1. Literary Eras (and forms)
And their characteristics

2. For More Info: Chapter 14 of Sound and Sense on Pattern
Internal ordering = Structure (arrangement of ideas, images, thoughts) External Pattern = Form Continuous Stanzaic Fixed eg: Villanelle, Sonnet, Haiku

3. Fixed Form The Sonnet 14 lines A pivot Structure: Problem/Solution
Question/Answer
Situation/Summation

4. Types of Sonnets > Italian (Petrarchian) A B C D E Shakesperean F G
Spenserian

5. Fixed Form
The Villanelle A-1 b A-2 a

6. 17th Century: Metaphysics
Authority: Reason
Descriptive Quality: Wit and Humor; Intellectual
View of the World/Impact of the World: The Universe (Scientific Expansion – The Rennaissance)
A Phrase: “Discordia Concorse” (the most heterogeneous images yoked together by violence)
The Cavalier/Court Poets
Terminology: blank verse; Carpe Diem; Conceits

7. The Romantics (1798 – 1850) Authority: Emotions
Descriptive Quality: Idealization; Light and Dark
View of the World/Impact of the World: Pantheistic connection to nature; the inner eye
A Phrase: “Spontaneous overflow of emotion recollected in silence”
The Preludes/The Lake District
Terminology: rhymed couplets; pastoral; sprung rhythm

8. The Victorians (1837 – 1901) Authority: Senses
Descriptive Quality: Replication of reality; observational; Questioning
View of the World/Impact of the World: The Industrial Age (and implications); Origin of Species 1859
A Phrase: “Survival of the fittest;” “A Still Life is life”
The Realists
Terminology: enjambment; vernacular; materialism;

9. Modernism (1901 – 1950) Authority: NONE
Descriptive Quality: Fragmentation and “hyper-reality”
View of the World/Impact of the World: Random meaninglessness; Horror (War)
A Phrase: “God is dead”
The War Poets
Terminology: free verse; Nihilism; Existentialism

10. Contemporary World (1950 - ?)
Authority: Any (?)
Descriptive Quality: Constructivism; Emerging Hope/Discovery
View of the World/Impact of the World: The Information Age yet . . .
A Phrase: “Everyday a new walk is a new walk”
The moment, poignant with possibility
Terminology: Imagism, beat, slam . . .

14. The Man He Killed (pg 22)
Had he and I but met By some old ancient inn, We should have sat us down to wet Right many a nipperkin! But ranged as infantry, And staring face to face, I shot at him as he at me, And killed him in his place. I shot him dead because – Because he was my foe Just so: my foe of course he was; That’s clear enough; although
He though he’d list, perhaps, Off-hand like – just as I – Was out of work – had sold his traps – No other reason why. Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down You’d treat if me where any bar is, Or help to half-a-crown.

15. Poets for each era (so far) . . .
Metaphysicals/Cavaliers: Donne, Marvell, Herrick
Romantics: Wordsworth, Tennyson, Hopkins, Shelley, Keats, Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman
Victorians: Hardy, Browning, Arnold, Crane, Twain
Moderns: Owen, Eliot, Yeats (Hardy, Arnold) , Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein