The Early Twentieth Century:

Outline of the Twentieth century:

Irish drama blossomed in the early 20th century, largely under the umbrella of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin John Millington Synge, William Butler Yeats, and Sean O'Casey all wrote on Irish themes—mythical in Yeats’ poetic drama, political in O’Casey’s  realistic plays. Also Irish, George Bernard Shaw wrote ironical dramas that reflect all aspects of British society. In fact, many of the towering figures of 20th-century English literature were not English; Shaw, Yeats, Joyce, O'Casey, and Beckett were Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, T. S. Eliot was born an American, and Conrad was Polish.

Poetry in the early 20th century was characterized by the conventional romanticism of such poets as John Masefield, Alfred Noyes, and Walter de la Mare and by the experiments of the imagists, notably Hilda Doolittle (H. D.), Richard Aldington, Herbert Read, and D. H. Lawrence. The finest poet of the period was Yeats, whose poetry fused romantic vision with contemporary political and concerns. Though the 19th-century tradition of the novel lived on in the work of Arnold Bennett, W.H Hudson, and John Galsworthy, new writers like Henry James, H. G. Wells, and Joseph Conrad expressed the doubt and alienation that were to become features of post-Victorian sensibility.

World War I shook England to the core. So also were shaken, social customs artistic conventions. There were also poets, who were influenced by the world wars fought and wrote war poems. The wars produced a new category of poets called French poets. They wrote against the myth that wars were noble. They wanted to show, the sadness of senseless slaughter. This movement used romantic conventions of English poetry. Chief among them were Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon. The work of war poets like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, was particularly influential. Ford Maddox’s landmark tetralogy,’ Parade's End’, is perhaps the finest depiction of the war and its effects.

The new era called for new forms, signified by the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, first published in 1918, and of T. S. Eliot, whose long poem, ‘The Waste Land’ (1922) was a watershed (Classical work)  in both American and English literary history. Hopkins adopted metrical forms and a verse technique of metaphysical poets of the seventeenth century .He was more of an innovator. To describe in his own language, he used the term,’ sprung rhythm’, and the word’ inscape’ to denote his aim in the treatment of subject material. The far reaching,  influence of Hopkins after 1918, was not altogether fortunate for English poetry , since it encouraged lesser minds than his to cultivate the illusion that obscurity and profundity go hand in hand.

Two great poets of the twentieth century who wrote best poetry and brought about a change in the poetry form are Eliot and Yeats. Between 1919 and 1939 Yeats wrote the best poetry. His important poetic works are the Winding stairs, Tower, The wild Swans of Coole, and Byzantium among others. The Gyre, the spiral form and the cycle of civilization, are the symbols that occur in his poems. He was a poet, as well as a visionary, whose work is relevant even today. T.S.Eliot remarked that Yeats is one of the greatest English poets.

Eliot himself is the greatest English poet and a critic. He was greatly influenced by the American poet Ezra Pound and T.E.Hulme.He learnt to write sharp and clear images under their influence. His poetry is distinct for its irony and obscurity. His poetry reflects the disillusionment of the present age. He departed from conventional poetry. He revived the tradition of the seventeenth century metaphysical .His poetry reflect the influence of metaphysical school of thought. He does not follow narrative method or logical sequence of ideas or events. He was influenced by Symbolists. His poems highlight the horror and boredom of modern life.

T.S. Eliot was the disciple of Hopkins but his first poem was published in 1917,before Hopkins’s was published in 1918.It is important to distinguish the writing style of Hopkins and T.S.Eliot, though their fame has happened in the same time and there are close resemblances in the writings of these two poets. Eliot’s’ work is original and personally creative. His poem the waste land portrayed a disturbing picture of the contemporary world. It was a vision of the human society as he saw it. He uses free verse intermingled with allusions, quotations, imagery, and a note of bleakness. He used allusions, and imagery from shabby side of life. Its difficulty, formal invention, and bleak Anti- Romanticism were to influence poets for decades. It was unromantic and designed to shock.

Equally important was the novel Ulysses, also published in 1922, by the expatriate Irishman James Joyce. Although his books were controversial because of their freedom of language and content, Joyce's revolutions in narrative form, the treatment of time, and nearly all other techniques of the novel made him a master to be studied, but only sometimes copied.

Though more conventional in form, the novels and poems of D. H. Lawrence were equally challenging to convention; he was the first to champion both the primitive and the super civilized urges of men and women. D.H.Lawrence (1885-1930) was a controversial figure. He believed it his mission to seek to release English people from the pressures of moral restraints which are regarded as essential for holding together civilized society.

Moved by the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, and English policies of appeasement, many writers and intellectuals sought solutions in the politics of the left—or the right. The poets W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Stephen Spender, and C. Day Lewis all proclaimed their leftist respective political commitments, but the pressing demands of World War II superseded these long-term ideals.

The Postwar Era to the Present:

The division of literature into periods convenient for study may create an impression that the writers in each age can be put into tight compartments, and can be land treated independently of their predecessors and successors. This view is not right. What ever seems to be new in literature seems to have its roots in the past. The poetry of 1930s returned to the serious mood of the Victorian period but with a difference in the theme. The Victorians were occupied with the condition of England while the 1930s were occupied with the conditions of the whole world. There is no parallel in history to Gerald Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) whose poetry influenced the younger poets so much that the aspect of modern poetry was changed. It is the same with T.S.Eliot whose popularity is unparalleled. After the war most English writers chose to focus on aesthetic or social rather than political problems; C. P. Snow was perhaps the notable exception. The novelists Henry Green, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Joyce Cary, and Lawrence Durrell, and the poets Robert Graves, Edwin Muir, Louis MacNeice, and Edith Sitwell tended to cultivate their own distinctive voices. Other novelists and playwrights of the 1950s, often called the angry young men, expressed a deep dissatisfaction with British society, combined with despair that anything could be done about it.

While the postwar era was not a great period of English literature, it produced a variety of excellent critics, including William Empson, Frank Kermode, and F. R. Leavis. The period was also marked by a number of highly individual novelists, including Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, William Golding, Doris Lessing, who continued to work in the expansive 19th-century tradition, producing a series of realistic novels chronicling life in England during the 20th century.

Some of the most exciting work of the period came in the theater, notably the plays of John Osborne, Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard. The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), reached a larger audience. His poetry had metaphysical mannerisms. Thomas's lyricism and rich imagery reaffirmed the romantic spirit, and he was eventually appreciated for his technical mastery as well. Walter De La Mare (1873-1956) was a poet of high rank. His poetry carried depths of meaning beyond what the words actually say. There was also Irish expatriate novelist and playwright, Samuel Beckett. Beckett, who wrote many of his works in French and translated them into English, is considered the greatest exponent of the theater of the absurd.

Other outstanding contemporary poets include, Hugh MacDiarmid, the leading figure of the Scottish literary renaissance; Ted Hughes, who’s harsh, post war poetry celebrates simple survival, and Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet, who is hailed for his exquisite style. Novelists generally have found as little in the Thatcher and Major eras, as in the previous period to inspire them, but the work of Margaret Drabble, John Fowles, David Lodge stands out, and the Scottish writer James Kelman stands out.

SWINBURNE.

