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Old English (450 - 1066)
This age started in the fifth century when the Jutes, Angles and Saxons came to England . The earliest surviving work of literature in Old English is Cædmon's Hymn, which was probably composed between 658–80. The most important poems were "The Wanderer", "Message" and "The Wife's Lament". http://englishliteraturee.blogspot.com/2015/11/old-english-literature-c4501066.html -
Middle English (1066 - 1500)
Christian writers like the Beowulf poet looked back on their pagan ancestors with a mixture of admiration and sympathy. The world of Old English poetry is often elegiac. https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/middleages/review/summary.htm -
English Renaissance (1500 - 1660)
In a tradition of literature remarkable for its exacting and brilliant achievements, the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods have been said to represent the most brilliant century of all. https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-Renaissance-period-1550-1660 -
Puritan (1653 - 1660)
The poem of Milton was the epic of a fallen cause. The broken hope, which had seen the Kingdom of the Saints pass like a dream away, spoke in its very name. Paradise was lost once more, when the New Model, which embodied the courage and the hope of Puritanism, laid down its arms
https://chestofbooks.com/history/england/Short-History/The-Fall-Of-Puritanism-1653-1660-Part-11.html -
Restoration Age (1660 - 1700)
Instead of having Shakespeare and the Elizabethans as their models, the poets and dramatists of the Restoration period began to imitate French writers and especially their vices.
https://neoenglish.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/the-restoration-period-1660-1700/ -
18th Century (1700 - 1798)
Arguments in prose are calm and logical; poems are carefully structured and often contain classical allusions. Some writers satirize “elegant” society or politics. *allusion - a literary term regarding the use of an implied or indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea
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Romanticism (1798 - 1837)
The most notable feature of the poetry of the time is the new role of individual thought and personal feeling. Where the main trend of 18th-century poetics had been to praise the general, to see the poet as a spokesman of society addressing a cultivated and homogeneous audience and having as his end the conveyance of “truth,” the Romantics found the source of poetry in the particular, unique experience.
https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-Romantic-period -
Victorian (1837 - 1901)
The literature of the Victorian age (1837-1901) entered a new period after the romantic revival. The literature of this era was preceded by romanticism and was followed by modernism or realism. Hence, it can also be called a fusion of romantic and realist style of writing.
http://victorian-era.org/victorian-era-literature-characteristics.html -
Modern Literature (1901 - 1940)
Just as in painting artists were looking for a new form of expression, in literature writers were trying to experiment and find a new vocabulary and new techniques. Poets dislocated grammar and punctuation looking for new images and ways of expression, and novelists experimented with new points of view and a different conception of time and plot to try to reflect the hidden consciousness of the characters.
http://literatureinenglishunican.blogspot.com/2009/12/modernism-1901-1945.html -
Post Modernism (1940 - 2000)
This article is focused on English-language literature rather than the literature of England, so that it includes writers from Scotland, Wales, and the whole of Ireland, as well as literature in English from former British colonies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth-century_English_literature -
Contemporary
As the 21st century got under way, history remained the outstanding concern of English literature.
https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-21st-century
