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Mary Rowlandson
Colonial American woman (1637-1711). Wrote about her 3 month captivity by Native Americans in _A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson_. Genre: captivity narratives.

Anne Bradstreet
Colonial American poet (1612-1672). First American woman writer published. Known for her faith and her love of her husband and children. Wrote a number of famous poems, including, “Before the Birth of One of Her Children,” “Verses Upon the Burning of Our House,” “In Honour of that High and Mighty Princess Queen Elizabeth,” “The Author To Her Book”
Phillis Wheatley
Colonial American poet (1753-1784. Child prodigy and slave. Wrote pious poetry. Had to defend her literary ability in court. Washington praised her, Jefferson criticized her. Poetry published in London because Boston wouldn't publish a slave's work. 1st African American writer. Beginning of African-American literature. Wrote "An Elegy, Sacred to the Memory of the Great Divine, the Reverend and Learned Dr. Samuel Cooper, Who Departed This Life December 29, 1783" and
"To His Excellency George Washington"
John Winthrop
Colonial American preacher (1587-1649). Led a group of Puritans to the New World & elected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Very religious. Called America "the City on the Hill." Wrote _The Journal of John WInthrop_, which chronicles early colonial life.
John Edwards
Colonial American preacher & theologian (1703-1758). Defended Calvinism. Wrote "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." His _Personal Narrative_ is a Puritan autobiography that tells the story of his spiritual conversion.
Cotton Mather
Colonial American preacher & writer (1663-1728). Very prolific & influencial. Wrote over 450 books & pamphlets. Most famous book: _Magnalia Christi Americana_ (or The Ecclesiastical History of New England) was written in 1702. Made up of two volumes and seven "books" about the religious development of Massachusetts, and other colonies throughout the 1600's. Also criticizes some of the methods the court used during the Salem Witch Trials, writes about the founding of Harvard, and asserts that Puritan slaveholders should do more to convert their slaves to Christianity.
John Woolman
Colonial American (1720-1772). Quaker preacher. Against slavery, taxation, and corruption. Killed a mother bird for fun, then felt bad for the baby birds and killed them. Then felt bad about that and resolved to love all creatures. Wouldn't transfer slaves in wills, paid slaves who helped him when he visited slaveholders, abstained from buying anything produced by slaves. Wrote "The Journal of John Woolman," a spiritual autobiography and a classic in American Literature.
Edgar Allen Poe
19th Century writer (1809-1849). Poet, short story author, editor, & critic. Wrote horror, satire, humor, hoaxes, adventure, & science fiction. Disliked Transcendentalism. Embraced Dark Romanticism. Progenitor of the Gothic. Admired Shelley, and was later admired by D.H.Lawrence. Wrote a number of macabre mysteries, including "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," “The Purloined Letter,” and “The Mystery of Marie Roget.” These three stories feature a brilliant detective, Auguste Dupin, who concludes that the murders were committed by an orangutan, the escaped pet of a sailor. Most famous poem: "The Raven." Last poem: "Annabel Lee."
Harriet Beecher Stowe
19th Century writer (1811-1896). Wrote more than 10 books, including two anti-slavery novels--Uncle Tom's Cabin & Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp. Characters from Uncle Tom's Cabin: Uncle Tom, Eliza & George Harris, the Shelby Family & George Shelby, St. Clare & Eva, Tom Loker (the slave catcher), Cassy (who escapes and finds that Eliza is her daughter), and Simon Legree (who kills Tom).
H.L.Mencken
Late 19th & early 20th century writer (1880-1956). Journalist, satirist, & social critic. Admired Friedrich Nietzsche, Mark Twain, Jonathon Swift. Friends with F. Scott Fitzgerald & Theodore Dreiser. Was later admired by Richard Wright. Wrote _The American Language_ in 1919 to catalog & defend American neologisms.
James Fenimore Cooper
19th Century American Romantic/Popular writer (1789-1851). Wrote The Last of the Mohicans. This book and the Leatherstocking tales all feature a character named Natty Bumpoo (known to whites as Leatherstocking and Natives as Pathfinder, Deerslayer, & Hawkeye).
Kate Chopin
19th Century American author (1850-1904). Early feminist writer. Wrote for children and adults. Most of her stories are set in Louisiana, where she lived. Admired Guy de Maupassant. Wrote "The Story of an Hour" and The Awakening. In both, the female protagonists are delighted when they seem to discover that they can shed their roles as wives, are reminded that they cannot do so, and die. Contemporary of Edith Wharton & Henry James. Influenced William Faulkner & Ernest Hemingway.
Stephen Crane
19th Century American novelist (1871-1900). Most known for Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, The Red Badge of Courage (and his realistic portrayal of war, which was astonishing because he was never in the military), and The Blue Hotel. Also wrote about being in a shipwreck and adrift at sea in The Open Boat & Other Tales. Friends with Joseph Conrad & Henry James.