A younger disciple of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement but also a strongly original artist was Algernon Charles Swinburne. During the next fifteen years he was partly occupied with a huge poetic trilogy in blank verse on Mary Queen of Scots, He produced also some long narrative poems, of which the chief is 'Tristram of Lyonesse.' His chief importance is as a lyric poet, and his lyric production was large. His earlier poems in this category are for the most part highly controversial in substance or sentiment. Many of his poems are dedicated to the cause of Italian independence or to liberty in general. His poetry is notable chiefly for its artistry, especially for its magnificent melody, proportion and restraint. From the intellectual and spiritual point of view his work is negligible, but as a musician in words he has no superior, not even Shelley.

MINOR VICTORIAN POETS.

Among the other Victorian poets, three, at least, must be mentioned. Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), a tutor at Oxford and later examiner in the government education office, expresses the spiritual doubt and struggle of the period in noble poems similar to those of Matthew Arnold, whose fine elegy 'Thyrsis' honours him. Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883), Irish by birth, an eccentric though kind-hearted recluse, and a friend of Tennyson, is known solely for his masterly paraphrase (1859) of some of the Quatrains of the eleventh-century Persian astronomer-poet Omar Khayyam. The similarity of temper between the medieval oriental scholar and the questioning phase of the Victorian period is striking and no poetry is more poignantly beautiful than the best of this. Christina Rossetti (1830-94), the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, wrote poetry, composition, prose articles and short stories. Her poetry is limited almost entirely to the lyrical expression of her spiritual experiences, much of it is explicitly religious, and all of it is religious in feeling. It is tinged with the Pre-Raphaelite mystic medievalism; and a quiet and most affecting sadness is its dominant trait; but the power and beauty of a certain small part of it perhaps entitle her to be called the chief of English poetesses.

Conclusion:

The preeminent poet of the Victorian age was Alfred, Lord Tennyson Although romantic in subject matter, his poetry was tempered by personal melancholy; in its mixture of social certitude and religious doubt it reflected the age. The poetry of Robert Browning and his wife, Elizabeth Barret Browning, was immensely popular, though Elizabeth's was more venerated during their lifetimes. Browning is best remembered for his superb dramatic monologues. Rudyard Kipling, the poet of the empire triumphant, captured the quality of the life of the soldiers of British expansion. Some fine religious poetry was produced by Francis Thompson, Alice Meynell, Christina Rossetti, and Lionel Johnson.

In the middle of the 19th cent the so-called Pre-Raphaelites, led by the painter-poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, sought to revive what they judged to be the simple, natural values and techniques of medieval life and art. Their quest for a rich symbolic art led them away, however, from the mainstream. William Morris—designer, inventor, printer, poet, and social philosopher—was the most versatile of the group, which included the poets Christina Rossetti and Coventry Patmore.

Algernon Charles Swinburne began as a Pre-Raphaelite but soon developed his own classically influenced, sometimes florid style. A. E. Housman and Thomas Hardy, Victorian figures who lived on into the 20th cent., share a pessimistic view in their poetry, but Housman's well-constructed verse is rather more superficial. The great innovator among the late Victorian poets was the Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins. The concentration and originality of his imagery, as well as his jolting meter (“sprung rhythm”), had a profound effect on 20th-century poetry.

During the 1890s the most conspicuous figures on the English literary scene were the decadents. The principal figures in the group were Arthur Symons, Ernest Dowson, and, first among them in both notoriety and talent, Oscar Wilde. The Decadents' disgust with bourgeois complacency led them to extremes of behavior and expression. However limited their accomplishments, they pointed out the hypocrisies in Victorian values and institutions. The sparkling, witty comedies of Oscar Wilde, W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan were perhaps the brightest achievements.

The Victorian period. (About 1830- 1901)

Introduction:

The last completed period of English literature, coinciding with the rule of the queen Victoria, (1837-1901), stands nearly beside The Elizabethan period, in the significance and interest of its work. The Elizabethan literature was a glorious one, in its imaginative and spiritual enthusiasm. It was the expression of a period greater than the Victorian period. But the Victorian literature is rich and varied in its personal quality. It speaks for an age which witnessed incomparably greater changes than any that had gone before in all the conditions of life--material comforts, scientific knowledge, and, absolutely speaking, in intellectual and spiritual enlightenment.

The Reform Bill of 1832 gave the middle class the political power it needed to consolidate—and to hold—the economic position it had already achieved. Industry and commerce prospered. While the wealth of the middle class increased, the lower classes, thrown off their land and into the cities to form the great urban working class, lived ever more miserably. The social changes were fast and brutal. The new economic and urban conditions were not idealistic. The intellectuals and artists of the age had to deal with the surprising changes along many lines.

Two main currents of movements were Progress of Democracy in the political and social spheres and Progress of Science in the intellectual sphere. The excitement and conservative reaction of the French Revolution had already spent itself. The Reform Bill had destroyed the supremacy of the aristocratic class. Even though power was in the hands of the greater sections of the labor class, it still left larger section unsatisfied. They did not get the radical power they had hoped for. Political unrest kept the first decade of the Queen’s rule anxious.

ENERAL CONDITIONS:

Social and intellectual changes were vital and more significant to Victorian period.It were an age of social interests and practical ideals and it was by these that much of its literature was inspired and fed. Meanwhile progress of Democracy kept pace with Progress of Democracy. Hence Victorian age was marked throughout by the spirit of enquiry, and criticism, by doubt and uncertainty, by spiritual struggle and unrest, and these are among the most persistent and characteristic notes of is higher literature. At the same time the analytical and critical habit of mind developed by science, profoundly affected literature, and marked development of realism as one prominent result. Moreover, to twentieth century students the Victorian literature makes a especially strong appeal because it is in part the literature of our own time and its ideas and point of view are in large measure ours, and we may naturally begin with the merely material ones.

Before the accession of Queen Victoria the 'industrial revolution,' the vast development of manufacturing made possible in the latter part of the eighteenth century by the introduction of coal and the steam engine, had rendered England the richest nation in the world, and the movement continued with steadily accelerating momentum throughout the period. Hand in hand with it went the increase of population from less than thirteen millions in England in 1825 to nearly three times as many at the end of the period. The introduction of the steam railway and the steamship, at the beginning of the period, in place of the lumbering stagecoach and the sailing vessel, broke up the old stagnant and stationary habits of life and increased the amount of travel at least a thousand times. The discovery of the electric telegraph in 1844 brought almost every important part of Europe, and eventually of the world, nearer to every town dweller than the nearest county had been in the eighteenth century; and the development of the modern newspaper out of the few feeble sheets of 1825 (dailies and weeklies in London, only weeklies elsewhere), carried full accounts of the doings of the whole world, in place of long-delayed fragmentary rumors, to every door within a few hours. No less striking was the progress in public health and the increase in human happiness due to the enormous advance in the sciences of medicine, surgery, and hygiene.

MATTHEW ARNOLD.

He was one of the chief Victorian poets... Up to 1867 his literary production consisted chiefly of poetry, very carefully composed and very limited in amount, and for two five-year terms, from 1857 to 1867, he held the Professorship of Poetry at Oxford. Later he turned from poetry to prose essays, because he felt that through the latter medium he could render necessary public service. As a poet Arnold is generally admitted to rank among the Victorians next after Tennyson and Browning. The criticism, partly true, that He was not a poet by by Nature but made himself one by hard work rests on his intensely cold, intellectual and moral temperament. He himself, in modified Puritan spirit, defined poetry as a criticism of life; his mind was philosophic; and in his own verse, inspired by Greek poetry, by Goethe and Wordsworth, he realized his definition. In his work, therefore, a high moral sense was greatly developed to finest effect. In form and spirit his poetry is one of the very best dominated by thought, dignified, and polished with the utmost care. 'Sohrab and Rustum,' his most ambitious and greatest single poem, is a very close and admirable imitation of 'The Iliad. It in fact, is a striking example of classical form and spirit united with the deep, self-conscious, meditative feeling of modern Romanticism.

