Divisions of English Literature:

By Adam Burgess, Ph.D. is a university professor, literary reviewer, and expert in American and classical literature and
criticism.

Although historians have delineated the eras of British literature in different ways over time, common divisions are
outlined below. 

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (450–1066)

The term Anglo-Saxon comes from two Germanic tribes, the Angles and the Saxons. This period of literature dates back
to their invasion (along with the Jutes) of Celtic England circa 450. The era ends in 1066, when Norman France, under
William, conquered England. Much of the first half of this period, prior to the seventh century, at least, had oral
literature. A lot of the prose during this time was a translation of something else or legal, medical, or religious in nature;
however, some works, such as "Beowulf," and those by period poets Caedmon and Cynewulf, are important.

Middle English Period (1066–1500)

The Middle English period sees a huge transition in the language, culture, and lifestyle of England and results in what we
can recognize today as a form of “modern” (recognizable) English. The era extends to around 1500. As with the Old
English period, much of the Middle English writings were religious in nature; however, from about 1350 onward, secular
literature began to rise. This period is home to the likes of Chaucer, Thomas Malory, and Robert Henryson. Notable
works include "Piers Plowman" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." 

The Renaissance (1500–1660)

Recently, critics and literary historians have begun to call this the “Early Modern” period, but here we retain the
historically familiar term “Renaissance.” This period is often subdivided into four parts, including the Elizabethan Age
(1558–1603), the Jacobean Age (1603–1625), the Caroline Age (1625–1649), and the Commonwealth Period (1649–
1660). 
The Elizabethan Age was the golden age of English drama. Some of its noteworthy figures include Christopher Marlowe,
Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter Raleigh, and, of course, William Shakespeare. The Jacobean Age is named for
the reign of James I. It includes the works of John Donne, Shakespeare, Michael Drayton, John Webster, Elizabeth Cary,
Ben Jonson, and Lady Mary Wroth. The King James translation of the Bible also appeared during the Jacobean Age. The
Caroline Age covers the reign of Charles I (“Carolus”). John Milton, Robert Burton, and George Herbert are some of the
notable figures.
Finally, the Commonwealth Age was so named for the period between the end of the English Civil War and the
restoration of the Stuart monarchy. This is the time when Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan, led Parliament, who ruled the
nation. At this time, public theaters were closed (for nearly two decades) to prevent public assembly and to combat
moral and religious transgressions. John Milton and Thomas Hobbes’ political writings appeared and, while drama
suffered, prose writers such as Thomas Fuller, Abraham Cowley, and Andrew Marvell published prolifically.

The Neoclassical Period (1600–1785)

The Neoclassical period is also subdivided into ages, including The Restoration (1660–1700), The Augustan Age (1700–
1745), and The Age of Sensibility (1745–1785). The Restoration period sees some response to the puritanical age,
especially in the theater. Restoration comedies (comedies of manner) developed during this time under the talent of
playwrights such as William Congreve and John Dryden. Satire, too, became quite popular, as evidenced by the success
of Samuel Butler. Other notable writers of the age include Aphra Behn, John Bunyan, and John Locke.

The Augustan Age was the time of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, who imitated those first Augustans and even
drew parallels between themselves and the first set. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a poet, was prolific at this time and
noted for challenging stereotypically female roles. Daniel Defoe was also popular. 
The Age of Sensibility (sometimes referred to as the Age of Johnson) was the time of Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon,
Hester Lynch Thrale, James Boswell, and, of course, Samuel Johnson. Ideas such as neoclassicism, a critical and literary
mode, and the Enlightenment, a particular worldview shared by many intellectuals, were championed during this age.
Novelists to explore include Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Tobias Smollett, and Laurence Sterne, as well as the
poets William Cowper and Thomas Percy.