Theodore Dreiser
Late 19th Century and early 20th Century American Naturalist author (1871-1945). Wrote about the dark and gritty aspects of life. Most famous for Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy.
Herman Melville
19th Century American author (1819-1891). Genre: Dark Romanticism. Influenced by Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, & Mary Shelley. Friend of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Most known for Moby Dick, Billy Budd, "Bartleby the Scribner," and "Benito Cereno."
Harriet Jacobs
19th Century African-American writer (1813-1897). Wrote "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." Describes the sexual harassment she suffered in her master's home, her relationship with a white man, her escape from slavery, and her struggle to rescue her children from slavery.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
19th Century American poet, essayist, and philosopher (1803-1882). Born to a Unitarian minister, became a Unitarian minister, then developed his own philosophy, Transcendentalism, in his essay Nature. Wrote "Nature," "Experience," "The American Scholar," "Bramha," "Poet." Started the Transcendentalist periodical, The Dial. Friends with Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Promoted William Ellery Channing.
Henry David Thoreau
19th Century American author (1817-1862). Pacifist, Naturalist, Transcendentalist, and Abolitionist. Best known for Walden and Civil Disobedience.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar
19th Century African-American poet (1872-1906). Born to parents who escaped from slavery. During his life, considerable emphasis was put on the fact that he was of "pure black descent," with no white ancestors. Friends with Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. Wrote a dozen books of poetry, including "Lyrics of a Lowly Life" and "Oak and Ivy," four books of short stories, five novels, and a play. Wrote in standard English as well as dialect. Known for his colorful language and use of dialect. Forerunner of the Harlem Renaissance.
Emily Dickinson
19th Century American poet (1830-1886). Introverted, reclusive, eccentric, and prolific private poet. Wrote over 1800 poems, but less than 12 were published in her lifetime. Many of her poems deal with death and immortality. Unique for the era: typically lack titles, use slant rhyme, and feature unconventional capitalization and punctuation (she is especially fond of dashes). Best known for "Because I could not stop for Death," "I reason earth is short," "If I can stop one heart from breaking," "that after Horror-that 'twas us," and "Hope is the thing with wings"
Walt Whitman
19th Century American poet, essayist, humorist (1819-1892). Part of the transition from Transcendentalism to realism, and wrote from both points of view. Worked as a printer, the editor of a number of newspapers, a volunteer nurse in the Civil War, and government clerk. "Father of free verse." First "quintessentially American" poet. "Defined democratic America in poet language." Especially known for his American voice and American consciousness, his spontaneous sharing of high emotion, and use of creative repetition. Best known for "Song of Myself," "O Captain! My Captain!" and Leaves of Grass. Leaves of Grass was considered obscene for its overt sexuality.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
19th Century American poet (1807-1882). Longfellow predominantly wrote lyric poems which are known for their musicality and which often presented stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses. Wrote "Paul Revere's Ride," "Keats," "Evangeline," and The Song of Hiawatha. Also was the first person to translate Dante's Divine Comedy (aka Inferno)
Oliver Wendell Holmes
19th Century American poet (1809-1894). Physician & writer. Wrote poems, essays, and novels. Best known for "Old Ironsides" (which saved the USS Constitution from destruction) and "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." Coined the word "anaesthesia."
William Dean Howells
Late 19th/early 20th century American realist author and literary critic (1837-1920). Wrote The Wedding Journal, A Modern Instance, and The Rise of Silas Lapham. Also wrote plays and essays. Promoted foreign writers Leo Tolstoy and Henrick Ibsen in America.
Carl Sandburg
20th century American poet, journalist, historian, and novelist (1878-1967). Began simply: milk cart driver, bricklayer, farmhand, hotel servant, coal-heaver. Then became a journalist and poet. Known for his plain-speaking free verse style, strongly reminiscent of Walt Whitman. Typically wrote in praise of American agriculture and industry. Wrote "Chicago," "Fog," Cornhuskers, and Smoke & Steel
e. e. cummings
20th century American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright (1894-1962). Romantic writer: glorified love, sex, and spring. Social critic and satirist. Known for his unorthodox usage of capitalization, spelling, and punctuation. Wrote 3,000 poems and 4 plays. Married 3 times. Reunited with his only child, Nancy, when she was 27. (Her mother wouldn't honor the custody agreement.)
Ezra Pound
20th century American poet (1885-1972). Defined the modernist aesthetic in poetry. Developed the Imagism movement. Promoted W.B.Yeats, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, H.D., Mariane Moore, James Joyce, Ernest Hemmingway, and T.S.Eliot. Wrote "The Cantos," “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley,” and "In a Station of the Metro." Translated the Seafarer from Old English to modern English. Keen interest in East Asia.