In substance Arnold's poetry is the expression of his long and tragic spiritual struggle. To him religion is a devotion to Divine things. It was the most important element in life, and his love of pure truth was absolute. He held that modern knowledge had entirely disproved Christianity and that a new spiritual revelation was necessary. But mere knowledge and mere modern science, which their followers were so confidently praising, was not adequate to the purpose as it did not stimulate the emotions and increase spiritual life. He found all modern life, as he says in 'The Scholar-Gypsy,' a 'strange disease,' in which men hurry wildly about in a mad activity which they mistake for achievement. In Romantic melancholy he looked wistfully back to periods when 'life was fresh and young' and could express itself vigorously and with no torturing introspection. The exaggerated pessimism in this part of his outburst is explained by his own statement, that he lived in a transition time, when the old faith he held was dead, and the new one yet 'powerless to be born.' Arnold's poetry, therefore, is to be viewed as largely the expression, monotonous but often sadly beautiful, of a temporary mood of questioning protest. There is a striking contrast between the manner of Arnold's poetry and that of his prose. In the latter he entirely abandons the complaining note and assumes instead a tone of easy assurance

ALFRED TENNYSON.

In poetry, apart from the drama, the Victorian period is the greatest in English literature. Its most representative, though not its greatest, poet is Alfred Tennyson. From childhood the poet, though physically strong, was moody and given to solitary dreaming; from early childhood also he composed poetry, and when he was seventeen he and one of his elder brothers brought out a volume of verse, immature, but of distinct poetic feeling and promise. He decided, as Milton had done, and as Browning was even then doing, to devote himself to his art; but, like Milton, he equipped himself, throughout his life, by hard and systematic study of, many of the chief branches of knowledge, including the sciences. His next twenty years were filled with difficulty and sorrow. Two volumes of poems which he published in 1830 and 1832 were greeted by the critics with their usual harshness, are among his chief lyric triumphs. In 1833 his warm friend Arthur Hallam,  died suddenly without warning. Tennyson's grief, was a main factor in his life and during many years found slow artistic expression in 'In Memoriam' and other poems. In 1842 Tennyson published two volumes of poems, including the earlier ones revised; in 1847 he published the strange but delightful 'Princess.' The year 1850 marked the decisive turning point of his career. On the death of Wordsworth he was appointed Poet Laureate.

His production of poetry was steady and its variety great. The largest of all his single achievements was the famous series of 'Idylls of the King,' which formed a part of his occupation for many years. In much of his later work there is a marked change from his earlier elaborate decorativeness to a style of vigorous strength. The chief traits of his poetry in form and substance are his appreciation for sensuous beauty, his scientific habit of mind ,insistence on the greatest accuracy, his allusions to Nature, his introduction of scientific facts in a novel and poetic way. He combines in his poetry classic perfection and romantic feeling.

The variety of his poetic forms is probably greater than that of any other English poet.: lyrics,; ballads;; descriptive poems; sentimental reveries, and idylls; long narratives, meditative poems, The ideas of his poetry are noble and on the whole clear. He was an independent thinker, though not an innovator, a conservative liberal, and was so widely popular because he expressed in frank but reverent fashion the moderately advanced convictions of his time. The best final expression of his spirit is the lyric 'Crossing the Bar,' which every one knows and which at his own request is printed last in all editions of his works.

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING AND ROBERT BROWNING.

Browning is the most thoroughly vigorous and dramatic of all great poets of the Victorian period Browning is decidedly one of those who hold the poet to be a teacher, and much, indeed most, of his poetry is occupied rather directly with the questions of religion and the deeper meanings of life. Taken all together, that is, his poetry constitutes a much extended statement of his philosophy of life. Man should accept life with gratitude and enjoy to the full all its possibilities. Evil exists only to demonstrate the value of Good and to develop character, which can be produced only by hard and sincere struggle. Unlike Tennyson, therefore, Browning has full confidence in present reality--he believes that life on earth is predominantly good. In his social theory Browning differs not only from Tennyson but from the prevailing thought of his age, differs in that his emphasis is individualistic. Like all the other Victorians he dwells on the importance of individual devotion to the service of others, but he believes that the chief results of such effort must be in the development of the individual's character, not greatly in the actual betterment of the worldly

Of his hundreds of poems the great majority set before the reader a glimpse of actual life and human personalities--an action, a situation, characters, or a character--in the clearest and most vivid possible way. His idea of giving his readers a sudden vivid understanding of life’s main forces and conditions is noteworthy. To portray and interpret life in this way may be called the first obvious purpose, or perhaps rather instinct, of Browning and his poetry.

The dramatic economy of space which he generally attains in his monologues is marvelous. In 'My Last Duchess' sixty lines suffice to understand the two striking characters, an interesting situation, and the whole of a life's tragedy. Despite his power over external details it is in the human characters, as the really significant and permanent elements of life, that Browning is chiefly interested; indeed he once declared directly that the only thing that seemed to him worth while was the study of souls. The number and range of characters that he has portrayed are unprecedented, and so are the keenness, intenseness, and subtlety of the analysis. Andrea Del Sarto, Fra Lippo Lippi, Cleon, Karshish, Balaustion, and many scores of others, make of his poems a great gallery of portraits unsurpassed in interest by those of any author whatever except Shakespeare. Equally striking, perhaps, is his frequent choice of subject and in treatment, which seems to result chiefly from his wish to portray the world as it actually is, keeping in close touch with genuine everyday reality; partly also from his instinct to break away from placid conventionality.

ELIZABETH ROBERT BROWNING:

She was born in 1806. At seventeen she published, a volume of immature poems. The appearance of her poems in two volumes in 1844 gave her a place among the chief living poets and led to her acquaintance with Browning. .. The record of the courtship is given in Mrs. Browning's 'Sonnets from the Portuguese' which is one of the finest of English sonnet-sequences. Their chief works during this period were Mrs. Browning's 'Aurora Leigh' (1856), a long 'poetic novel' in blank verse dealing with the relative claims of Art and Social Service and with woman's place in the world; and Browning's most important single publication, his two volumes of 'Men and Women' (1855), containing fifty poems, many of them among his very best.

In 1868-9 Robert Browning brought out his characteristic masterpiece, 'The Ring and the Book,' a huge psychological epic, which proved the turning point in his reputation Some of his best short poems date from these years, such as 'My Last Duchess' and 'The Bishop Orders His Tomb'; but his chief effort went into a series of seven or eight poetic dramas, of which 'Pippa Passes' is best known and least dramatic. They are noble poetry, but display in marked degree the psychological subtlety which in part of his poetry demands unusually close attention from the reader.