The Romantic Period (1785–1832)

The beginning date for the Romantic period is often debated. Some claim it is 1785, immediately following the Age of
Sensibility. Others say it began in 1789 with the start of the French Revolution, and still, others believe that 1798, the
publication year for William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s book "Lyrical Ballads," is its true beginning. The
time period ends with the passage of the Reform Bill (which signaled the Victorian Era) and with the death of Sir Walter
Scott. American literature has its own Romantic period, but typically when one speaks of Romanticism, one is referring
to this great and diverse age of British literature, perhaps the most popular and well-known of all literary ages. This era
includes the works of such juggernauts as Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Charles Lamb,
Mary Wollstonecraft, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas De Quincey, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley. There is also a minor
period, also quite popular (between 1786–1800), called the Gothic era. 
Writers of note for this period include Matthew Lewis, Anne Radcliffe, and William Beckford.

The Victorian Period (1832–1901)

This period is named for the reign of Queen Victoria, who ascended to the throne in 1837, and it lasts until her death in
1901. It was a time of great social, religious, intellectual, and economic issues, heralded by the passage of the Reform
Bill, which expanded voting rights. The period has often been divided into “Early” (1832–1848), “Mid” (1848–1870) and
“Late” (1870–1901) periods or into two phases, that of the Pre-Raphaelites (1848–1860) and that of Aestheticism and
Decadence (1880–1901). This period is in strong contention with the Romantic period for being the most popular,
influential, and prolific period in all of English (and world) literature. Poets of this time include Robert and Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold, among others. Thomas Carlyle, John
Ruskin, and Walter Pater were advancing the essay form at this time. Finally, prose fiction truly found its place under the
auspices of Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Anthony
Trollope, Thomas Hardy, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Samuel Butler. 

The Edwardian Period (1901–1914)

This period is named for King Edward VII and covers the period between Victoria’s death and the outbreak of World War
I. Although a short period (and a short reign for Edward VII), the era includes incredible classic novelists such as Joseph
Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, and Henry James (who was born in America but who spent most
of his writing career in England), notable poets such as Alfred Noyes and William Butler Yeats, as well as dramatists such
as James Barrie, George Bernard Shaw, and John Galsworthy.

The Georgian Period (1910–1936)

The Georgian period usually refers to the reign of George V (1910–1936) but sometimes also includes the reigns of the
four successive Georges from 1714–1830. Here, we refer to the former description as it applies chronologically and
covers, for example, the Georgian poets, such as Ralph Hodgson, John Masefield, W.H. Davies, and Rupert Brooke.
Georgian poetry today is typically considered to be the works of minor poets anthologized by Edward Marsh. The
themes and subject matter tended to be rural or pastoral in nature, treated delicately and traditionally rather than with
passion (like was found in the previous periods) or with experimentation (as would be seen in the upcoming modern
period). 
The Modern Period (1914–?)
The modern period traditionally applies to works written after the start of World War I. Common features include bold
experimentation with subject matter, style, and form, encompassing narrative, verse, and drama. W.B. Yeats’ words,
“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold” are often referred to when describing the core tenet or “feeling” of modernist
concerns. Some of the most notable writers of this period, among many, include the novelists James Joyce, Virginia
Woolf, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Dorothy Richardson, Graham Greene, E.M. Forster, and Doris
Lessing; the poets W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, Wilfred Owens, Dylan Thomas, and Robert
Graves; and the dramatists Tom Stoppard, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Frank McGuinness, Harold Pinter, and
Caryl Churchill. New Criticism also appeared at this time, led by the likes of Woolf, Eliot, William Empson, and others,
which reinvigorated literary criticism in general. It is difficult to say whether modernism has ended, though we know
that postmodernism has developed after and from it; for now, the genre remains ongoing.

The Postmodern Period (1945–?)

The postmodern period begins about the time that World War II ended. Many believe it is a direct response to
modernism. Some say the period ended about 1990, but it is likely too soon to declare this period
closed. Poststructuralist literary theory and criticism developed during this time. Some notable writers of the period
include Samuel Beckett, Joseph Heller, Anthony Burgess, John Fowles, Penelope M. Lively, and Iain Banks. Many
postmodern authors wrote during the modern period as well.

Selected Writers:

William Shakespeare
Many people believe William Shakespeare is the best British writer of all time. His many works are about life, love,
death, revenge, grief, jealousy, murder, magic and mystery. He wrote the blockbuster plays of his day - some of his
most famous are Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet.