Gertrude Stein
20th century American (1874 to 1946). Lived in Paris, had a private art gallery, attracted all kinds of famous people, including Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Thornton Wilder, Sherwood Anderson, Georges Braque. Coined the term "Lost Generation" to describe the expatriots. Extremely charming, eloquent, cheerful and overweight, she had a large circle of friends and tirelessly promoted herself. Her judgments in literature and art were highly influential. Her writing was experimental, stream-of-consciousness, rhythmical. She described her writing as "word paintings" or "word portraits." Can be thought of as Cubanism in literature.
T.S.Eliot
20th century modernist American poet, playwright, and literary critic (1888-1965). Moved to England when he was 25. Said his poetry "wouldn't be what it is if I'd been born in England, and it wouldn't be what it is if I'd stayed in America. It's a combination of things. But in its sources, in its emotional springs, it comes from America." Wrote The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock, Ash Wednesday, Four Quartets, Murder in the Cathedral, The Cocktail Party, "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," "The Hollow Men," and The Waste Land. The Waste Land is considered THE poem of the Modernist canon. Eliot's consistent theme: alienation and a feeling of powerlessness in a world that has changed.
H.D.
Hilda Doolittle. 20th century Modernist American poet, novelist, and memoirist. Best known for her association with the key early 20th-century avant-garde Imagist poets, including Ezra Pound, T.S.Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Richard Aldington, James Joyce, and D. H. Lawrence. Her initial writings reflected the Imagist model, but she later developed a distinctly feminine version of modernist poetry and prose. Her work is noted for its use of classical models and its exploration of the conflict between lesbian and heterosexual attraction and love that closely resembled her own life. Her later poetry also explores traditional epic themes, such as violence and war, from a feminist perspective.
Wallace Stevens
20th century American Modernist poet. A lawyer who married a lower-class woman and was disowned by his family. Had antagonistic relationships with Robert Frost and Ernest Hemingway (argued with Frost and had a fistfight with Hemingway). A rare example of a poet whose main output came at a fairly advanced age. Many of his canonical works were written well after he turned fifty. His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar," "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock", "The Emperor of Ice Cream," "The Idea of Order at Key West," "Sunday Morning," "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," and "Tattoo."
William Carlos Williams
20th century American doctor as well as Modernist writer. Initially influenced by Surrealism and Imagism, but ultimately wrote as an American Modernist and regionalist. His work consists of short stories, poems, plays, novels, critical essays, an autobiography, and a number of translations. Friends with Ezra Pound, H.D., Wallace Stevens, and Marianne Moore. Began to develop opinions that differed from those of the movement's founders, Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot. Disliked their frequent use of allusions to foreign languages and Classical sources. (Edited T.S.Eliot's The Waste Land for awhile, but gave it up because he hated it.) Preferred to draw his themes from what "the local." Famously summarized his poetic method in the phrase, "No ideas but in things." He advocated that poets leave aside traditional poetic forms and unnecessary literary allusions, and try to see the world as it is. Marianne Moore praised him for this.
Mariane Moore
Modernist American poet (1887-1972). Friends with Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, H.D., T. S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound. Wrote the poem entitled "Poetry." Coined the phrase about having a real frog in an imaginary garden.
Henry James
19th century realist/20th century modernist American novelist who expatriated to England (1843-1916). Primarily known for major novels in which he portrayed the encounter of Americans with Europe and Europeans. His plots centered on personal relationships, the proper exercise of power in such relationships, and other moral questions. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allowed him to explore the phenomena of consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and unreliable narrators in his own novels and tales brought a new depth and interest to realistic fiction, and foreshadowed the modernist work of the twentieth century. His protagonists were often young American women facing oppression or abuse. Prolific writer. Wrote: The Ambassadors, The Beast in the Jungle, The Golden Bowl, The Portrait of a Lady, The Aspern Papers, Daisy Miller, Turn of the Screw, "The Art of Fiction," Roderick Hudson, The American, Washington Square, The Bostonians, The Princess Casamassima, The Tragic Muse, The Spoils of Poynton, What Maisie Knew, The Wings of the Dove, "A Passionate Pilgrim," and "The Pupil." Characteristics of style: latinate, extremely long sentences, impressionistic, "difficult," "obscure," "low-key but playful humor," psychological depth, realism, cultural conflicts between Americans and Europeans, social commentary.
Geoffrey of Monmouth
12th century author of a legendary "history" of England, called The History of the Kings of Britain. Wrote a mythic foundation story, about King Arthur resisting the Romans, about the Anglo-Saxon triumph over the native Celts. Wrote this in Old English. Wrote the legendary "history" for Anglo-Normans who conquered the Anglo-Saxons and wanted to feel good about themselves. Mostly interested in creating a "classic" feel, fit for the Greeks and Romans.
Wace
Translated Geoffrey of Monmouth's legendary account of Britain into French in 1155. Much more interested in creating a "courtly" atmosphere. Introduces the Round Table. Created a lot of new content.
Layamon
12th century priest who translated Wace's French account of the legendary history of England into Middle English. Added new stories.