In considering the poetry of Robert Browning the inevitable first general point is the nearly complete contrast with Tennyson. For the melody and exquisite beauty of phrase and description which make so large a part of Tennyson's charm, Browning cares very little; his chief merits as an artist lie mostly where Tennyson is least strong; and he is a much more independent and original thinker than Tennyson. This will become more evident in a survey of his main characteristics. Robert Browning, Tennyson's chief poetic contemporary, stands in striking artistic contrast to Tennyson--a contrast which perhaps serves to enhance the reputation of both. Browning's life, if not his poetry, must naturally be considered in connection with that of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, with whom he was united in what appears the most ideal marriage of two important writers in the history of literature.  

WILLIAM MORRIS.

Morris' shorter poems are strikingly dramatic and picturesque, and his longer narrations are remarkably easy to read and often highly pleasing. His ease however, is his undoing. He sometimes wrote as much as eight hundred lines in a day. In reading his work one always feels that there is the material of greatness, but perhaps nothing that he wrote is strictly great. His prose will certainly prove less permanent than his verse. Meanwhile Morris had turned to the writing of long narrative poems, which he composed with remarkable fluency. The most important is the series of versions of Greek and Norse myths and legends which appeared in 1868-70 as 'The Earthly Paradise.'

SWINBURNE.

A younger disciple of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement but also a strongly original artist was Algernon Charles Swinburne. During the next fifteen years he was partly occupied with a huge poetic trilogy in blank verse on Mary Queen of Scots, He produced also some long narrative poems, of which the chief is 'Tristram of Lyonesse.' His chief importance is as a lyric poet, and his lyric production was large. His earlier poems in this category are for the most part highly controversial in substance or sentiment. Many of his poems are dedicated to the cause of Italian independence or to liberty in general. His poetry is notable chiefly for its artistry, especially for its magnificent melody, proportion and restraint. From the intellectual and spiritual point of view his work is negligible, but as a musician in words he has no superior, not even Shelley.

MINOR VICTORIAN POETS.

Among the other Victorian poets, three, at least, must be mentioned. Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), a tutor at Oxford and later examiner in the government education office, expresses the spiritual doubt and struggle of the period in noble poems similar to those of Matthew Arnold, whose fine elegy 'Thyrsis' honours him. Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883), Irish by birth, an eccentric though kind-hearted recluse, and a friend of Tennyson, is known solely for his masterly paraphrase (1859) of some of the Quatrains of the eleventh-century Persian astronomer-poet Omar Khayyam. The similarity of temper between the medieval oriental scholar and the questioning phase of the Victorian period is striking and no poetry is more poignantly beautiful than the best of this. Christina Rossetti (1830-94), the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, wrote poetry, composition, prose articles and short stories. Her poetry is limited almost entirely to the lyrical expression of her spiritual experiences, much of it is explicitly religious, and all of it is religious in feeling. It is tinged with the Pre-Raphaelite mystic medievalism; and a quiet and most affecting sadness is its dominant trait; but the power and beauty of a certain small part of it perhaps entitle her to be called the chief of English poetesses.

Conclusion:

The preeminent poet of the Victorian age was Alfred, Lord Tennyson Although romantic in subject matter, his poetry was tempered by personal melancholy; in its mixture of social certitude and religious doubt it reflected the age. The poetry of Robert Browning and his wife, Elizabeth Barret Browning, was immensely popular, though Elizabeth's was more venerated during their lifetimes. Browning is best remembered for his superb dramatic monologues. Rudyard Kipling, the poet of the empire triumphant, captured the quality of the life of the soldiers of British expansion. Some fine religious poetry was produced by Francis Thompson, Alice Meynell, Christina Rossetti, and Lionel Johnson.

In the middle of the 19th cent the so-called Pre-Raphaelites, led by the painter-poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, sought to revive what they judged to be the simple, natural values and techniques of medieval life and art. Their quest for a rich symbolic art led them away, however, from the mainstream. William Morris—designer, inventor, printer, poet, and social philosopher—was the most versatile of the group, which included the poets Christina Rossetti and Coventry Patmore.

Algernon Charles Swinburne began as a Pre-Raphaelite but soon developed his own classically influenced, sometimes florid style. A. E. Housman and Thomas Hardy, Victorian figures who lived on into the 20th cent., share a pessimistic view in their poetry, but Housman's well-constructed verse is rather more superficial. The great innovator among the late Victorian poets was the Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins. The concentration and originality of his imagery, as well as his jolting meter (“sprung rhythm”), had a profound effect on 20th-century poetry.

During the 1890s the most conspicuous figures on the English literary scene were the decadents. The 

principal figures in the group were Arthur Symons, Ernest Dowson, and, first among them in both notoriety and talent, Oscar Wilde. The Decadents' disgust with bourgeois complacency led them to extremes of behavior and expression. However limited their accomplishments, they pointed out the hypocrisies in Victorian values and institutions. The sparkling, witty comedies of Oscar Wilde, W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan were perhaps the brightest achievements.

Characteristics of the Romantic period in English Literature (1789-1837)

Introduction:

Extending from about 1789 until 1837, the romantic age stressed emotion over reason. Beginning of the century, enthused by ideas of personal and political liberty and of the spontaneity and sublimity of the natural world, artists and intellectuals tried to break the bonds of 18th-century convention. English literature in the Romantic Period was influenced by three great Historical Events. The Industrial Revolution in 1769, The American war of Independence in 1776 which, influenced England from a political and economic point of view; and the French Revolution which Influenced the ideology of the British.

One of the three greatest movements in modern history, the French Revolution exercised a profound influence on English thought and literature. One objective of the French Revolution (1789-1799) was to destroy an older tradition that had come to seem artificial, and to assert the freedom and spirit, of the human race. The feelings caused by these three events found an expression in the Romantic period. These became the creative outputs of the idealist mind . Sympathy for political movements empowered the lower classes--This showed itself in the support for the French Revolution.  Although the works of French writers Jean Jacques Rousseau and William Godwin had great influence, the French Revolution and its aftermath had the strongest impact of all in England. Initial support for the Revolution was primarily idealist, and when the French failed to live up to expectations, most English intellectuals renounced the Revolution. However, the romantic vision had taken deep root and the cause became other than political.

Outline of the Romantic period:

Let us have a look at the causes of French revolution as it had profound effect on English literature. During the two centuries while England had been steadily progressing towards constitutional government, France had been regressing under the control of a corrupt and cruel aristocracy. Radical French philosophers had been opposing, the actual misery of the peasants, who had the right to liberty, life, and happiness. At last in 1789 the people, joined hands with lawyers and thinkers of the middle class, to fight against their oppressors, and after three years established a republic. The outbreak of the Revolution was welcomed by English liberals as an era of social justice; but as it grew in violence and was aimed at all monarchy and of religion, their attitude changed. In 1793 the French king and queen were executed and a Reign of Terror was unleashed. This united all, except the radicals, in support of the war against France, in which England joined with the other European countries The last great prose-writer of the eighteenth century, Edmund Burke, saw  French Revolution as a breaking down of stable system, of what he held to be the secure foundations of society--established government, law, social distinctions, and religion.  Moreover, the activity of the English supporters of the French revolutionists, seriously threatened, an outbreak of anarchy in England also. Burke, therefore, began to oppose the whole movement, with all the eloquence of his writing .His 'Reflections on the Revolution in France,' published in 1790, though very one-sided, is a most powerful model of reason and brilliant eloquence. It had a wide influence and had the great majority of his countrymen agreeing with his viewpoint. During the twenty years of struggle that followed, Napoleon soon appeared in France, and to oppose and finally to suppress him was a task jointly taken up by all Englishmen devoted to their country and to humanity.

