British Poetry: Characteristics of the Time Periods

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British Poetry Characteristics of the Time
Periods
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Elizabethan 1558-1603

• Artificial
• Elaborate
• Structured

http//www.freefoto.com/pictures/ukheart_of_englan
d/hereford/index.asp
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The Specifics

• Iambic Pentameter
• Rhymed
• Melodious diction
• Poetic inversions in syntax
• Elaborate figures of speech
• Complex symbolism

http//www.tudorhistory.org/elizabeth/gallery.html
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• That time of year thou mayst in me behold
• When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
• Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
• Bare ruind choirs, where late the sweet birds
  sang.
• In me thou seest the twilight of such day
• As after sunset fadeth in the west,
• Which by and by black night doth take a way,
• Deaths second self, that seals up all in rest.
• In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
• That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
• As the death-bed whereon it must expire
• Consumed with that which it was nourishd by.
• This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more
  strong,
• To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
• William Shakespeare
• Sonnet LXXIII

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Jacobean/English Civil War 1603-1660

• Simple
• Natural
• Unstructured

Hill Top. Lilliput Lane Cottage. June 1999
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The Metaphysicals

• Unconventionally express the complexities and
  contradictions of life
• Conversational style
• Natural diction and syntax
• Variance in rhyme and rhythm
• Argument
• Metaphysical conceit

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• Go, and catch a falling star,
• Get with child a mandrake root,
• Tell me, where all past years are,
• Or who cleft the Devils foot.
• Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
• Or to keep off envys stinging,
• And find
• What wind
• Serves to advance an honest mind.
• If thou beest born to strange sights,
• Things invisible to man
• Ride ten thousand days and nights,
• Till age snow white hairs on thee,
• Thou, when thou returnst, wilt tell
• All strange wonders that befell thee
• And swear
• No where
• Lives a woman true, and fair.

If thou findst one, let me know, Such a
pilgrimage were sweet, Yet do not, I would not
go, Though at next door we might meet. Though she
were true, when you met her, And last, till you
write your letter, Yet she Will be False, ere I
come, to two, or three. John Donne Song
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The Cavaliers

• Simple language
• Regular rhythms
• Lightly witty
• Structured stanzas
• Intends to entertain

http//
www.great-britain.co.uk/history/cromwell.htm
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• When Love with unconfined wings
• Hovers within my gates,
• And y divine Althea brings
• To whisper at the grates
• When I lie tangle in her hair
• And fettered to her eye,
• The bird that wonton in the air
• Know no such liberty.
• When flowing cups run swiftly round
• With no allaying Thames,
• Our careless heads with roses bound
• Our hearts with loyal flames
• When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
• When healths and draughts go free
• Fishes that tipple in the deep
• Know no such liberty.

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• When, like committed linnets, I
• With shriller throat shall sing
• The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
• And glories of my king
• When I shall voice aloud how good
• He is, how great should be,
• Enlarged winds, that curl the flood,
• Know no such liberty.
• Stone walls do not a prison make,
• Nor iron bars a cage Minds innocent and quiet
  take
• That for an hermitage
• If I have freedom in my love
• And in my soul am free,
• Angles alone, that soar above,
• Enjoy such liberty.
• Richard Lovelace
• To Althea, From Prison

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The Eighteenth Century 1660-1798

• Elaborate
• Artificial
• Structured

http//www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/05400/054
00a.jpg
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A Return to Classic Traditions

• Few poems written
• Satire
• Rise of novel and non-fiction
• Age of reason
• Public rather than personal themes
• Comedy

http//www.lib.virginia.edu/dic/colls/arh102/twent
yone/
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• Popes Epigrams
• ________________________________
• Epigram Engraved on the collar of a Dog Which I
  Gave to His Royal Highness
• I am hi Highness dog at Kew
• Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
• __________________________________________________
  ________
• Hope springs eternal in the human breast
• Man never is, but always to be blest.
• _______________________________________________
• To err is human to forgive, divine.
• ____________________________________________
• For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

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Romanticism 1798-1837

• Simple
• Natural
• Unstructured

http//www.freefoto.com/regional/north_america
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The Tree Huggers

• If its traditional, dont do it
• Focus on
• Individual
• Common people
• Spontaneous emotions
• Nature and its effect on people
• The only constant in life is change

http//www.john-keats.com/index_ie.htm
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• The world is too much with us late and soon,
• Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers
• Little we see in Nature that is ours
• We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
• This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon
• The winds that will be howling at all hours,
• And are upgathered now like sleeping flowers
• For this, for everything, we are out of tune
• It moves us not. Great God! Id rather be
• A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn
• So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
• Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn
• Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea
• Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
• William Wordsworth
• The World is Too Much With Us

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Victorian 1837-1901

• Elaborate
• Artificial
• Structured

http//www.madriverwoodworks.com/gallery.html
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More Is Not Enough

• Progressive yet repressive
• Interest in social reform
• Development of new genres in fiction
• Naturalism
• Mystery
• Science Fiction
• Horror
• Adventure
• Poetry is varied in style and subject matter

http//www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk2FPRvictoria.
htm
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• Sunset and evening star,
• And one clear call for me!
• And may there be no moaning of the bar
• When I put out to sea.
• But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
• Too full for sound and foam.
• When that which drew from out the boundless deep
• Turns again home.
• Twilight and evening bell
• And after that the dark!
• And may there be no sadness of farewell,
• When I embark.
• For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
• The flood may bear me far,
• I hope to see my Pilot face to face
• When I have crossed the bar.

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Works Cited
Eakins, Lara E. Elizabeth R. Tudor History.
1995. 11 July 2002 lthttp//www.tudorhistory.org
/elizabeth/gallery.htmlgt. England Accepts
Classicism. University of Virginia Library.
n.d. University of Virginia. 11 July 2002
lthttp//www.lib.virginia.edu/dic/colls/arh102/twen
tyone/gt. Georgian Building. Bryn Mawr College.
n.d. Bryn Mawr. 11 July 2002
lthttp//www.brynmawr.edu/Acads/Cities/wld/05400/
05400a.jpggt. Helenville, WI. Mad River
Woodworks. n.d. Mad River Woodworks. 11 July
2002 lthttp//www.madriverwoodworks.com/gallery.h
tmlgt. Hereford. FreeFoto.com. 2002.
FreeFoto.com Inc. 11 July 2002
lthttp//www.freefoto.com/pictures/ukheart_of_eng
land/hereford/index.aspgt. James I, Charles I,
and the descent into Civil War, the King
executed, Cromwell rules. British History.
n.d. Britaingreat UK touring guide. 11 July
2002 lthttp//www.great-britain.co.uk/history/cro
mwell.htmgt. John Keats.com. 26 Feb 2000. OiT
design. 11 July 2002 lthttp//www.john-keats.com
/index_ie.htmgt. Tate, David. Hill Top.
Lilliput Lane The Collection 2000. Carlisle,
Cumbria Lilliput Lane, 2000. p. 18.
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Works Cited

• Victoria. Spartacus Educational. n.d.
  Schoolnet. 11 July 2002 lthttp//www.spartacus.s
  choolnet.co.uk/monarchy.hlmgt.
• Walden Pond, MA. FreeFoto.com. 2002.
  FreeFoto.com Inc. 11 July 2002
  lthttp//www.freefoto.com/regional/north_a merica/
  united_states/massachusetts/waldenpond/index.asp
  gt.