Julian of Norwhich
An anchoress (nun) who lived from 1342-1416. Had 16 mystical revelations. Called them "showings." Wrote A Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwhich. Said she saw the bleeding head of Christ, that Jesus is "our mother," and that love is in God's every intent
Sir Thomas Malory
1405-1471. Wrote (or compiled) Morte Darthur.
Queen Elizabeth
Daughter Henry VIII by Ann Bolyne. Half-sister of Mary Queen of Scotts. Confirmed England in Protestantism. Played different groups off of one another, by favoring them or saying she was interested in marrying one of their kings or princes. Appeared before her army in a white dress and a silver breastplate--which demonstrates the way she incorporated both "female" and "male" standards into her own personage.
Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder
1503-1542. Renaissance poet. INTRODUCED THE SONNET INTO ENGLISH (from Italian), a 14 line poem with an abba abba cddc ee rhyme scheme. Wrote in a period characterized by dramatic change, unpredictability, ruthlessness, power struggles, sexual intrigues, and sophisticated tastes. There are several layered meanings in his poems. His poetry often demonstrates a longer for "steadfastness" and an escape from the corruption, anxiety, and duplicity if the court. Wrote about love and women (which were typically idealized at the time) in terms of disillusionment, complaint, obsession, and embitterment. Poems deal with passion, anger, cynicism, longing, pain, fickleness, and the instability of fortune. Poems are marked by eloquence and rhetorical deftness. They seem to celebrate simplicity and truthfulness.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
1517-1547. INVENTED THE ENGLISH SONNET--three quatrians and a couplet all in iambic pentameter that goes: abab cdcd efef gg. (This is the kind that Shakespeare famously wrote in.)
Edmund Spenser
Elizabethan poet, 1552-1599. Set out to make himself the great English poet in an era when those who wrote poetry were otherwise employed. Born to parents of modest means and station. Wrote The Shepreardes Calendar, Epithalamion, Prothalamion, and, most notably, The Faierie Queen (which was intentionally written to seem "antique.") Developed the Spenserian Sonnet: abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee.
Sir Walter Ralegh
Elizabethan poet. 1552-1618. Soldier, courtier, philosopher, explorer, colonist, historian, and experimental scientist as well. Brought Edmund Spenser from the rural north to London and introduced him to Queen Elizabeth. Was in great favor with the Queen. Wrote a long poem to her called "The Ocean to Cynthia." Also wrote an unfinished "History of the World."
Sir Philip Sidney
Elizabethan poet, knight, and soldier, 1554-1586. Seemed to embody all the traits that Elizabethans admired. His death on the battlefield was greatly mourned and glorified. Like Sir Walter Ralegh, he promoted Edmund Spenser in the court. First major work: "Arcadia." Wrote "The Defense of Poesy," "An Apology for Poetry" (his word for all imaginative literature)=the most important piece of literary criticism of the era. Wrote "Astrophil and Stella" ("Starlover and star"), which was the most influential sonnet cycle of the time.
Mary Herbert
Mary (Sidney) Herbert. Elizabethan poet, 1562-1621. Sister of Sir Philip Sidney. Wrote "To the Angel Spirit of Sir Philip Sidney" and translated religious works.
Michael Drayton
Elizabethan poet, 1563-1631. Wrote poetry, odes, verse legends, pastorals, plays, scriptural phrases, and a historical epic called "The Baron's Wars." Most known for his poem "Idea."
Christopher Marlowe
Elizabethan poet and playwright, 1564-1593. Wrote the poem "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and the plays "Tamburlaine," "Dido, Queen of Carthage," a sequel to "Tamburlaine" called "The Massacre at Paris," then "The Jew of Malta," "Doctor Faustus," and "Edward II" (which is about the fate of a homosexual king). His plays are mostly tragedies. They all portray heroes who passionately seek power--the power of rule, the power of money, and the power of knowledge. Each of the heroes is an overreacher, striving to get beyond the conventional boundaries established to contain the human will.
William Shakespeare
Elizabethan poet and playwright, 1564-1616. Plays: "The Comedy of Errors," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Merchant of Venice," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "Much Ado About Nothing," "As You Like It," "Twelfth Night," "Hamlet," "Othello," "King Lear," "Macbeth," "Antony and Cleopatra," "Coriolanus," "Trolius and Cressida," "All's Well That Ends Well," "Measure for Measure," "Pericles," "Cymbaline," "The Winter's Tale," "The Tempest," "Richard III," "Henry IV," "Henry V," "Henry VI," "Henry VIII," "Julius Caesar," "The Taming of the Shrew," "Romeo and Juliet," "Titus Andronicus," "The Two Noble Kinsmen." Wrote three narrative poems on erotic themes: "Venus and Adonis," "The Rape of Lucrece," and "A Lover's Complaint." Wrote 154 sonnets--most of which are in the abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme. A number of these poems are addressed to The Young Man (a beautiful young man whom he praises, loves, and idealizes) and The Dark Lady (a dark, sensuous, sexually promiscuous, alluring but degraded object of desire). Most of his poems deal with death, mortality, and the impermenance of life/beauty.