Etymology: Romanticism comes from the adjective “Romantic” used in the 17th century to indicate unrealistic things. In the 18th century it acquired a meaning of reason and rational, connected to, knowledge of supernatural.. The main themes of this period are: Individual relation between Man and Nature, a return to 'natural' nature, sympathy for and idealization of the humble life, sympathy for the rural life and pastoral settings. It was to use Imagination, as a way to escape, from the real world, symbolism and mysticism as the qualities of Romanticism, a sentimental contemplation for life and for relationships. The poet is looked at as an artist, as an original creator. The Romantic poets wrote poetry, that expresses a feeling of sadness and longing for remembered things of the past. The poet looks at the experiences, through introspection and sadness. They feel that, a natural genius would be, free from any neo-classical rules So, the romantic age in English literature, was characterized by, the subordination of reason, to intuition and passion. They believed in the supremacy of nature, the importance of the individual will over social norms of behavior, the preference for the illusion of immediate experience, as opposed to generalized and typical experience, and the interest in what is distant in time and place.

The periods We usually divided the Romantic poets in three different generations: The Early Romantic poets were: Thomas Chatterton (1752 - 1770) Robert Burns (1759 - 1796) William Blake (1757 - 1827) The First generation They are: William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) Samuel T. Coleridge (1772 - 1834) The second generation poets  were: Lord Byron (1788 - 1824) Percy B. Shelley (1792 - 1822) John Keats (1795 - 1821) Important events were: In 1798 Wordsworth and Coleridge published “The Lyrical Ballads”, (1798 and 1800), 

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850).

Wordsworth is the chief representative of the Romantic Movement; He belongs among the five or six greatest English poets. W.. Wordsworth  was born in Cocker mouth, near Lake District, and in the peace and the beauty of this country, he found inspiration for his poetry. In the preface to the lyrical ballads Wordsworth described Romanticism as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings which takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility” He asserted that poetry should express, in genuine language, experience as filtered through personal emotion and imagination; the truest experience was to be found in nature.

He chooses themes of nature .He looks upon nature as friend, philosopher and guide. First of all he is the profoundest interpreter of Nature in all poetry. For him Nature is a direct manifestation of the Divine Power, which seems to him to be everywhere and invisibly present in nature. He feels communion with her. The communion, into which he enters, as he walks and meditates, among the mountains and moors, is to him communion with God. To Wordsworth Nature is man's one great and sufficient teacher. The concept of the Sublime would make man turn towards nature, because in wild countryside, the power of the sublime could be felt most immediately. Through his supreme poetic expression, some of the greatest spiritual ideals of his mind are expressed.

He describes poet as a man with lively sensibility, enthusiasm, knowledge of human nature, passions and sympathy, speaking to men. He says the best language to describe and the theme to be used was, to choose incidents and situations from common life, in language really used by men and add colouring of imagination. Low and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a suitable language.

The variety of Wordsworth's poetry deserves special mention. In addition to his short lyric and narrative poems of Nature and the spiritual life, several kinds of poems stand out distinctly. A very few poems, the noble 'Ode to Duty,' 'Laodamia,' and 'Dion,' are classical in inspiration and show the classic style. His works are: “The Prelude”; “Poems in two volumes”; “The excursion”. . Wordsworth's romanticism is probably most fully realized in his great autobiographical poem, “The Prelude” (1805–50).  Among his many hundreds of sonnets is a very notable group inspired by the struggle of England against Napoleon. Nature and religion in 'Lines composed above Tintern Abbey' are the noblest expressions in literature. Wordsworth was the first English poet after Milton, who used the sonnet powerfully and he proves himself a worthy successor of Milton. The great bulk of his work, finally, is made up of his long poems in blank-verse. 'The Prelude,' written during the years 1799-1805, though not published until after his death, is the record of the development of his poet's mind .It is not an outwardly stirring poem, but a unique and invaluable piece of spiritual autobiography 

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

The poets Wordsworth and Coleridge are of special interest not only from the primary fact that they are among the greatest of English authors, but also of their close personal association, which contrasts the supporting qualities of Romantic Movement. They exhibited contrasting qualities such as the delight in wonder and mystery (Coleridge) and the belief in the simple and quiet forces, both of human life and of Nature (Wordsworth),

Coleridge, who was slightly the younger of the two, possesses high genius but largely restrained by circumstances and weakness of will.  Coleridge's genius suddenly expanded into short-lived and wonderful activity and he wrote most of his few great poems, 'The Ancient Mariner,' 'Kubla Khan,' and the First Part of 'Christabel.' 'The Ancient Mariner' was planned by Coleridge and Wordsworth on one of their frequent rambles mingle with them and there followed the memorable year of intellectual and emotional stimulus, Wordsworth found his manner so different from that of Coleridge that he withdrew altogether from the undertaking. The final result of the incident, however, was the publication in 1798 of 'Lyrical Ballads,' which included of Coleridge's work only this one poem, but of Wordsworth's several of his most characteristic ones. Coleridge afterwards explained that the plan of the volume contemplated two complementary sorts of poems. He was to present supernatural or romantic characters, yet investing them with human interest and resemblance to truth; while Wordsworth was to add the charm of novelty to everyday things and to suggest their relationship to the supernatural, awaking readers, from their accustomed blindness, to the loveliness and wonders of the world around us. No better description could be given of the poetic spirit and the whole poetic work of the two men. Like some other epoch-marking books, 'Lyrical Ballads' attracted little attention.

In ‘Lyrical ballads’, a landmark in literary history, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge presented and released a liberating force in poetry. Writing in search of these sublime moments, other romantic poets wrote about the marvelous and supernatural, the exotic, and the medieval. But they also found beauty, in the lives of simple rural people and aspects of the everyday world.

The second generation of romantic poets included John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and George Gordon, Lord Byron. In Keats's great odes, intellectual and emotional sensibility merges in language of great power and beauty. Shelley, who combined lyricism with political vision, searched and used more extreme effects and occasionally achieved them, as in his great drama Prometheus  Unbound (1820). His wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, wrote the greatest of the Gothic romances, Frankenstein (1818).

Lord Byron was the romantic hero, the envy and scandal of the age. He has been continually identified with his own characters, particularly the rebellious hero. Byron skillfully combined the romantic lyric with a rationalist irony. Minor romantic poets include Robert Southey—best-remembered today for his story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”—Leigh Hunt, Thomas Moore, and Walter Savage Landor.

Milton was one of the Romanticists, who in poetic form, did not completely break away from the pentameter couplet but returned to many other meters. Milton was their chief master, and his example led to the revival of blank verse and of the octo-syllabic couplet. There was also inclination towards Spenserian stanza, and development of a great variety of lyric stanza forms. This characteristic appears in the minor poet of same generation such Thomas Grey.

