English Literary History

Old English Period (450-1066)

• Beowulf: The author of Beowulf is unknown.

• Lyrical poems: During the Old and Middle English periods, lyrical poems were often written as songs or ballads. They often featured themes of love, nature, and religious devotion. Examples of lyric poems from this period include "The Wanderer,”

• Epic poems: Epic is a genre of a narrative defined by heroic or legendary adventures presented in a long format. Example. Homer’s The Odyssey.

• Prose narratives in Old English: Prose narrative was used for religious and historical purposes. In the Old English period, prose narratives were often written in the form of chronicles, such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which recorded historical events.

• Caesura: refers to a break or pause in the middle of a line of verse in Old English poetry. EX. To be or not to be (pause), that's the question.

• Alliteration: Alliteration is when two or more words start with the same sound and are used repeatedly in a phrase or sentence. ex. tasty tacos.

• Ephitet: Ephitets occur in epic poetry. An epithet is a literary device that describes a person. place, or object by accompanying or replacing it with a descriptive word or phrase. Example The enemy of god. Ex. Edward the Confessor

• Kenning: A kenning is a two-word phrase used in place of a one-word noun, and is also a figure of speech. Ex. Mind-reader

• Historiography: Historiography deals with the writing of History

Middle English Period (1066-1500)

• Chivalry: Chivalry is a system of ethics and morals that characterised the mediaeval knight, emphasising honour, bravery, and service to others.

• Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales

• Prose narratives in the Middle English period: In the Middle English period, prose narratives became more varied and included romances, saints' lives, and moral allegories. Notable examples include "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer

• Morte D'Arthur was written by Thomas Malory

Renaissance Period (1500-1660)

• Octave: An octave is eight lines of a poem

• Heroic couplet: Heroic couplet is two lines written in iambic pentameter that rhymes.

• Iambic pentameter: Iambic pentameter consists of 5 iambs and a total of 10 syllables with alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. Ex. a-BOVE, at-TEMPT. in-LOVE (

  da DUM, da DUM, da DUM, da DUM, da DUM

• John Milton: John Milton wrote poems in iambic pentameter, but also Shakespeare. John Milton who wrote Paradise Lost/regained

• Trochaic tetrameter: Trochaic tetrameter contains four feet per line with each containing a stressed and unstressed syllable.

Ex: Tiger tiger burning bright (ti is stressed and ger unstressed) (burn is stressed and ing unstressed) (

• Macbeth: In Macbeth, trochaic tetrameter is found.

• Volta: Petrarchan sonnets often contain a volta, and this is a turn of narrative in the poem/turn of thought/argument. The volta comes after the first octave.

• Sacred and profound love: “Sacred” refers to something that is dedicated to the service of God, worthy of religious veneration or entitled to reverence and respect. Profane can mean to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence or contempt.

• Carpe diem: Seize the day, in poetry carpe diem represents that life should be lived to the fullest every day, just like it was going to be the last. Carpe Diem poet. Robert Herrick.

• Conceit: A conceit is an extended metaphor that makes a surprising or unconventional comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things. Ex. if snow be white, why then her breasts are dun

• Cavalier poets: A group of poets in the 17th century known for their poems celebrating the pleasures of life and sometimes criticising Puritanism. EX. Richard Lovelace (the grasshopper). EX. Robert Herrick. Delight in disorder

• Roundhead poets:  John Milton (Paradise Lost/regained)

Restoration and 18th Century (1660-1785)

• Metaphysical poets: John Donne wrote the flea

• Metaphysical poetry: Methapysichal poets often wrote about religious themes, discussing their personal relations with God, often speaking directly to him, as in John Donne’s Holy Sonnets

• Metaphysical conceit: A conceit is an extended metaphor that draws a surprising or unconventional comparison between two dissimilar things. The compass in John Donne’s A Valediction. Forbidding Mourning, where he compared their love to a compass

• Puritanism: Puritan authors used direct and simple language and sentence structure to convey their point. Puritan literature relied on Biblical allusions.

Romantic Period (1785-1832)

Important authors: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, William Blake, John Keats

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Rhyme of an ancient mariner

• Didacticism: Didacticism is literature that is meant to instruct or teach something. Textbooks, recipe books, fables, parables, and instructional manuals.

• Rationalism: Rationalism is the belief that your life should be based on reason and logic, rather than emotions or religious beliefs.

• Satire: It is meant to poke fun at a person or situation in an entertaining way. Gulliver's Travels, written in the eighteenth century by Jonathan Swift, is an example of Horatian satire in literature.

• Decorum: proper and polite behaviour.

• Personification: a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes.

• Idealism: the belief in perfection, whether in oneself, other people or the world.

• Subjectivity: how someone's judgment is shaped by personal opinions and feelings.

• Imagination: is the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality

• Nature: In literature, "nature" refers to the natural world and its elements, such as plants, animals, landscapes, and weather. It can be used to symbolize various themes, such as the cycle of life, the power of the natural world, and the relationship between humans and the environment. Many literary works use nature as a backdrop or setting to convey a particular mood or atmosphere.

• The Sublime: The sublime is a quality of greatness or vastness beyond comprehension.

Victorian Period (1832-1901)

• Major authors: Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Lewis Carrol

• Scepticism:  Scepticism is questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma.

• Dramatic monologue: a poem written in the form of a speech by an individual character

• Nostalgia: A wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for a return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.

Modern Period (1901-1945)

• Characteristics of Modern Literature

• Major works and authors

• Virginia Woolf and James Joyce

• Nihilism: Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. For example that some retards think that there are more than two genders.

• Cynicism: An attitude characterised by a general distrust of the motives of others

• Symbolism: A device in literature where an object represents an idea.

• Free verse: Poetry that does not rhyme and does not have a regular rhythm (My Cat Jeoffry).

• Fragmentation: literary techniques that break up the text or narrative.

• Anticlimax: is when something disappoints you because it happens after something that was very exciting, or because it is not as exciting as you expected.

Post-Modern Period (1945-Present)

• Characteristics of Post-Modern Literature

• Major works and authors

Keywords to study on

Abbey: Large and important church

An act: A law made by Parliament.

Aristocrat: People who belong to families with very high social position. Ex a lord.

Bill: Plan for a law purposed by members of Parliament

Charter: Document which explains or gives rights in a democratic state

Duke: An aristocrat.

Enlightenment: The 18th C when people believed that science and reason would improve human life.

Medieval: The years between 1100 - 1500s

Utopia: A society where everything is perfect and everyone is happy.

Allegory: A simple story that has a deeper meaning.

Allusion: A reference to words and forms of other writers

Anthology: Collection of literary works, especially poetry.

Augustan: A period at the end of the 17th C/beginning of the 18th C.

Concrete poetry: Poems in which the shape of the words on the page helps us to understand its meaning.

Canto: Epic poems and long narrative poems are divided into cantos.

Elegy: A poem written about great sadness.

Epic: A long narrative poem that describes the actions of gods and heroes in society.

Fables: A story that tried to teach something.

Hymn: A religious poem set to music

Lyric: A poem which was sung and had no narrative.

Ode: A lyric poem where someone or something is praised.

Stanza: A group of lines in poetry that rhyme.