John Donne
17th century English poet, 1572-1631. Wrote for a few, select friends, not the public at large. Explored the private worlds of love and religion, and often developed passionate arguments that set them in anxious opposition to the public world. Wrote in a speechlike, often unmelodic style, and used strikingly dramatic language. Wrote satiric poetry criticizing foppish courtiers, bad poets, and corrupt lawyers. Wrote a defense of suicide, called "Biathanatos," but dared not publish it. Wrote a number of elegies (elegies being a kind of meter, not necessarily about death. In fact, the genre was associated with sex. The pattern is: couplets of alternating hexameters and pentameters). Almost all of his most famous poems are about love and the joining of two souls. Often wrote about death, too. Wrote "Hymn to God my God, in My Sickness."
Ben Jonson
17th century English poet and playwright, 1572-1637. Friends with Shakespeare, John Donne, and Francis Bacon. Wrote court masques, plays for the public, and poetry. Wrote didactically, to instruct. Celebrated the social world of friendship and community. Typically glorifies the classical values of simplicity, restraint, economy, decorum, craftsmanship, and art. Cast himself as the Father of the Tribe (or alternatively, the Sons) of Ben--a group of young poets who followed his example. Published his plays and poems under the title "Works" (which King James had used in the same year)--this earned him howls of derision and incredulity. Was in and out of trouble with the kign and his court, but became the unofficial poet laureate of England and his patrons gave him a comfortable life. Wrote "Sejanus," "Eastward Ho," "The Masque of Blackness," "Every Man in His Humor," "Volpone," "The Alchemist," "Bartholomew Fair," "My Picture Left in Scotland," and "Inviting a Friend to Supper," "To My Book," "On my First Daughter" and "On My First Son" (meaning the "death of"), "To Penshurst" (a younger brother of Sir Philip Sidney), and several poems that refer to John Donne. Often writes about death. Sometimes makes classical references, but, in general, has a plain-speaking style. His signature is a plethera of semi-colons, colons, and, especially easy to recognize, question marks.
George Herbert
17th century English pastor and poet. Destroyed his secular poetry. Most of what remains is devotional and Biblical, praising God.
Francis Bacon
17th century English essayist. INTRODUCED THE FAMILIAR ESSAY INTO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Wrote "Marriage and the Single Life," "Truth," "Simulation and Dissimulation," "Ambition," "Followers and Friends," and "Suitors."
John Milton
17th century English poet. Wrote the epic, Biblical poem "Paradise Lost," the hymn "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity," and the funeral elegy "Lycidas." Was a strong supporter of the republicans during the revolutionary era.
Thomas Hobbes
17th century theorist. Developed a materialist philosophy and psychology, critiqued language, wrote an unflinching analysis and defense of absolute and indivisble sovereignty based on social contract in "Leviathan."
The Worthies
According to medieval legend, the Nine Worthies, or supreme heros of history, included three Jews (Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabeus), three pagans (Hector, Alexander, and Julius Caesar), and three Christians (Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillion). If you see a reference to the Worthies, know that they were the 9 supreme heroes of the English.
Amelia Lanyer
17th century English poet, 1569-1654. First female career poet and most notable of the period. Her writing is distinctly feminist: she defends Eve and compares the good women present at the crucifixion to the evil men who had Christ killed. Wrote "Salve deus Rex Judaeorum."
Mary Wroth
17th century English poet, 1587-1651. The most prolific, self-concious, and impressive female author of the Jacobean era. Wrote "The Countess of Montgomery's Urania" (a 558-page romance including more than 50 poems) and "Pamphilia to Amphilanthus" (a collection of 103 sonnets and songs). Urania breaks with the convention of depicting courtly love to follow, instead, the romantic escapades of married women both inside and outside of their marriages. Mary Sidney Herbert was her aunt and Sir Philip Sidney was her uncle. She herself was a patron of Ben Jonson's.
George Herbert
17th century English Renaissance and Jacobean poet, 1593-1633. Wrote a collection of poems called "The Temple" which begins with a prefatory poem called "The Church-Porch," includes 177 short lyric poems called "The Church," and ends with a concluding poem called "Church Militant." Wrote a poem called "Altar" shaped like an altar and a poem called "Easter Wings" shaped like wings. Wrote poems called "Redemption," "Jordon" (for the River Jordan, which the Israelites crossed), and other devotional poems. You can recognize his work because he wrote in a simple style, marked by ease and grace and he wrote about God.
Robert Herrick
17th century Renaissance poet, 1591-1674. The most devoted of the Sons of Ben. Like Jonson, his epigrams and lyrics show the direct influence of classical poets. Wrote pastoral, cynical, grand, classical, rococo, coarse, sometimes even vulgar work. Wrote "The Vine," "Delight in Disorder," and "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time."