Thomas Grey was a one of the leaders of the Romantic Movement. He was a scholar and a learned man, well versed in the literature and history of ancient and modern nations of Europe .Even though the bulk of Gray's poetry is very small, it has considerable variety. His low literary output is due to his unwillingness to write except at his best, or to publish until he had subjected his work to repeated revisions, which sometimes, as in the case of his 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,' extended over many years. His poems contain the mingling of the true classic, pseudo-classic, and romantic elements in the poems, though less in the 'Elegy,' He is the extreme type of the academic poet. His work shows, however, considerable variety, including real appreciation for Nature, as in the 'Ode on the Spring,' delightful quiet humor, as in the 'Ode on a Favorite Cat,' rather conventional moralizing, as in the 'Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,' magnificent expression of the fundamental human emotions, as in the 'Elegy,' and warlike vigor in the 'Norse Ode' translated from the 'Poetic Edda'

There is Oliver Goldsmith, who is more romantic in his works. In, 1764 was published Goldsmith's descriptive poem, 'The Traveler,' based on his own experiences in Europe. Six years later it was followed by 'The Deserted Village,' which was well received. Satire. In the choice of the rimed couplet for 'The Traveler' and 'The Deserted Village' the influence of pseudo-classicism and of Johnson appears; but Goldsmith's treatment of the form, with his variety in pauses and his simple but passionate  eloquence, make it a very different thing from the rimed couplet of either Johnson or Pope.

William Cowper is clearly a transition poet and not a thoroughbred romantic poet. He shares some of the main romantic impulses but in his thought and expression, to a great extent, he is pseudo-classical. He can be credited with praise for producing with John Newton, their joint collection of 'Olney Hymns,' many of which deservedly remain among the most popular in our church song-books.. The bulk of his work consists of long moralizing poems,. Some of them are in the rimed couplet and others in blank verse. His blank-verse translation of Homer, published in 1791, is more notable, and 'Alexander Selkirk' and the humorous doggerel 'John Gilpin' are famous; but his most significant poems are a few lyrics and descriptive pieces in which he speaks out his deepest feelings sadness. His poems 'On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture' and 'To Mary') which displays his deepest expression of sadness, is unsurpassed and 'The Castaway' is a song of religious despair.

William Blake (1757-1827) was one of the extreme romanticists. For him the material world was as real as his real world The bulk of his writing consists of a series of 'prophetic books' in verse and prose, works, in part, of genius, but of unbalanced genius, and virtually unintelligible. His lyric poems, some of them composed when he was no more than thirteen years old, are of high quality... One of their commonest quality is the mysterious joy and beauty of the world, a delight sometimes touched, it is true, as in 'The Tiger,' with a mature consciousness of the wonderful and terrible power behind all the beauty. Blake did not like the shutting up of children in school away from the happy life of out-of-doors. These are the chief sentiments of 'Songs of Innocence.' In 'Songs of Experience' he talks about the necessary situations that have to be endured in the world.

Robert Burns is by nature is deeply romantic. He does not belong to any group. He led a life of hardship. 'His genius, however, like his exuberant spirit, could not be crushed out. His mother had familiarized him from the beginning with the songs and ballads of which the country was full, and though he is said at first to have had so little ear for music that he could scarcely distinguish one tune from another, he soon began to compose songs (words) of his own as he followed the plough.. He is only the last of a long succession of rural Scottish song-writers; he composed his own songs to accompany popular airs; and many of them are directly based on fragments of earlier songs. None the less his work rises immeasurably above all that had gone before it.

Burns' place among poets is perfectly clear. It is chiefly that of a song-writer, perhaps the greatest songwriter of the world. At work in the fields or in his garret or kitchen after the long day's work was done, he composed songs because he could not help it, because his emotion was irresistibly stirred by the beauty and life of the birds and flowers, the snatch of a melody which kept running through his mind, or the memory of the girl with whom he had last talked. And his feelings expressed themselves with spontaneous simplicity, genuineness, and ease. He is a thoroughly romantic poet, though wholly by the grace of nature, not at all from any conscious intention--he wrote as the inspiration moved him, not in accordance with any theory of art.

The range of his subjects and emotions is nearly on topics such as: married affection, as in 'John Anderson, My Jo'; reflective sentiment; feeling for nature; sympathy with animals; vigorous patriotism, deep tragedy and pathos; instinctive happiness; delightful humor; and  others. It should be clearly recognized, however, that this achievement, supreme as it is in its own way, does not suffice to place Burns among the greatest poets.. Burns' significant production, also, is not altogether limited to songs. 'The Cotter's Saturday Night' (in Spenser's stanza) is one of the perfect descriptive poems of lyrical sentiment; and some of Burns' meditative poems and poetical epistles to acquaintances are delightful in a free-and-easy fashion. The exuberant power in the religious satires is undeniable.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1832).

 His poetic quality was a delicate and his exquisite lyricism unsurpassed in the literature of the world. In both his life and his poetry his visionary and reforming zeal and his superb lyric instinct are in close relation. The finest of Shelley's poems, are his lyrics. 'The Skylark' and 'The Cloud' are among the most sparkling and unique of all outbursts of poetic genius. Of the 'Ode to the West Wind,' a succession of strong emotions and visions of beauty swept, as if by the wind itself, through the vast spaces of the world, The poet Swinburne exclaims: 'It is beyond and outside and above all criticism, all praise, and all thanksgiving.' The 'Lines Written among the Euganean Hills,' 'The Indian Serenade,' 'The Sensitive Plant' (a brief narrative), 'Adonais,'  and not a few others are also of the highest quality. In an elegy on Keats is the finest. Much less satisfactory but still fascinating are the longer poems, narrative or philosophical, such as the early 'Alastor,' a vague allegory of a poet's quest for the beautiful through a gorgeous and unclear succession of romantic imagination. The 'Hymn to Intellectual Beauty'; 'Julian and Maddalo,' in which Shelley and Byron (Maddalo) are portrayed; and 'Epipsychidion,' an ecstatic poem on the love which is of spiritual quality. Some of Shelley's shorter poems are purely poetic expressions of poetic emotion,

JOHN KEATS (1795-1821).

The third member of the group, John Keats’ poem is as individual and unique as the poetry of Byron and Shelley’s. It is in a wholesome way, the most conspicuous great representative in English poetry, since Chaucer of the spirit of 'Art for Art's sake.' Keats' first little volume of verse, published in 1817, when he was twenty-one,-contained some delightful poems and clearly displayed most of his chief qualities. It was followed the next year by his longest poem, 'Endymion,' where he uses, one of the vaguely beautiful Greek myths as the basis for the expression of his own delight in the glory of the world and of youthful sensations. his third and last volume, published in 1820, and including 'The Eve of St. Agnes,' 'Isabella,' 'Lamia,' the fragmentary 'Hyperion,' and his half dozen great odes, probably contains more poetry of the highest order than any other book of original verse Almost all of Keats' poems are exquisite and luxuriant in their embodiment of sensuous beauty, but 'The Eve of St. Agnes,' in Spenser's richly lingering stanza, must be especially mentioned.

Lord Byron ( 1788-1824). Byron (George Gordon Byron) expresses mainly the spirit of individual revolt, revolt against all existing institutions and standards. This was largely a matter of his own personal temperament, but the influence of the time also had a share in it, 'Childe Harold' is the best of all Byron's works, though the third and fourth cantos, published some years later, and dealing with Belgium, the battle of Waterloo, and central Europe, are superior to the first two. Its excellence consists chiefly in the fact that while it is primarily a descriptive poem, its pictures are dramatically vivid in themselves

The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century: 1660-1700

Introduction and Historical Background:

England was torn by insecurity. The England to which Charles Stuart returned in1660 was a nation opposed against itself. It was utterly spent by twenty years of civil wars and revolution. Early in Charles’s rule, the people were struck down by two frightful calamities, the plague of 1665, which carried off over seventy thousand souls in London alone, and in September 1666, a fire that raged for four days destroyed a large part of the City (more than thirteen thousand houses), leaving about two-thirds of the population homeless. Yet the nation rose from its ashes, in the century that followed, to become an empire. The Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 established a rule of law and the Act of Union of 1707, a political alliance, under which England was transformed into Great Britain in fact as well as name—a large country to which people of widely differing backgrounds and origins felt they owed allegiance.

