{"id":66,"date":"2017-09-04T06:14:12","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T06:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/?page_id=66"},"modified":"2017-09-22T17:27:37","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T17:27:37","slug":"historical-development-of-poetry","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/americanboard.org\/Subjects\/english\/historical-development-of-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Historical Development of Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\u2b05 Previous Lesson<\/a>\u00a0Workshop Index<\/a>\u00a0Next Lesson \u27a1<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Historical Development of Poetry<\/h1>\n

Objective<\/h4>\n

In this section, the historical development of poetry from ancient Greek and Anglo-Saxon epics to twentieth-century\u00a0Imagist poems will be covered.<\/p>\n

Early Poetry<\/h3>\n

Greek Epics<\/h4>\n

Drama and poetry have gone hand in hand since ancient Greece. One source for Greek drama was epic\u00a0poetry<\/strong><\/abbr>, long narrative poems recounting the courageous deeds of a hero. Originally, these long poems\u00a0were recited orally for special occasions and improvisation was sometimes a necessity.<\/p>\n

The earliest examples of Greek epic poetry are Homer\u2019s Iliad<\/em> and the Odyssey<\/em>, most likely written around 750 BCE.<\/p>\n

The Iliad\u2019s<\/em> plot follows the attempt by the Greeks to rescue Helen, a Greek queen captured by the Trojans during the\u00a0Trojan War, while the Odyssey<\/em> tells the story of Odysseus as he travels home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.\u00a0Although written in verse, the Odyssey<\/em> contains early elements of the novel, such as exciting narrative and\u00a0flashbacks that add to the dramatic effect of the story.<\/p>\n

Anglo-Saxon Epics<\/h4>\n

Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon, was introduced to Britain when the country was invaded by the Angles, Saxons,\u00a0and Jutes, who came from the European mainland. The different tribes brought oral hero legends that would later\u00a0become the subjects of the earliest English literature and poetry.<\/p>\n

Early poetry in all cultures had to be memorable, since the printing press had yet to be invented. Across Europe and\u00a0England, poetry survived as an oral tradition, passing by word of mouth from generation to generation.<\/p>\n

In Anglo-Saxon civilization, traveling minstrels known as scops composed, memorized, and presented songs and poems.\u00a0The minstrels recited epics about great battles and brave heroes.<\/p>\n

Beowulf<\/em>, an epic composed in Old English, dates from between 700 and 1000 A.D. The storyline combines Norse legend\u00a0with historical Danish events from the early sixth century. Danish invaders carried the oral tradition<\/strong><\/abbr> to England in the mid-sixth century, where the story absorbed hints of\u00a0Christianity. It was finally written down by one unknown poet around 1000 A.D.<\/p>\n

Add Some Music<\/h4>\n

In addition to epics, the Anglo-Saxons and Greeks composed lyric poems. Much like modern song lyrics,
\nlyric poems <\/strong><\/abbr>were shorter than epics and communicated thoughts and feelings instead of telling a\u00a0story. Poets were often accompanied by musical instrumentation when they recited the lyrics. The people of ancient\u00a0Greece used a lyre, a harp-like instrument, to accompany the lyrics, while the minstrels in England often played\u00a0harps as they recited poetry.<\/p>\n

Most of the Anglo-Saxon lyric poetry that survived the ages express belief in the Christian faith. The secular poems\u00a0that still exist are elegies<\/strong><\/abbr>,\u00a0or poems of lament and mourning.<\/p>\n

\n

Question<\/h4>\n

The Odyssey<\/em> is an example of what type of literature?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Lyric poetry<\/li>\n
  2. Narrative essay<\/li>\n
  3. Epic poetry<\/li>\n
  4. Historical drama<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Reveal Answer <\/a><\/p>\n

    The answer is C. Homer\u2019s Odyssey is an example of Greek epic poetry.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

    The Middle Ages: Ballads, Chaucer, and the Printing Press<\/h4>\n

    Most people in Great Britain were illiterate for centuries after the Norman Conquest. They continued the oral\u00a0traditions of their ancestors\u2014ballads<\/strong><\/abbr>,\u00a0narrative poems in short stanzas that were often sung. The ballad originated as a folk song relaying exciting\u00a0stories about love, adventure, disasters, and daring feats of courage.<\/p>\n

    Toward the end of the Middle Ages, Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press with wooden or metal moveable type\u00a0which changed literature forever. Prior to Gutenberg’s printing press, literature was available to few people\u00a0because it had to be copied by hand. With the printing press, the written word could reach a larger audience. For\u00a0example, William Caxton, who was the first English printer, was able to print works such as Geoffrey Chaucer\u2019s The<\/em>\u00a0Canterbury Tales<\/em> and Sir Thomas Malory\u2019s Morte d\u2019Arthur<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    Chaucer, considered one of the greatest poets of the English language, wrote his greatest achievement, The Canterbury\u00a0Tales<\/em> sometime between 1386 and 1395. The Canterbury Tales<\/em> is a long, narrative poem written as a collection of\u00a0stories. The tales are contained inside a frame tale and are told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury\u00a0to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas a’Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.<\/p>\n

    The poem is written in Middle English, which visually resembles modern English. The language is unlike the Old\u00a0English of Beowulf<\/em>, which requires an English translation.<\/p>\n

    The Headliners\u2014Shakespeare and Milton<\/h4>\n

    During the Elizabethan Age (1558\u20131603), writers focused their attention on poetry and drama. Some Elizabethan writers\u00a0only wrote lyric poetry, but others, such as playwright William Shakespeare, wrote in blank verse.<\/p>\n