Katherine Philips
17th century English (Renaissance) poet. The best-known female poet of her own generation as well as the one after it. Wrote "A Married State," "Upon the Double Murder of King Charles," "To my Dearest Lucasia," and "On the Death of my First and Dearest Child, Hector Philips."
John Milton
17th century English (Renaissance) poet, 1608-1674. A Puritan. Modeled himself on the classical poets. Wrote "Lycidas" (a pastoral), "L'Allegro," "Il Pensoroso," "Aeropagitica" (a defense of intellectual freedom), and, of course, his most famous work: "Paradise Lost." He also 24 sonnets, including: "How Soon Hath TIme," "When I Consider How My Light is Spent," "Methought I Saw My Late Espousèd Saint," wrote Most of his poems have a dark feeling or discuss sin or death--even "L'Allegro," which translates to "the happy man").
Christopher Marlowe
Renaissance poet. Wrote "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" in 1599. You should know the opening line by heart: "Come live with me and be my love/And we will all the pleasures prove." Sir Walter Raleigh, John Donne, Robert Herrick, and C. Day Lewis are just a few of the poets who've used Marlowe's poem at a starting point for verses of their own. Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" is the most famous.
Robert Herrick
Renaissance poet. Wrote "Upon Julia's Breasts," "Upon Julia's Clothes," "The Night Piece, to Julia." These are famous poems and have inspired other poets to invent mistresses for themselves to write poems about. If a poem mentions "Julia," it's either by Robert Herrick or it's a reference to him. Also wrote "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" and "To His Coy Mistress."
William Wordsworth
19th century English poet. He and his friend Samual Taylor Coleridge started the Romantic movement. Wrote "the Lucy poems," the most famous of which is called "She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways "
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
19th century English poet. Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. Wrote "Ulysses," "In Memoriam A.H.H.," "In the valley of Cauteretz", "Break, break, break", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "Tears, idle tears" and "Crossing the Bar." Much of his verse was based on classical mythological themes.
What kind of poetry did John Donne write?
He was a playboy in his youth, who wrote about enjoying the pleasures of the flesh while life was granted. In his later years, he turned to a religious career and used his poetry to explore questions about God.
John Dryden
Renaissance poet who wrote well after the Elizabeth era (lived from 1631-1700). Wrote two major works: “Absalom and Achitophel” and “Mac Flecknoe.” “Absalom and Achitophel” uses biblical characters to analogize a political crisis during the reign of Charles II. Absalom is the Duke of Monmouth, Achitophel is the Earl of Shaftesbury, and King David is Charles II. Essentially, the hedonistic Charles spent so much time with his mistress that he had plenty of offspring but no legitimate (Protestant) heir, which left his Catholic brother, James, successor to the throne. The poem is notable for its heroic couplets and for its politic handling of an extremely sensitive subject. Dryden wrote “Mac Flecknoe” as a satirical attack on a contemporary dramatist named Thomas Shadwell. The poem asserts that Flecknoe (Shadwell) sits on the throne of dullness. It is written in ETS’ favorite literary form, the mock epic, and makes a number of allusions to literary figures.
Alexander Pope
Late 17th, early 18th century English poet and essayist. Wrote “The Rape of the Lock,” “The Dunciad,” and “An Essay on Criticism.” Almost always wrote his verses in heroic couplets. “The Rape of the Lock” and “The Dunciad” are both mock epics. Pope, Swift, and a handful of other 18th century literary wits formed the Scribleurs club, an organization devoted to ridiculing folly and especially learned folly.
“The Rape of the Lock”
Alexander Pope, late 17th, early 18th century English poet and essayist. THIS IS CONSIDERED THE BEST EXAMPLE OF A MOCK EPIC EVER. Based on the real-life brouhaha surrounding an impertinent haircut given to Arabella Fermor by Lord Petre. Belinda represents Arabella in the poem. All the conventions of an epic are represented or have a comic corollary: written in heroic couplets, there is an epic invocation, the epic feat is a dainty coffee cup affair, the epic battle is played out at the card table, and the interference of the gods is conducted by the spirits of the dead. The satire is light-hearted and isn’t mean-spirited. The people being teased were quite flattered.
“The Dunciad”
Alexander Pope, late 17th, early 18th century English poet and essayist. Mock epic written in heroic couplets. Savage assault on bad poetry, the poet laureate of England at the time (Colley Cibber), and the writing of everyone else Pope disliked. The poem is about the coronation ceremony of a man named Bayes who is becoming the poet laureate of Dulness. Everyone in attendance falls asleep. The poem suggests that Dulness will ultimately prevail over all the arts and sciences.
Samuel Johnson
18th century English poet, essayist, and novelist. Struggled with poverty into his forties, and then became known as the best literary mind of the century. Wrote "The Vanity of Human Wishes" (a poem), "The Lives of the English Poets" (a biography), "The Rambler" (a periodical made up of his essays), the first Modern English dictionary, and "Rasselas" (a melancholy novel about a the Prince of Abyssinia's unsuccessul quest to lead a happy and fulfilling life "of choice").