The restoration period and seventeenth century extends from 1660, the year Charles II was restored to the throne, until about 1789.The poetic inspiration or what today might be called imagination, was the most important characteristic of this period. Many scholars think of it as, properly. three distinct literary eras: the Restoration (1660-1700), dominated by Dryden; the Age of Satire (1700-1745), dominated by Swift and Pope; and the Age of Johnson (1745-1790), dominated not only by Johnson but by a new kind of poetry and a major new literary form, the novel. In the era of the Restoration, Dryden’s occasional verse, comedy, blank verse tragedy, heroic play, ode, satire, translation, and critical essay and both his example and his precepts had great influence.  In the Age of Satire, the literature is chiefly a literature of wit, concerned with civilization and social relationships, and consequently, it is critical and in some degree moral or satiric. Some of the finest works of this period are mock heroic or humorous burlesques of serious classic or modern modes. The era also brought in   Mock-Heroic/Mock Epic—A poem in Epic form and manner. ludicrously elevating some trivial subject to epic grandeur, juxtaposing high/grand style and subject, to make fun of somebody or something The eighteenth-century poetic language lays stress on visualizing or personifying ideas or concepts as if they see what they write about.  

This period saw great poetic output in the inspired conceptions of Donne, his school of metaphysical poets, Shakespeare, and Milton, Ben Jonson and his school of disciples. They had developed their own poetic styles though constrained by the formal and conventional styles of their period. Even then the succeeding generations rebelled against their imaginative flights and startling styles. On the other hand there was vast admiration for the effortless poetic creation, good taste and moderation, the using of Greek and Latin classics as models.

The literature of this period benefited by the restoration of Charles II to the throne as the literary outputs were infused by good taste, moderation, reason and simplicity. The learned classes drew parallel between restored English monarchy and the imperial Rome. Their appreciation of the literature of the time of the Roman emperor Augustus led to a widespread acceptance of the new English literature and encouraged a grand style and tone in the poetry of the period, the later phase of which is often referred to as Augustan. At this time was established Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, which influenced the development of clear and simple prose. This further brought in, reason and easier communication of ides through prose and poetic creations.

Outline of the eighteenth century:

Political Conditions:

This century saw a close connection between politics and literature. This period saw the continuation of the practical spirit of the previous generation. The Stuart restoration, the restoring of monarchy which brought Charles II to the throne, was followed by an immense change in the general spirit of the people. The Restoration was notable for a relaxation of the strict Puritan morality of the previous decades. Theatre, sports, and dancing were revived. A reaction against the Puritanism and its principles had set in.

Socially   England was in its lowest spirits. The court of King Charles was steeped in corruption. While Charles was enjoying his new court, The moral ideals of Puritanism was turned into joke. Even outside the confines of the court, corruption had spread far and wide. The general lowering of moral ideal was very visible

Charles II was succeeded by his brother James II (1685-88). James was a Catholic, and he made several awkward attempts to re-establish the rights of Catholics, Popular opinion grew against James after a son was born to him, raising the prospect of a Catholic dynasty. Parliament extended an invitation to the firmly Protestant William and Mary of Orange (modern Holland) to take the English throne. James fled to France .William and Mary (1689-1702) ruled England jointly. Parliament ensured that they would never again have to deal with the like of James, by passing the 1689 Bill of Rights, which prohibited Catholics from ruling William outlived Mary, and he was followed by the second daughter of James II, Queen Anne (1702-14)

When Queen Anne was without any heirs, the English throne was offered to her nearest Protestant relative, George of Hanover, who thus became George I of England. Throughout the long reign of George, his son, and grandson, all named George, the very nature of English society and the political face of the realm changed. In part this was because the first two Georges, took little interest in the politics of rule, and were quite content to let ministers rule on their behalf. These ministers, representatives of the king, or Prime Ministers, rather enjoyed ruling.

Social conditions during the 17th century were very bad. Laws were harsh, and religious discrimination was common. The effect of these on the literature of the period was as anticipated, as literature is the product of the social era and reflects what it sees. The literature of this age was openly corrupt It had no spiritual or moral spirit in it. There was no purpose, passion, or creative energy. Literature had ceased to be lofty and had become common and vulgar. The poetry had become prosaic and was judged by the standards of prose. The poet did not go into fairyland of his imagination. He made poem the medium of argument. The era of versified pamphlet had begun.

The general spirit of the period:

The writers of the reigns of Anne and George I called their period the Augustan Age, because they believed that with them English life and literature had reached a high point of civilization comparable to that which existed at Rome under the Emperor Augustus. They believed that both in the art of living and in literature they had rediscovered and the principles of the best periods of Greek and Roman life This is because  the qualities of the classical spirit, were largely misunderstood, and thinking to reproduce them produced  only a superficial, pseudo-classical, imitation.

The main characteristics of the period can be briefly summed up as given:  There was greater focus on the practical well-being of society or of one's own class. They did not give high appreciation to nature but was all praise for formal art. In creative thought and expression, they had high regard for abstractness. They firmly believed that ancients had attained perfection in literature. They held in high regard Latin and Greek poets. This gave rise to artificiality and a strong tendency to moralize. Although the 'Augustan Age' must be considered to end before the middle of the century, the same spirit continued   among many writers until the end, so that almost the whole of the century may be called the period of pseudo-classicism.

The period between 1660 and 1785 was a time of amazing expansion for England — or for "Great Britain," as the nation came to be called after an Act of Union in 1707 joined Scotland to England and Wales. Britain became a world power, an empire on which the sun never set. But it also changed internally. The world seemed different in 1785. A sense of new, expanding possibilities — as well as modern problems — transformed the daily life of the British people, and offered them fresh ways of thinking about their relations to nature and to each other. Hence literature had to adapt to circumstances for which there was no precedent.. The sense that everything was changing was also sparked by a revolution in science. The microscope and telescope opened new fields of vision. The authority of Aristotle and Ptolemy was broken; their systems could not explain what Galileo and Kepler saw in the heavens. Many later writers found the new science inspiring. It gave them new images to conjure with and new possibilities of fact and fiction to explore. As discoveries multiplied, it became clear that the moderns knew things of which the ancients had been ignorant The trade and conquests that made European powers like Spain and Portugal immensely rich also brought the scourge of racism and colonial exploitation. In the eighteenth century,

John Dryden (1631-1700):

Dryden, called as, the greatest man of a little age, was the one complete representative of this period. We must not forget his elders, Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham who were pioneers of the so called classic school of poetry against the excesses of the metaphysical school of thought. and in favor of good sense, neatness and clearness of expression. They reformed English versification at a time it had become harsh. Waller especially brought into effect the classic couplet. Dryden’s poetry is representative of his age. It is restrained in imaginative power, depth of feeling, spiritual glow, but has intellect and style .It is highly eloquent. It was Dryden’s effort and example which gave heroic couplet the important place it has in English poetry.