Born: April 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Died: April 23, 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom
Wife: Anne Hathaway (m. 1582–1616)
Era:  English Renaissance, Elizabethan Era
Death: 23rd of April, 1616 (age 52); Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England

Summary: Sonnet 73

In this poem, the speaker invokes a series of metaphors to characterize the nature of what he perceives to be his old

age. In the first quatrain, he tells the beloved that his age is like a “time of year,” late autumn, when the leaves have

almost completely fallen from the trees, and the weather has grown cold, and the birds have left their branches. In the

second quatrain, he then says that his age is like late twilight, “As after sunset fadeth in the west,” and the remaining

light is slowly extinguished in the darkness, which the speaker likens to “Death’s second self.” In the third quatrain, the

speaker compares himself to the glowing remnants of a fire, which lies “on the ashes of his youth”—that is, on the ashes

of the logs that once enabled it to burn—and which will soon be consumed “by that which it was nourished by”—that is,

it will be extinguished as it sinks into the ashes, which its own burning created. In the couplet, the speaker tells the

young man that he must perceive these things, and that his love must be strengthened by the knowledge that he will

soon be parted from the speaker when the speaker, like the fire, is extinguished by time.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Short intro

Died: 6 October 1892 (aged 83); Lurgashall, Sussex

Born: 6 August 1809; Somersby, Lincolnshire, Somersby
Spouse: Emily Sellwood (m 1850)
Children: Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tenny

Summary: Charge of the Light Brigade

The poem tells the story of a brigade consisting of 600 soldiers who rode on horseback into the “valley of death” for half
a league (about one and a half miles). They were obeying a command to charge the enemy forces that had been seizing
their guns.
Not a single soldier was discouraged or distressed by the command to charge forward, even though all the soldiers
realized that their commander had made a terrible mistake: “Someone had blundered.” The role of the soldier is to obey
and “not to make reply...not to reason why,” so they followed orders and rode into the “valley of death.”
The 600 soldiers were assaulted by the shots of shells of canons in front and on both sides of them. Still, they rode
courageously forward toward their own deaths: “Into the jaws of Death / Into the mouth of hell / Rode the six hundred.”
The soldiers struck the enemy gunners with their unsheathed swords (“sabres bare”) and charged at the enemy army
while the rest of the world looked on in wonder. They rode into the artillery smoke and broke through the enemy line,
destroying their Cossack and Russian opponents. Then they rode back from the offensive, but they had lost many men
so they were “not the six hundred” any more.
Canons behind and on both sides of the soldiers now assaulted them with shots and shells. As the brigade rode “back
from the mouth of hell,” soldiers and horses collapsed; few remained to make the journey back.
The world marvelled at the courage of the soldiers; indeed, their glory is undying: the poem states these noble 600 men
remain worthy of honor and tribute today.

Robert Herrick
Short intro

Born: August 24, 1591, Cheapside, City of Londres, United Kingdom

Death: October 1674, Dean Prior, United Kingdom
Parents: Nicholas Herrick, Julia Stone

Summary: Divination by a Daffodil

The theme of the poem 'Divination by a Daffodil' by Robert Herrick is the ability to guess something, perceive something
through intuition or prescience. In the case of Robert Herrick, his premonition is of his own death, and he is sparked to
think of it by the sight of a daffodil as it blooms, withers and dies. Many people, such as William Wordsworth have been
moved to glorious feelings of joy by the sight of daffodils, but Herrick is more preocccupied with their withering than
their blooming. In this neat, careful economical little poem he describes the stages 'first I will decline my head.' He
envisages old age and frailty, and by intuition can sense (helped by the image of the dying flower in front of him) the
way that all this life will play out towards its end. In this, he he 'divines' or senses his, and our, future under the earth.