James Boswell
Friend and disciple of Samuel Johnson. Wrote a gushing biography about him called "The Life of Johnson." Anything on the GRE written about Johnson is likely by him.
Yeats in a word
Symbolism
Matthew Arnold
19th century writer. Father of literary criticism. Associated with "Sweetness and light," classical literary values, Hellensm. Wrote "Culture and Anarchy," the central thesis of which is that culture and the arts ideally nourish, promote, and call forth the best in humankind.
Who wrote about imagination vs. fancy?
Coleridge
Who wrote about sweetness and light?
Matthew Arnold
Who wrote Prometheus Bound and who wrote Prometheus Unbound?
Aeschylus wrote the first and Percy Shelley wrote the second
What's Yeats known better for--his poetry or prose?
Poetry--but he did play a part in establishing the Irish National Theater
Bram Stoker
Wrote Dracula. Friend of the Shelleys and Lord Byron.
What do Marlowe, Goethe, and Thomas Mann have in common?
They all wrote about Faust and his satantic tempter, Mephistopheles
Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment
Emily Brontë
Only novel: Wuthering Heights. Set in a Yorkshire manor on the moors called Thrushcross Grange. (As an adjective, "wuthering" is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather.) About the love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them. Narrated first by Mr. Lockwood and later by Ellen "Nelly" Dean. Known for its stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty.
Miguel de Cervantes
Spanish author. Wrote The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, commonly known as Don Quixote, in two volumes a decade apart in the early 1600s. Although the novel is farcical on the surface, the second half is more serious and philosophical about the theme of deception. Character-naming in Don Quixote makes ample figural use of contradiction, inversion, and irony, such as the names Rocinante[3] (a reversal) and Dulcinea (an allusion to illusion), and the word quixote[4] itself, possibly a pun on quijada (jaw) but certainly cuixot (Catalan: thighs), a reference to a horse's rump. The world of ordinary people, from shepherds to tavern-owners and inn-keepers, which figures in Don Quixote, was groundbreaking. Alonso Quixano, a retired country gentleman in his fifties, lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are clearly impossible. Quixano eventually appears to other people to have lost his mind from little sleep and food and because of so much reading. He goes off on quests and adventures, and suffers at the hands of tricksters. The cruel practical jokes eventually lead Don Quixote to a great melancholy. The novel ends with Don Quixote regaining his full sanity, and renouncing all chivalry. But, the melancholy remains, and grows worse. Sancho tries to restore his quixotic faith, but his attempt to resurrect Alonso's quixotic alter-ego fails, and Alonso Quixano dies: sane and broken. Names to know: Alonso Quixano (aka Don Quixote), La Mancha (where he's from), Rocinante (his horse), Aldonza Lorenzo (his crush) who he dubs Dulcinea del Toboso (without her knowledge), and Sancho Panza (his fat, ignorant, lovable, faithful squire). The phrase "tilting at windmills" to describe an act of attacking imaginary enemies derives from an iconic scene in the book.
Coleridge wrote which of the following?
A. "The Rape of the Lock"
B. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
C. "Prometheus Bound"
D. "Prometheus Unbound"
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." (Alexander Pope wrote "The Rape of the Lock," Aeschylus wrote "Prometheus Bound," and Percy Shelley wrote "Prometheus Unbound.")
Charles Lamb
Late 18th, early 19th century English writer. Friends with Wordsworth and Coleridge. Often used the pen name Elia.
Richard Wright
20th century African-American author. Wrote Native Son in 1940 and an autobiographical account of his youth called Black Boy.
Ann Radcliffe
18th century British novelist. Wrote The Mysteries of Udolpho, a Gothic parodied later by Jane Austen.
Jane Austen
18th century British novelist. Sense & Sensibility: Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, Lucy Steele, John Willoughby, and Colonet Brandon. Pride & Prejudice: Jane Bennet, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Charles Bingley, and George Wickham. Mansfield Park: the Betrams of Mansfield Park, Fanny Price, and Mrs. Norris. Emma: Emma Woodhouse ("handsome, clever, and rich"), Mr. Knightley, Miss Bates, Frank Churchill, Harriet Smith, and Jane Fairfax. Northanger Abbey: Catherine Morland, the Allens, Henry Tilney, and John Thorpe (this is the one that in large part is a parody of Ann Radcliffe's Mysteries of Udolpho). Persuasion: Sir Walter, Elizabeth, Anne Elliot, Frederick Wentworth, and a manor called Kellynch Hall.
Who are "The Lake Poets," and when did they write?
William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, and essayist Charles Lamb. Called such due to their long residence in the Lake District of England. They wrote in the early 1800s.
