stricter meter and rhyme schemes- gave it a more refined and elevated tone

Explorations of loss and faith, conflict between religion and science, intellect and realism

Treated nature in more realistic and less idealised view

Critiqued politics and culture

Interest in both classical and medieval tales

Who were the High Victorian Poets?

Tennyson (especially focused on retelling Medieval legends e.g. 'The Lady of Shalott'), Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (who wrote love poems to one another)

What was their work kind of derived from?

The work of the Romantic poets

Who were some of the main Pre-Raphaelite poets?

Christina Rosetti, DG Rosetti, Woolner

What was the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?

A group of artists and writers who formed in England in the mid-19th century. They were dedicated to creating art that was true to nature, and they rejected the artificiality of the Romantic movement.

What is the end of the Victorian Period marked by?

The Decadent poets

What themes often featured in Decadent poetry?

Were constantly searching for new exquisite sensations
Abhorred all that was natural
Were obsessed with high artifice

Associated with the criticism of conventional Victorian morality

Used elaborate, stylized language to discuss taboo and often unsavory topics, such as death, depression, and deviant sexualities.

When did the Modern Period take place?

1914-45

What is Modernism?

The radical shift in aesthetic and cultural sensibilities following the First World War

Who were the Modernist poets?

Pound, Lowell and TS Eliot

What were some features of Modernist poetry?

Direct language, drawing on the rhythms of ordinary speech rather than a laid-down metre
Abandonment of restrictive verse and rhyme forms and a move towards free verse

What is work post-1945?

Postmodernism

What are some defining features of post-modernism?

Often deals with themes of meaninglessness and lack of reality (existentialism)
Challenge concepts of truth and knowledge

Usually written in a very free format
Erratic line breaks- chaotic shapelessness of the world
Irony and humour