-
500
Four Ballads
Four different ballads, circa the Medieval Times
Unknown authors and dates
Two Corbies
Lord Randall
Get Up and Bar the Door
Barbara Allen -
Jan 1, 600
Beowulf
Circa 600 A.D.
Unknown Author
This epic poem is the self-portrait of a culture. Beowulf conveys the dreams, aspirations, and fears of the Anglo-Saxon people. -
May 6, 673
Bede
Author
Lived from 673-735
Wrote:
History of the English Church
and
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle -
Jan 1, 1000
The Wanderer
Circa 1000 A.D.
Unknown Author
From The Exeter Book -
Jan 1, 1072
The Exeter Book
Circa 880
Collection of mauscripts passed down through oral tradition. -
May 7, 1304
Francesco Petrarch
Poet
Lived 1304-1374
Wrote
Sonnet 18
and
Sonnet 28 -
May 6, 1343
Geoffrey Chaucer
Author
Lived 1343-1400
Wrote:
The Book of the Duchess
and
The Canterbury Tales -
May 6, 1405
Sir Thomas Mallory
Author
Lived 1405-1471
Wrote:
Morte d' Arthur
and
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -
May 6, 1423
Margaret Paston
Author
Lived 1423-1484
Wrote:
Letters of Margaret Paston -
May 7, 1477
Sir Thomas More
Author
Lived 1477-1535
Wrote:
Utopia -
Period: Jan 2, 1485 to
The English Renaissance Period
The literature from the English Renaissance is one of the more exciting and dynamic times in British History. Some of the authors and works from this period revolutionized writing in Britain. Famous Quote:
"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angle!"
-William Shakespeare, Hamlet -
May 7, 1533
Elizabeth I
Author
Lived 1533-1603
Wrote:
Speech Before Her Troops -
May 6, 1552
Edmund Spenser
Author and Poet
Lived 1552-1599
Wrote:
The Faerie Queen
Sonnet 1
Sonnet 35
and
Sonnet 75 -
May 6, 1554
Sir Phillip Sidney
Author and Poet
Lived 1554-1586
Wrote:
Sonnet 31
and
Sonnet 39 -
May 6, 1554
Sir Walter Raleigh
Poet
Lived 1554-1618
Wrote:
The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd -
May 6, 1564
Christopher Marlowe
Poet
Lived 1564-1593
Wrote:
Tamburlaine
and
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love -
May 7, 1564
William Shakespeare
Author
Lived 1564-1616
Wrote:
Sonnet 29
Sonnet 106
Sonnet 116
Sonnet 130
A MidSummer's Nights Dream
and
Macbeth -
May 7, 1569
Amelia Lanier
Author
Lived 1569-1645
Wrote:
Eve's Apology in Defense of Women -
May 7, 1572
John Donne
Poet
Lived 1572-1631
Wrote:
Song
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
Holy Sonnet 10
and
Meditation 17 -
May 7, 1572
Ben Jonson
Poet
Lived 1572-1637
Wrote:
On My First Song
Still to Be Neat
and
Song: To Celia -
Robert Herrick
Poet
Lived 1591-1674
Wrote:
To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time -
John Milton
Poet
Lived 1608-1674
Wrote:
Sonnet VII
Sonnet XIX
and
Paradise Lost -
Sir John Suckling
Poet
Lived 1609-1642
Wrote:
Song -
The King James Bible
Completed in 1611
This bible is the English translation of of the Bible
Includes:
Psalm 23
The Sermon on the Mount
and
The Parable of the Prodigal Son -
Richard Lovelace
Author
Lived 1618-1657
Wrote:
To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars
and To Althea, from Prison -
Andrew Marvell
Poet
Lived 1621-1678
Wrote:
To His Coy Mistress -
Period: to
the 17th and 18th Centuries
Literature from the 17th and 18th centuries covers a turbulent time in English history.
A sense of deep disquiet and of traditions under challenge is felt everywhere in the literary culture of the early 17th century.
The 18th century saw the development of the modern novel as a literary genre. Famous Quote:
"Methinks I see in my noble mind...nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks."