    During this time in Italy, an important development occurred; the sonnet\u00a0<\/strong><\/abbr>was created. Petrarch, a great Italian lyric poet, created the fourteen-line lyric poem, now known as the\u00a0Petrarchan sonnet.<\/strong><\/abbr><\/p>\n

    Shakespeare and Sir Philip Sidney followed Petrarch\u2019s lead by writing their own sonnets, although the English poets\u00a0altered the form somewhat to what is now recognized as the Shakespearean\u00a0sonnet.<\/strong><\/abbr><\/p>\n

    Shakespeare, the best known author in the English language, wrote much of the important poetry and drama during the\u00a0sixteenth century. Between 1593 and 1601, Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets exploring themes of life, love, beauty, and\u00a0friendship in addition to his numerous plays.<\/p>\n

    The close connection between poetry and drama in English literature during the Renaissance was magical but brief;\u00a0modern playwrights do not write in verse as Shakespeare and his cohorts did.<\/p>\n

    Poetry continued to dominate the literary world in the seventeeth century. John Donne wrote Metaphysical<\/strong><\/abbr> poetry, which expresses highly philosophical ideas. Ben Jonson introduced Neoclassicism<\/strong><\/abbr>,\u00a0a revival of the style and attitude of ancient Greece.<\/p>\n

    John Milton, one of the most important poets of the seventeenth century, wrote Paradise Lost<\/em>, an epic poem in twelve\u00a0books. The opening lines explain the storyline:<\/p>\n

    Of man\u2019s first disobedience, and the fruit<\/p>\n

    Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste<\/p>\n

    Brought death into the world, and all our woe,<\/p>\n

    With loss of Eden, till one greater Man<\/p>\n

    Restore us, and regain the blissful seat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    This great epic of the English language contains more than ten thousand lines.<\/p>\n

    Poetry in the Age of Reason<\/h4>\n

    Poetry from the eighteenth century\u2019s Age of Reason and Age of Classicism reflected traditional ideas within\u00a0structured poetic forms.<\/p>\n

    Alexander Pope, a literary leader and satirist, expressed neoclassical thinking in his famous mock epic<\/strong><\/abbr>, The Rape of the Lock<\/em>. A mock epic imitates an epic in structure and features a mundane\u00a0event that is made to appear ridiculous through the use of elevated, lofty language. Humor results from the elevated treatment of a trivial subject.<\/p>\n

    In the following lines (Canto IV, lines 171-176) from The Rape of the Lock<\/em>, Pope describes the young woman\u2019s horror\u00a0at her hair being cut by the Baron:<\/p>\n

    The sister-lock now sits uncouth, alone,<\/p>\n

    And in its fellow\u2019s fate foresees its own;<\/p>\n

    Uncurl\u2019d it hangs, the fatal shears demands<\/p>\n

    And tempts once more thy sacrilegious hands.<\/p>\n

    Oh hadst thou, cruel: been content to seize<\/p>\n

    Hairs less in sight, or any hairs but these!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Based on a real incident that happened to Pope\u2019s friends, Pope parodies Greek epics using the events that transpired\u00a0when Lord Petrie cut off a lock of Annabella Fermor\u2019s hair as the subject matter.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Question<\/h4>\n

    During which period in literary history did drama and poetry interweave and flourish?<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Fourteenth century<\/li>\n
    2. Middle Ages<\/li>\n
    3. Renaissance<\/li>\n
    4. Eighteenth century<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Reveal Answer <\/a><\/p>\n

      The answer is C. The Renaissance was the time of Shakespeare and a time when poets wrote
      \nplays.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

      Romanticism and Transcendentalism<\/h4>\n

      Because all things must end, Neoclassicism gave way to Romanticism<\/strong><\/abbr> at the end of the eighteenth century. Literature of the Romantic age emphasized emotions and creativity in\u00a0opposition to the reason and intellect of Neoclassicism.<\/p>\n

      The following list contrasts elements and attitudes of eighteenth-century Neoclassicism with the Romanticism of the\u00a0early nineteenth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
       <\/p>\n
      \n

      Elements of Neoclassicism and
      \nRomanticism<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

       <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

      \n

      Neoclassicism<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

      		\n

      Romanticism<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

      \n

      tradition<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

      		\n

      innovation<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

      \n

      urban<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

      		\n

      rural<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

      \n

      conformist<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

      		\n

      independent<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

      \n

      intellect\/reason<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

      		\n

      imagination\/emotion<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

      \n

      control<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

      		\n

      spontaneity<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      The following passage comes from Wordsworth\u2019s \u201cLines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”:<\/p>\n

      As is a landscape to a blind man\u2019s eye:<\/p>\n

      But oft, in lonely rooms, and \u2018mid the din<\/p>\n

      Of towns and cities, I have owed to them<\/p>\n

      In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,<\/p>\n

      Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;<\/p>\n

      And passing even into my purer mind,<\/p>\n

      With tranquil restoration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      Wordsworth\u2019s poems, all of which are very much like the one above, embody the rural, emotional, and creative elements\u00a0that mark the poetry of the Romantic age.\u00a0Although his poetry does not best represent the romantic age, Lord Byron is associated with Romantic poets because of\u00a0the\u00a0Byronic hero<\/strong><\/abbr>, which could be found in both his work and his life. Readers often assumed that the\u00a0heroes of Byron\u2019s poems were self-portraits, although they most likely were not.<\/p>\n

      The following characteristics describe a typical Byronic hero:<\/p>\n