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Jan 1, 750
Beowulf
The last copy found in 1731. Known as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon Literature. Beowulf was created somewhere from the 8th and 11th century. The author is anonomous. And this is one of the most known epic poems in British literature. Beowulf is an epic hero who wants the fame for concoring the monster killing the people in Herot. -
Jan 1, 1343
Geoffrey Chaucer was born.
(1343-1400) in his own lifetime, was considered the greatest English poet. He now lies buried in Westminster Abbey in the Poets' Corner. "Son of a merchant, page in a royal house, soldier, diplomat, and royal clerk, Geoffrey Chaucer saw quite a bit of the medieval world." This sentence lets you see how Geoffrey Chaucer lived and somewhat where he got much of his inspiration. -
Jan 1, 1380
The Canterbury Tales: The Prologue
Written by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales is about a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury and tell two tales each, both on the way there and back. Through the story he gives great detail of each of the pilgrims. -
Feb 1, 1380
The Pardoner's Tale
The Pardoner's Tale is a part from the Canterbery Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It is one of the storys told by a pilgrim on the way to Canterbery. This is a story within a story. It starts off with a man selling official documents and offering relics as cures for various problems. The way he speaks to the people convinces them to fall for his tricks, but he is actually ripping them off. He goes on to tell the tale of three men in a hunt for death. They find it in their greediness and betrayal. -
Mar 1, 1380
The Wife of Bath's Tale
A knight has raped a young maiden and is nearly sentenced to death, but is given a second chance.The knight must go out for one year and find out what women want most. The knight goes out and for a year searches and when time has come, he didn't find the answer. On his way back, he finds an old ugly women. The woman tells him the answer to his question with the promise that he must be with her. He no longer faces punishment but now must marry the old woman. She becomes beautiful and faithful. -
Jan 1, 1450
Barbara Allan
By an anonymous writer. This poem is about a young man who is dying and wants Barbara Allan to know that he loves her, but when he was healthy he didn't pay any mind to her. So, Barbara Allan declines his love and leaves, but when he dies she realizes his love. She goes home and states, "Since my love died for me today, I'll die for him tomorrow." -
Period: Apr 30, 1485 to
The English Renaissance Period
This was both a worldly and a religious age. Many writers reacted against what they saw as the ''dark ages'' of medieval Europe. They wanted to bring about a rebirth of civilization. -
Apr 26, 1564
William Shakespeare was born.
William Shakespeare may be the most admired author of all time. He is not only an amazing poet but also has some of the most read playwrites of his time. -
Jun 11, 1572
Ben Jonson was born.
(1572-1637) Brilliant in his poetry and dangerous in a duel, a classical scholar and a veteran soldier, an astutecritic and a brassy talker, Jonson had a colorful, somtimesviolent career that culminated in his reputation as an esteemed judge of literature. -
The Passionate Shepherd to his Love
By Christopher Marlowe and published in 1599. This is a poem from a man confessing his love for this woman and telling her all that he will give to her, such as, "a gown made of the finest wool, which from our prety lambs we pull;" -
Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd
By Sir Walter Raleigh. Written to reply to "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love." The adittude here is much more jaded and seems to show how juvinile and immature the shepherd's idea of love is to Sir Walter. -
Sonnet 106
poem by William Shakespeare. The poem describes beautiy of women and knights before his time, and explains how the authors of older works must have known the beauty of his lover by prophecies. -
Sonnet 116
A poem by William Shakespeare. This poem is about love and how it shouldn't change, even if the one you love is gone. It goes on to say that love is, "the star to every wandering bark." Also he writes that if he is wrong about this idea of love then he has never wrote and no man has ever loved. -
Macbeth
Famous play by William Shakespeare. Macbeth is a good man who is convinced by witches that he will someday be king. Lady Macbeth talks Macbeth into killing the king. After Machbeth reluctantly kills Duncan, the king, he becomes somewhat evil. He wants to hold on to being king so bad that he is willing to kill almost anyone. Macbeth, even though the witches said he would be safe, takes precautions to keep the thrown, but the precautions are what in the end get him killed. -
On My First Son
by Ben Jonson. In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Period. This is a poem writen right after Ben lost his first son, age seven. This is a heart touching poem of how much Ben loved his child and how heart broken he was to lose him. "Rest in soft peace, and, ask, say here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry." -
Period: to
The Age of Reason
Enlightenment writeres discovered the qualities the admired most- harmony, restraint, and clarity. -
The Rape of the Lock
By Alaxander Pope. This story is about a young lady who is warned in the begining of her day that something bad will happen, but that doesn't phase her. Later on a man cuts her hair and she is very upset. -
Still to Be Neat
By Ben Jonson. A poem to explain how a woman dresses and tries to look at her best, and that is beautiful but not enough to get his heart. "They strike mine eyes, but not my heart." -
Jonathan Swift was born.
Born in Dublin, Ireland and educated in Ireland and England. He hoped for political advancement, but when these hopes didn't work out, he turnede to a clerical career. Then he became a writer and has written some very memorable short stories. -
A Modest Proposal
Written by Jonathan Swift. This satire, is about selling the babies from unwealthy families to be eaten by the ones who can afford to buy them. It goes on to explain how the ages of the children can differ the taste. Jonathan Swift wrote this to make notice of the poverty and economic troubles. -
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
By Thomas Gray. This poem is much about remembering the dead. The poem argues that the remembrance can be good and bad. -
Robert Burns is born.