Dryden as a poet, ripened very slowly. His first poem, an elegy on the death of young Lord Hastings, written at eighteen, was not very creative. His reputation rests primarily on satires. ‘Absalom and Achitophel ‘(1681-1682) and’ Mac Flecknoe’ (1682) are the most remarkable of Dryden's political satires. Among his other poetic works are noteworthy translations of Roman satirists and of the works of Virgil and the Pindaric ode “Alexander's Feast,” which was published in 1697. The poetry of John Dryden possesses force, and fullness of tone. At the same time, his poetry sets a tone of moderation and good taste. His polished, heroic couplet (a unit of two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter)( which he inherited from his predecessors and which he developed,) became the dominant form, in the composition of his longer poems.

In his poems are found stylistic restraint, compression, clarity, and common sense that is lacking in much of the poetry of the preceding age, particularly in the mechanically complex metaphorical wit of the older metaphysical school.. The bulk of Dryden's work was in prose. Dryden's poetry defined the tone of his time, Dryden’s poetry alike in its merits and demerits, is thoroughly representative of his age. As a whole it is marked by a general want of  poetic qualities. It has little imaginative power, little depth of feeling, little spiritual passion, and does not touch high lyrical heights except for ‘ Alexander’s feast’ and ‘To the memory of Mrs. Anne Killigrew’.On the other hand it is distinctive in its intellectuality and vigor of style. He gives us passages of eloquence and style though seldom poetic. It is easy to see he holds stronger place as a satirist.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744):

The chief representative of pseudo-classicism in   poetry is Dryden's successor, Alexander Pope. Pope was born in 1688 (just a hundred years before Byron), He had to endure hardship, as he was born with deformed and dwarfed body and an incurably sickly constitution, which carried with it abnormal sensitiveness of both nerves and mind.  He was a poet who was predestined to be one. He never had any formal training. He read voraciously as he was hungry for knowledge. The earlier influences were of amateur poet and critic, William Walsh who declared that England had had great poets, 'but never one great poet that was correct' (that is of thoroughly regular style). Pope accepted this hint as his guiding principle and proceeded to seek correctness by giving still further polish to the pentameter couplet of Dryden. Pope went on to publish poems at the age of twenty-one He wrote 'Essay on Criticism two years later. Just like Dryden, pope’s works are representative of his period and in pope’s case, of his own nature.   pope used couplet with ease. His essay on criticism is excellent but in his poetry he uses subjects not suitable for poetry, and also materials that were imitations and not original. .Pope was noted for his brilliant essay and further increased his popularity by the noteworthy mock-epic ‘The rape of the lock’. It takes on a silly drawing-room episode of snipping off a lock of lady’s hair into the theme of epic. His satire ’Dunciad ‘is well received. It is malicious as it mocks pope’s enemies as dull-heads...Pope had correctness of reason but not the expressive force   or spontaneous force of a genius. He polished and re-polished his poetic works. Pope put into good use, heroic couplet which he had brought to perfection. Pope took on the task of translating ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’ Pope’s popularity rests on his satires but he took on the task of writing his essays in verse. Like Dryden, Pope made translations of classical works, notably of the Iliad, which was a great popular and financial success. His edition of Shakespeare's works bears witness to a range of taste not usually ascribed to him.

Pope's physical disabilities brought him to premature old age, and he died in 1744. The question of Pope's rank among authors is of central importance for any theory of poetry. In his own age he was definitely regarded by his supporters as the greatest of all English poets of all time. He may not be in the same genre as Milton, Wordsworth, Shelly or Browning. He is master in satire forms and epigrams, the concise statements. His quotations in his poems are not easily forgotten. He used rimed couplet which he had borrowed from Dryden and which he had polished to greater finish. He used his rimed couplet to great advantage. . He chooses every word with the greatest care for its value as both sound and sense As the pseudo-classic spirit yielded to the romantic this judgment was modified, until in the nineteenth century it was rather popular to deny that in any true sense Pope was a poet at all. Of course the truth lies somewhere between these extremes. Into the highest region of poetry, that of great emotion and imagination, Pope scarcely enters at all.

The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 brought hope to a nation divided by religious strife. The long reign of George III (1760-1820) saw Britain issuing forth as a colonial power. It also witnessed the desire of the people for a social order based on liberty.  The wealth brought to England by Industrialism and foreign trade had brought wealth to England but it had not reached the poor. Effects of Industrialization, (1700 – 1850) was felt deeply.

Industrialization began in Britain since there was a large supply of coal and steel and it was seen as one of the greatest colonial powers, thus allowing it to gain the capital and market needed to industrialize. Industrialization occurred in many countries, each taking a different approach to the implementation of new machinery and technology. The most notable for leading the way in industrialization is Britain. Industrialization not only made dramatic changes in the economic structure of countries but also in the social and political areas of countries. Pre-industrialization, people were based mainly in rural areas. However, when the enclosure of land became popular in the 1760’s, farmers who were tenants began to be pushed off the land. This along with the establishment of new urban towns and cities meant that people started to move away resulting in ‘English peasant villages being destroyed’. Industrialization led to much upheaval; especially socially since the whole spirit of life was affected. One of the social effects that industrialization had was that the ‘rhythm of life changed. There was growing divide between classes of rich and poor.. The emergence of the working class and the growing divide between classes also meant that a new political and economic structure was in the process of being developed. It led to the establishment of capitalism. 

Following the Restoration, French and Italian musicians, as well as painters from the Low Countries, migrated to England, giving rise to a revolution in aesthetic tastes. The literature appearing between 1660 and 1785 divides conveniently into three lesser periods of about forty years each. 

The first, extending to the death of Dryden in 1700 is characterized by an effort to bring a new refinement to English literature according to sound critical principles of what is fine and right.  Poetry and prose come to be characterized by an easy, sociable style, while in the theater comedy is triumphant. 

Summary:

The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 brought hope to a divided nation, but no political settlement could be stable until religious issues had been resolved. The Restoration and the eighteenth century brought vast changes to the island of Great Britain, which became a single nation after 1707.

The long reign of George III (1760-1820) saw both the emergence of Britain as a colonial power and the cry for a new social order based on liberty and radical reform.  The widespread devotion to direct observation of experience established empiricism, as employed by John Locke, as the dominant intellectual attitude of the age. Publishing boomed in eighteenth-century Britain, in part because of a loosening of legal restraints on printing.

The second period, ending with the deaths of Pope in 1744 and Swift in 1745, reaches out to a wider circle of readers; with special satirical attention to what is unfitting and wrong.  Deeply conservative but lighter, the finest works of this brilliant generation of writers use myths and forms.

The third period, concluding with the death of Johnson in 1784 publication, confronts the old principles with revolutionary ideas that would come to the fore in the Romantic period.  A respect for the good judgment of ordinary people, and for standards of taste and behavior independent of social status, marks many writers of the age. Throughout the larger period, what poets most tried to see and represent was nature, understood as the universal and permanent elements in human experience. The successive stages of literary taste during the period of the Restoration and the 18th century are conveniently referred to as the ages of Dryden, Pope, and Johnson, after the three great literary figures that, one after another, carried on the so-called classical tradition in literature. The age as a whole is sometimes called the Augustan age, or the classical or neoclassical period.