-John Milton, Areopagitica -
Samuel Pepys
Author
Lived 1633-1703
Wrote:
The Diary -
Matsuo Basho
Poet
Lived 1644-1694
Wrote:
Haiku -
Daniel Defoe
Author
Lived 1660-1731
Wrote:
A Journal of the Plague Year -
Anne Finch, Countes of Winchilsea
Author
Lived 1661-1720
Wrote:
A Nocturnal Reverie -
Jonathan Swift
Author
Lived 1667-1745
Wrote:
Gulliver's Travels
and
A Modest Proposal -
Joseph Addison
Author
Lived 1672-1719
Wrote:
The Aims of the Spectator -
Alexander Pope
Author
Lived 1688-1744
Wrote:
An Essay on Man
and
The Rape of the Lock -
Samuel Johnson
Author
Lived 1709-1784
Wrote:
A Dictionary of the English Language
and
On Spring -
Thomas Gray
Author
Lived 1706-1771
Wrote:
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard -
Yaso Buson
Poet
Lived 1716-1784
Wrote:
Haiku -
James Boswell
Author
Lived 1740-1795
Wrote:
Life of Samuel Johnson -
William Blake
Poet
Lived 1757-1827
Wrote:
The Lamb
The Tyger
The Chimney Sweeper
and
Infant Sorrow -
Robert Burns
Poet
Lived 1759-1796
Wrote:
To a Mouse
and
To a Louse -
Joanna Baillie
Poet
Lived 1762-1851
Wrote:
Woo'd and Married and A' -
Kobayashi Issa
Poet
Lived 1763-1828
Wrote:
Haiku -
Wiliam Wordsworth
Poet
Lived 1770-1850
Wrote:
Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
The Prelude
The World Is Too Much With Us
and
London, 1802 -
Sydney Smith
Author
Lived 1771-1845
Wrote:
Progress in Personal Comfort -
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Poet
Lived 1772-1834
Wrote:
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
and
Kubla Khan -
Jane Austen
Author
Lived 1775-1817
Wrote:
On Making an Agreeable Marriage
Pride and Prejudice
Emma
and
Sense and Sensibility -
George Gordon, Lord Byron
Author
Lived 1788-1824
Wrote:
She Walks in Beauty
Apostrophe to the Ocean
and
Don Juan
Speech to Parliament: In Defense of the Lower Classes -
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Author
Lived 1792-1822
Wrote:
Ozymandias
Ode to the West Wind
A Song: "Men of England"
and
To a Skylark -
John Keats
Poet
Lived 1795-1821
Wrote:
On First Looking into Chapmans's Homer
When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be
Ode to a Nightingale
and
Ode on a Grecian Urn -
Heinrich Heine
Poet
Lived 1797-1856
Wrote:
The Lorelei -
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Author
Lived 1797-1851
Wrote:
Frankenstein -
Period: to
The Romantic Period
The literature from the Romantic Period illustrates a transition from discovery of the outer world to understanding of one's inner world. These works celebrate both the hearts and minds of British literature's rebels and dreamers. Famous Quote:
"Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher."
-William Wordsworth, The Tables Turned -
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Author
Lived 1800-1859
Wrote:
On the Passing of the Reform Bill -
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Poet
Lived 1806-1861
Wrote:
Sonnet 43 -
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Author
Lived 1809-1892
Wrote:
In Memoriam, A.H.H.
The Lady of Shalott
The Princess: Tears, Idle Tears
and
Ulysses -
Robert Browning
Poet
Lived 1812-1889
Wrote:
My Last Duchess
Life in a Love
and
Love Among the Ruins -
Charles Dickins
Author
Lived 1812-1870
Wrote:
Hard Times -
Charlotte Bronte
Author
Lived 1816-1855
Wrote:
Jane Eyre -
Emily Bronte
Author
Lived 1818-1848
Wrote:
Wuthering Heights
and
Remembrance -
Matthew Arnold
Author
Lived 1812-1888
Wrote:
Dover Beach -
Mary Chesnut
Author
Lived 1823-1886
Wrote:
Civil War -
Period: to
The Victorian Period
The literature from the Victorian Period reflects the rise and fall of British power during the Victorian era. -
Thomas Hardy
Author and Poet
Lived 1840-1928
Wrote:
The Darkling Tush
Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave? -
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Poet
Lived 1844-1889
Wrote:
God's Grandeur
and
Spring and Fall: To a Young Child -
Conidition of Ireland: Illustrations of the New Poor-Law
Published in The Illustrated London News -
Joseph Conrad
Author