Known as "The Voice of Scotland." He wrote his first verse when he was fifteen. Poverty kept him from a formal education, but he read widely, studying the Bible, Shakespeare, and Alexander Pope. -
George Gordon, Lord Byron was born.
He lived his life int the "fast lane" and was looked on with disapproval by most of his contemporaries. -
Percy Bysshe Shelley was born.
At once modest and intense, Shelley was a poet of rare gifts. A passionate reformer who believed that his time had betraed the ideal of a perfect society. -
John Keats was born.
At a young age he had a reputation for fighting, always with good cause. It wasn't until he became friends with Charles Cowden Clarke, that Keats became interested in poetry. He died young, but left quite an imprint in the literary world. -
To a Mouse
By Robert Burns. This is about a mouse and how her home being turned up by a plow. This poem shows how man and animal are somewhat equal, and how this mouse should have been treated better. -
Period: to
The Romantic Period
Many authors began to write about love, and the love for nature. Their deep attachment to nature and to a pure, simple past was a responce to the misery and ugliness born of industrialization. -
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born.
He was the most celebrated poet of Victorian England. He was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets. -
Robert Browning was born.
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. -
She Walks in Beauty
By George Gordon, Lord Byron. This is a poem about the beauty of a woman, comparing her with the beauty of the night. "Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright." -
When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be
By John Keats. "When i have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain." This is about John Keats and his fear of dying before all of his ideas and writings are put to paper. -
Ode to the West Wind
By Percy Bysshe Shelley. This poem is about the beauty of spring and how winter makes it all just disappear, but spring will be back. This is inspirational because it shows, no matter how bad things may seem, it will always get better. "O Wind, if Winter comes can Spring be far behind?" -
To a Skylark
By Percy Bysshe Shelley. This poem is about the beauty of a bird. Not only the visible beauty but the music heard. The happiness of the bird is always heard, even when it seems things ma be bad. Percy wonders what makes/keeps this bird so happy. "What objects are the fountains of thy happy strain?" -
Period: to
The Victorian Period
Victorian thinkers often disagreed on crucial issues of their times, but shared a deep confidence in humanity's ability to better itself. Dealt alot with religious and philosophical issues as well as social implications of modern life. -
Thomas Hardy was born.
A great novelist and poet. The bleakness of Hardy's fiction disturbed many readers. His poetry marks a transition from Victorian verse to the modernist movement of the twentieth century. -
The Lady of Shalott
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson. This is about a woman who is up in a tower, where she weaves night and day. She has an unknown curse, and is afraid to leave the tower, in fear of death. When she finally goes to leave, she dies. -
My Last Duchess
By Robert Brownng. In this poem, a duke is showing a painting of his first wife, who has passed, to an agent who represents the father of the woman he hopes to marry. He talks about his late wife and how she was overly pleased with simple things and was too easily impressed. He seems jealous of the simple things that made her happy. "Somehow- I know not how- as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-year-old name with anybody's gift." -
Sonnet 43
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This is about a woman practically pouring her soul out to her love, by stating all the ways she loves him. "I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!" -
Virginia Woolf was born.
Virginia Woolf was an English writer, and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. -
Are You Digging on My Grave?
By Thomas Hardy. This is about a woman who has passed, and believes someone is at her grave in rememberance. It goes down the list of loved ones to enemies to find out it is the faithful dog. Then she is excited to find her dog remembers her and loves her, but is sadly mistaken to find that the dog is only burying a bone for its own convenience. -
When I was One-and-Twenty
By A.E. Housman. This is about a young man who hears a wise man say not to just give your heart away, you must protect it. Give away pearls and rubies, but not your heart. The young man doesn't listen and when he is older he realizes the wise man was right. -
Period: to
The Modern and Postmodern Periods
Authors used more images as symbols and started writing more about different human experiences. -
George Orwell was born.
He was both a novelist and a journalist. He was born in India to a colonial civil servant. -
Dylan Thomas was born.
His father was a professor and often read Shakespeare to Dylan before he could read. Although he is considered a popular poet, he struggled to make a good living off of just writing, so he had more than just writing as a job. -
When You are Old
By William Butler Yeats. A man writes this for a woman he had loved. She has aged, and this is telling her to think back to when she was younger. To think about all the time she missed out on with a man that really loved her for her and not just her looks. She missed out on him and he had gone elsewhere, "hid his face amid a crowd of stars." -
The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection
By Virginia Woolf. This is a self portrait of a woman who finds herself unsatisfactory. The woman looks through the looking glass and sees herself and examines how she is on the outside, and the inside. -
Shooting an Elephant
By George Orwell. The speaker is a police man wo is faced with the decission to shoot an elephant, that at one point was out of control, but is now calm. He shoots the elephant only to not been seen as a fool to the surrounding people. -
Animal Farm
By George Orwell. This is an unusual story about animal that take over a farm and start a revolution. The plan is to have a completely free invironment, but the pigs take over and soon everything is just as it was when the humans where running the farm, because of the pigs. Soon the other animals can't tell the difference between the pigs and the humans. -
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
By Dylan Thomas. He is begging to his very sick father not to give up the fight for his life. He describes many different men that are brave and tells his father that his is brave too. -
Period: to Apr 30, 1485
Old English and Midieval Periods
These are the periods when many dramas came about.