In “Divination by a Daffodil,” Robert Herrick compares himself, in his mortality, to a transient natural object:
Many poems have drawn similar analogies between human mortality and death in the natural world. What has Herrick
done to turn this conventional idea into an original poem? How has he newly imagined this theme? He has, first of all,
made the commonplace act of seeing a flower into an act of “divination.” In classical times, priests “divined” the future
by examining the entrails of a sacrificed animal. Herrick transfers this bloody act to something light and beautiful and
glancing when he chooses, as his symbolic object, the daffodil, with its characteristic drooping head. Second, Herrick
doesn’t begin with the comparison of his fate to that of the daffodil. He might have said, “When a daffodil I spy, / I know
that I, like it, shall die.” Instead, he divides the poem into two parts. He reserves the comparison to the second half of
this single-sentence poem, leaving us to guess, as we read the first half, what he might be going to divine from his
daffodil. When we note the general metrical scheme of the poem — “strong weak / strong weak / strong weak / strong”
— we can see that the author wanted the first word of each line to bear emphasis. But the metrical emphasis is not
crucial in the first half of the poem. The first three lines could equally well have read “weak strong / weak strong / weak
strong / weak strong”: Vendler 1 Proper MLA heading. (No cover page for MLA papers.) Clear, informative title. Opening
paragraph gives full title and author’s name. (Use author’s full name in the first reference; thereafter, use only the last
name.) Introduction ends with a Critical Question that the essay will answer. Each body paragraph develops a single
point that helps answer the Critical Question from the Introduction. Demonstrates the metrical structure instead of
using technical terms (“strong weak / strong weak / strong weak / strong” instead of “trochaic tetrameter”) Either way
works fine as long as the point is clear. Introduction includes all the lines under discussion in a block quote. Header with
author’s last name and page number. “A daffodil appears to me; / His head is hanging down, and we / Can guess from
that what we must be.” The real purpose of the meter becomes clear when we arrive at the second half of the poem.
The rhythm gives weight to “First … / Secondly … / Lastly,” which ring with inexorable emphasis in summoning up the
last stages of life: illness, death, and burial. When we examine the rhyme scheme (aaabbb) we see that it possesses the
same inevitability in the second half. Instead of the relatively uninteresting rhymes of the first half (see, me, be), we hear
the death-knell of head, dead, buriéd. Herrick has made his theme — man’s mortality — into a poem by imaging that
one can divine one’s fate from a flower, by arranging a perfect spacial symmetry of three lines each to flower and man,
and by letting us hear, after the inoffensive first three lines, the heavy tread of his own death announcement.

Thomas Stearns Eliot

Short intro

Born: September 26, 1888, Saint Louis, Missouri, Estados Unidos

Died: January 4, 1965, Kensington, London, United Kingdom
Wife: Valerie Eliot (m. 1957–1965), Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot (m. 1915–1947)

Summary: Journey of the Magi

"Journey of the Magi" opens with a quote about a journey, and it's a cold and difficult one. From the title of the poem,
we can guess that this is the journey of the Three Kings (or Three Wise Men, or Magi) to the birthplace of Jesus. After
the opening quote, the poem elaborates on the difficulties of travel, including grumpy camels, wishing for home (home
being warm, palatial, and full of girls and servants), fires going out, unfriendly and expensive towns, and a distinct lack of
places to sleep. The speaker notes that the Magi preferred to just travel all night for these reasons, and that through
their travels, a little voice in their heads kept suggesting that maybe this whole thing was all for nothing.

Then, the narrator goes on to tell of the Magi's arrival in Bethlehem, a place he describes as "a temperate valley" (21).
They still can't find any info about where they were supposed to go from the villagers, however, so they eventually have
to find the stable in which they were to witness the birth of the baby Jesus. The trio arrives just in time.

The last part of the poem is more blatantly the Magus reminiscing about the story ("all this was a long time ago, I
remember" [32]), and in his recollection he seems to be doubtful about whether or not the birth was a good or a bad
thing, replacing as it would his own religion and culture. In fact, at the end of the poem he seems to regard it as a bad
thing indeed, with the Magus wishing for his own death alongside the death of his peoples' old religion and ways.
Jane Austen
Short intro

Born: December 16, 1775, Steventon, United Kingdom

Died: July 18, 1817, Winchester, United Kingdom
Burial Place: Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, United Kingdom