D.
Age of Reason (17th Century)
The Essay
By: Francis Bacon - is hailed as the Father of Inductive Reasoning and Father of the English Essay
- “ THE ESSAY” is the greatest literary contribution of the 17th century
Some quotable quotes from Bacon
A. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested:
that is some books are to be ready only in parts: others to be read, but not curiously: and some to be
read wholly and with diligence and attention_ OF STUDIES
B. He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune: for they are impediments to great
enterprise either of virtue or mischief- OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE
C. Wives are young men’s mistress, companion for middle age and old men’s nurses- OF MARRIAGE
AND SINGLE LIFE
D. Children sweeten labors but they make misfortunes more bitter. They increase the cares of life but
they mitigate the remembrance of death. The perpetuity by generation is common to beast but
memory merit and noble works are proper to men- OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN
E. If a man will begin certainties he shall end in doubts but if he will be content to begin with doubts
he shall end in certainties- ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING
The Pilgrim’s Progres
By: John Bunyan
- an allegory ( objects or characters take on symbolic meaning external to the narrative) that shows
Christian tormented by spiritual anguish
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regain
BY: John Milton
Paradise Lost
-an epic poem in blank verse that tells the fall of the angles of the creation of Adam and Ave and their
temptation by Satan in the garden of eve
Paradise Regain
- temptation of Christ and the thirst for the word of God
Holy Sonnet
By: John Donne
- metaphysical poetry makes use of conceits and far fetched similes and metaphors
- intended to startle the reader into an awareness of the relationship among things ordinarily not
associated
Easter Wings and the Altar
By: George Herbert
- concrete poems that deals with thirst for God and God’s abounding love
Cavalier Poem
Popularized by: Thomas Carew, Richard Lovelace, John Suckling, Robert Herrick
- known for their elegant, refined, and courtly culture. These poems are often erotic and espouse
carpe diem “ seize the day”
The Restoration ( 18th Century)
Jonathan Swift ( 1667-1745)
A Modest Proposal
- a bitter pamphlet that ironically suggest that Irish babies are specifically fattened for profitable sale
as meat since Englishb were eating the Irish people anyhow ( by heavy taxation)
Gulliver’s Travel
- satire on human folly and stupidity. Swift said he wrote it to vex the world rather than to divert it.
Most people however are so delightfully entertained by the tiny Lilliputians and the huge
Brobdingnagian that they do not bother much of Swift’s bitter satire on human pettiness and crudity
Alexander Pope( 1688-1744)
-wrote on heroic couplet, a technique in which he has been unsurpassed
An Essay on Criticism
- exposition rules of the classical school in the form of a poem
The Rape of Lock
- mockingly describe the furious fight between two families when a young man snips off a lock of the
beautiful Belinda’s hair.
Thomas Gray ( 1716-1771)
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
- collection of 18th century common places expressing concern for lowly folk
Henry Fielding (1704- 1754)
Tom Jones
- story of a young foundling driven from his adopted home wanders to London and eventually for all
his suffering wins his lady
Laurence Sterne
Tristram Shandy
- novel in nine volume showcasing a series of loosely organized funny episodes in the life of Shandy
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)
- Anglo Irish poet, novelist and playwright
Vicar of the Wakefield
She Stoop Down to Conquer
- a comedy manners that satirizes the 18th century aristocracy who is overly class conscious
Romantic Movement
Lyrical Ballad
By: William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- declared that poetry should express in genuine language , experience as a filtered through personal
emotion and imagination:the truest experience was to be found in nature
Tenets of Romanticism
- belief in the importance of individual, imagination, and intuition
- shift from faith in reason to faith in the senses, feelings and imagination: from interest in urban
society and sophistication to an interest in the rural and natural: from public , impersonal poetry to
subjective poetry; and from concern with scientific and mundane to intrest in the mysterious and
infinite
Because of this concern for nature and the simple folk, authors began to take an interest in old
legends, folk ballads, antiquities , ruins, noble savages and rustic characters
- many writers started to give more play to their senses and to their imagination
- they loved to describe rural scene, graveyards, majestic mountains and roaring waterfalls
- they also liked to write poems and stories of such eerie of supernatural things as ghost, haunted
castles, fairies and mad folk
ROMANTIC WRITERS
Robert Burns ( 1759-1796)
- national poet of Scotland because he not only wrote in Standard English but also in light Scotland’s
dialect
Gothic Writers who crafted stories of terror and imagination
Gothic Literature- literary style popular during the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th
century. This style is usually portrayed fantastic tales dealing with horror despair, the grostque and
other dark subject
Horace Walpole
The Castle of Otranto
Ann Radcliffe
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Matthew Gregory Lewis
The Monk
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851)
- followed gothic tradition in her story
Frankenstein
William Blake (1751-1827)
- both a poet and artist
- he not only wrote books but also illustrated and printed them
- devoted his life to freedom and universal love
- he was interested in children and animals the most innocent of God’s creature
Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 1772-1850)
The Rime of Ancient Mariner
-long narrative about sinning and redemption. Reveals that the Mariner killed the Albatross which the
other shipmates believed as a bird of good omen
William Wordsworth
- found beauty in the realities of nature which he vividly reflects in his poem
Together with Coleridge he wrote a volume of Lyrical Ballad
Lyrical Ballad
- signaled the beginning of English Romanticism
The World is Too much with Us
I Wandered Lonely as Clous
She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways
She was a Phantom of Delight
Charles Lamb
Dissertation on a Roast Pig
Tales from Shakespeare
- rewrote many Shakespeare’s play into stories for children
Sir William Scott (1771-1832)
- wrote poems and novels
-between 1814 and 1832 he wrote 32 novels
The Lay of the Last Minstrel
The Lady of the Lake
Guy Mannering and Ivanhoe
