Ancient Poetry

The major forms of ancient Greek poetry were the epic, the lyric and the dramatic poem. Sappho, [a Greek woman poet of the 500's B.C.], composed many elegant love lyrics. Pindar [lived during the 400's] was the greatest Greek choral lyric poet. Other Greek dramatic poets in history are Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles (all lived during the 400's B.C.] Aristophanes, [another Greek poet of the 400's], wrote brilliant comedies. Greek poetry strongly influenced the poet of anciet Rome. For example, the iliad and Odyssey served as models for the Aeneld, an epic composed by the Roman poet Virgil between 30 and 19 B.C. Other great poets of ancient Rome include, Ovid, Catullus [both composed love poems], and Juvenal, who bacame famous for stinging satires--works that ridiculs certain aspects of human behavior.

Medieval poetry

consists of poems written during the Middle Ages [European history from about A.D. 400's to the 1500's]. Most early medieval poems were epics about heroic figures [kings and chieftains] in battle. Two surviving epics are Beowulf [700's], by one or more unkown poets; and The Song of Roland [1100], written by an unkown French poet.

Beginning about 900, lyric poetry flourished in western Europe. In France, many nobles composed and sang lyrics about courtly love. These poet-musicians were called, troubadoures, in southern France and trouveres in southern France. A similar group, called minnesingers, performed in Germany beginning in the 1100's. Christianity united many Europeans under one faith. The powerful influence of the Church is evident in The Devine Comedy [early 1300's epic written by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri].

During the 1300's, romance poetry became the chief form of poetry in England and France. The greatest English poet of that time was Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer composed many love poem and The Canterbury Tales [about 1387 to 1400], an unfinished collection of 24 loosely related stories.

Renaissance poetry

refers to poetry written in Europe from about 1450 to 1650. Poets in France and Italy used lyrics such lyric forms as, madrigals [usually deals with love and can be set to music] and pastorals [patrayals of shepherds of country life]. These lyric forms reached England in the 1500's. Two English poets [Sir Thomas Wyatt and Earl Surrey] introduced several of the new styles into English literature. These included a 12-syllable line called alexandrine; the italian sonnet; and the terza rima, a three-line stanza made famous by Dante in The Devine Comedy. English poets of the late 1500's produced many outstanding works. One of these works was The Faerie Queen, a six-book epic by Edmund Spenser. Other major English poetry of the 1500's included the sonnets of Michael Drayton, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Philip Sidney.

The two major groups of English poets during the 1600's were the metaphysical poets and the Cavalier poets. The metaphysical poets included Robert Crashaw, John Donne, George Herbert and Andrew Marvell. They often created elaborate images called conceits. The Cavalier poets became known for highly polished love poems.

Dramatic poetry also flourished in England during the 1500's and 1600's. Important English dramatic poets of that time included Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare. Marlowe wrote powerful tragedies, such as Trambulaine the Great [about 1587] and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus [about 1588]. John Milton, [who wrote lyrics and epics], was the last great English Renaissance poet. His epic masterpiece, Paradise Lost, appeared in 1667.