ENGLISH POETIC MOEVEMENTS
Ancient / Classical period (2000BC – 0)
Medieval (500 – 1500) – mainly Latin, Christian morality
Renaissance (1550 – 1650) – classical period reborn, Aristotle unities, free expression (metaphysical poets: John
Donne, Andrew Marvell), classical myths e.g. Shakespeare, Wyatt
Neo classism (1650 – 1800) – Science understanding nature, age of enlightenment + restoration (with Charles) –
Cavalier poets (Richard Lovelace) and Puritans / Restoration poets (John Wilmot)
Romanticism (1800 – 1850) – imagination, beauty, nature, mortality = mysterious (kick start to era: publication of
lyrical ballads Coleridge and Wordsworth 1979) e.g. Byron, Robert Burns, William Blake, John Keats
Victorian (1850 – 1900) : Realism, industrialisation, Naturalism (Thomas Hardy), pre-Raphaelite (Rossetti) , Decadent
(Ernest Dowson)
Modernism (1900 to 1945): empowering humans, rejection of past (e.g. Picasso), psychoanalysis e.g. Freud.
Post modernism (1945 – now): no single truth, could the good guy be the bad guy (USA bombing Japan) e.g. Seamus
Heaney
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Metaphysical- highly intellectualized, use rather strange imagery, use frequent paradox and contain extremely
complicated thought.
Naturalism - entailed presentation of modern society, often featuring lower-class characters in an urban setting or a
panoramic view of a slice of contemporary life
Decadent – movement led by nostalgia, radical themes of self-indulgence, erotism, rebelliousness (horrified
Victorians)
Cavalier poets - celebrate beauty, love, nature, sensuality, drinking, good fellowship, honour, and social life.” In
many ways, this poetry embodies an attitude that mirrors “carpe diem.
Pre-Raphaelite – moral seriousness, escape from the darkness, ugliness of contemporary society,
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Types of poetry
Elegies - a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for one who is dead.
Lyrical - lyric poem is short, highly musical verse that conveys powerful feelings
Ballad - plot-driven song, with one or more characters hurriedly unfurling events leading to a dramatic conclusion.
Sonnet - One stanza of 14 lines. Usually written in iambic pentameter. Structured in three quatrains (each with their
own ABAB rhyme schemes) and a final couplet.
Epic - lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters
Blank verse - Blank verse is unrhyming verse in iambic pentameter lines.
Ode - A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea.
Epitaph - A short poem intended for (or imagined as) an inscription on a tombstone and often serving as a brief
elegy.
Haiku - The haiku is a Japanese poetic form that consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the
second, and five in the third.