Who are the major Victorian essayists? (Hint: there are five)
Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, John Stuart Mill, and John Henry (AKA Cardinal Newman)
Matthew Arnold
Victorian essayist and poet. Wrote "Culture and Anarchy" (his most famous essay--know it) and "Dover Beach" (a poem that might come up on the test). Best recognized for the content of his essays: calls on prior ages, especially the ancient Greeks, as models of virtue and culture. Attacks "philistinism," aka tacky middle-class tasts. Praises the classical ideal of "sweetness and light." Know this phrase and be able to associate it with him.
Thomas Carlyle
Victorian essayist (and novelist, who loosely disguised intellectual forays as fiction). A student of German philosophy, especially that of Immanuel Kant. An advocate of Goethe. Influence Kierkegaard and Nietzche. Wrote "Sartor Resartus," an essay in the guise of fiction. Know it.
John Henry, Cardinal Newman
Victorian essayist. Converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism and wrote "Apologia Pro Vita Sua" to explain his controversial decision. (Remember: "apology" means "defense," not saying "sorry.") Also wrote an essay espousing the benefits of obtaining a liberal arts education called "The Idea of the University."
Who wrote a defense of his religious conversion and a testament to the value of receiving a liberal arts education?
John Henry, Cardinal Newman
John Stuart Mill
Victorian essayist. Social theorist and reformer. Wrote about his depression ("melancholia") in his Autobiography. Wrote "On Liberty," which says the rights of individuals must be safguarded against the "tyranny of the majority" in a democracy. Also: "What Is Poetry?" which defines "poetry" as the expression of the self to the self, as opposed to "eloquence," which is the expression of the self to another.
Who wrote about fancy vs. imagination?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Who wrote about poetry vs. eloquence?
John Stuart Mill
John Ruskin
Victorian critic of literature and art. Coined the term "pathetic fallacy" (a fancy term for personification). Wrote a brilliant architectural study of Venice called "The Stones of Venice," which "reads" the economic, social, and moral history of Venice through its permanent structures.
Who wrote The Pilgrim's Progress?
John Bunyan
Maya Angelou
Modern African-American autobiographer and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer." Active in the Civil Rights movement. Wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a book of poetry called Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie, and a poem called "On the Pulse of Morning" (which she read at President Bill Clinton's inauguration). "Met and fell in love with" Shakespeare as a child.
Honoré de Balzac
19th century French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus is a collection of almost 100 novels and plays entitled La Comédie Humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815. Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. His writing influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Marie Corelli, Henry James, Jack Kerouac, and Italo Calvino as well as important philosophers such as Friedrich Engels.
John Berryman
20th century American poet. One of the founders of the Confessional school of poetry. Wrote The Dream Songs, which are playful, witty, and morbid. Committed suicide in 1972.
Who are "The Confessional Poets"?
John Berryman, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, and William De Witt Snodgrass
Jorge Luis Borges
20th century Argentinian writer, essayist, and poet. Wrote surrealist and ultraist work. The father of ultraism, which was a rejection of modernismo and is characterized by evocative imagery, references to the modern world and new technologies, elimination of rhyme, and creative graphic treatment of the layout of poetry in print, in an attempt to fuse the plastic arts and poetry. Ultraism was influenced in part by Symbolism and by the Parnassians. His "art for art's sake" approach contrasted to that of the more politically involved Boedo group.
Anne Brontë
Victorian novelist and sister of Charlotte and Emily Brontë. Wrote two books: Agnes Grey, based upon her experiences as a governess, was published in 1847; her second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall appeared in 1848. Died of tuberculous at the age of 29.
Robert Browning
19th century English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. A great admirer of the Romantic poets, especially Shelley. Wrote a two-volume collection of poetry called Men and Women and a long blank-verse poem The Ring and the Book.
Robert Burns
aka Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire, and, in Scotland, simply The Bard. A pioneer of the Romantic movement and after his death became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. Wrote the poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne, Scots Wha Hae (the longtime unofficial Scottish national anthem), and the poems My Love is Like A Red, Red Rose, A Man's A Man for A' That, To a Louse, To a Mouse, The Battle of Sherramuir, Tam o' Shanter and Ae Fond Kiss.
Samuel Butler, of the 17th century
17th century English poet and satirist. Chiefly known for a long satirical burlesque poem on Puritanism entitled Hudibras, which s is directed against the Puritans and holds up to ridicule the extravagancies into which many of the party ran. Many of its brilliant couplets have passed into the proverbial commonplaces of the language, and few who use them have any idea of their source. The work was widely popular and spawned many imitators. Hudibras is to a certain extent modelled on Don Quixote but unlike that work, Hudibras has many more references to personalities and events of the day. Butler was also influenced by satirists such as John Skelton and Paul Scarron's Virgile travesti; a satire on classical literature particularly Virgil.
Samuel Butler, of the 19th century
An iconoclastic Victorian author who published a variety of works, including the Utopian satire Erewhon and the posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh, his two best-known works, but also extending to examinations of Christian orthodoxy, substantive studies of evolutionary thought, studies of Italian art, and works of literary history and criticism. Butler also made prose translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey which remain in use to this day.