Lived 1857-1924
Wrote:
The Lagoon -
A.E. Housman
Poet
Lived 1859-1936
Wrote:
To an Athlete Dying Young
and
When I was One-and-Twenty -
Rudyard Kipling
Author and Poet
Lived 1865-1936
Wrote:
Recessional
and
The Widow at Windsor -
William Butler Yeats
Poet
Lived 1865-1939
Wrote:
When You Are Old
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
The Wild Swans at Coole
The Second Coming
and
Sailing to Byzantium -
Mohandas K. Ghandi
Author
Lived 1869-1948
Wrote:
Defending Nonviolent Resistance -
Saki (H.H. Munro)
Poet
Lived 1870-1916
Wrote: Birds on the Western Front -
Sir Winston Churchill
Author
Lived 1874-1965
Wrote:
Wartime Speech -
James Joyce
Author
Lived 1882-1941
Wrote:
Araby -
Virginia Woolf
Author
Lived 1882-1941
Wrote:
The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection -
D.H. Lawrence
Author
Lived 1885-1930
Wrote:
The Rocking-Horse Winner -
Siegfried Sassoon
Poet
Lived 1886-1967
Wrote:
Wirers -
Rupert Brooke
Poet
Lived 1887-1915
Wrote:
The Soldier -
T.S. Eliot
Poet
Lived 1888-1965
Wrote:
Preludes
Journey of the Magi
and
The Hollow Men -
Wilfred Owen
Poet
Lived 1893-1918
Wrote:
Anthem for Doomed Youth -
E.E. Cummings
Poet
Lived 1894-1962
Wrote:
Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town -
Elizabeth Bowen
Author
Lived 1899-1973
Wrote:
The Demon Lover -
Jorge Luis Borges
Author and Poet
Lived 1899-1986
Wrote:
The Book of Sand -
Period: to
The Modern and Postmodern Periods
Literature from the Modern and Postmodern periods responds to the quickly changing modern world-wars, technology, society, etc. It also shows that stories about human joy and struggle come from all around the world. Famous Quote:
"We are living at one of the fraet turning points of history... Yesterday, we split the atom. We assaulted the colossal citadel of power, the tiny unit of the substance of the universe..."
-Doris Lessing, The Small Personal Voice -
Stevie Smith
Poet
Lived 1902-1971
Wrote:
Not Waving but Drowning -
George Orwell
Author and Poet
Lived 1903-1950
Wrote:
Shooting an Elephant
and
Animal Farm -
Pablo Neruda
Poet
Lived 1904-1973
Wrote:
Sonnet 89 -
Graham Greene
Author
Lived 1904-1991
Wrote:
A Shocking Accident -
W.H. Auden
Poet
Lived 1907-1973
In Memory of W.B. Yeats
and
Musee des Beaux Arts -
Louis MacNeice
Poet
Lievd 1907-1963
Wrote:
Carrick Revisited -
Stephen Spender
Poet
Lived 1909-1995
Wrote:
Not Palaces -
Dylan Thomas
Poet
Lived 1914-1953
Wrote:
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
and
Fern Hill -
Arthur C. Clarke
Author
Born 1917
Wrote:
We'll Never Conquer Space -
Muriel Spark
Author
Born 1918
Wrote:
The First Year of My Life -
Dorris Lessing
Author
Born 1919
Wrote:
No Witchcraft for Sale -
Phillip Larkin
Poet
Lived 1922-1985
Wrote:
An Arundel Tomb
and
The Explosion -
Nadine Gordimer
Author
Born 1923
Wrote:
The Train from Rhodesia -
James Berry
Poet
Born 1925
Wrote:
Lucy Englad' Lady
Freedom
and
Time Removed -
Ted Hughes
Author
Lived 1930-1998
Wrote:
The Horses
and
the Rain Horse -
Derek Walcott
Poet
Born 1930
Wrote:
Midsummer XXIII
Omeros, from Chapter XXVIII -
Tom Wolfe
Author
Born in 1930
Wrote:
The Right Stuff -
Peter Redgrove
Poet
Lived 1932-2003
Wrote:
On the Patio -
V.S. Naipaul
Author
Born 1932
Wrote:
B. Wordsworth -
Anita Desai
Author
Born 1937
Wrote:
A Devoted Son -
Seamus Heaney
Poet
Born 1939
Wrote:
Follower
and
Two Lorries -
Eavan Boland
Poet
Born 1944
Wrote:
Outside History -
Anna Quindlen
Author
Born in 1953
Wrote:
Homeless -
The Seafarer
Circa 975
Unknown Author
The Seafarer is a story from within The Exeter Book. -
Period: to Jan 1, 1485
The Old English and Medieval Periods
The Old English period is also refered to as the Anglo-Saxon period. Old English is language from the middle of the 5th to the beginning of the 12th century.
Middle English is the name given by historical linguists to the diverse forms of the English language in use between the late 11th century and the 1480s. Famous quote:
"Who pulleth our this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England."
-Sir Thomas Mallory, Morte d' Arthur
