Definition of English Literature
Definition
Literature depicts the subject matters of human life. It elucidates human’s feelings, emotions, aspirations, struggles, contemporary difficulties and so on. English literature is regarded as a multidisciplinary subject. It covers philosophy, theology, moral lessons, criticisms, human psychology, how to lead a pro-active life, the relationship between human and nature, science, reality as well as pragmatism for worldly success.
Different Ages of English Literature
Different Eras of English Literature
1. Old English or Anglo Saxon Period (450-1066):
Ø Major Writers: Caedmon and Bede
2. Middle English Period (1066-1500):
Ø Major Writers: John Wycliff and Chaucer
3. Renaissance Period (1500-1660):
Ø Major Writers: William Shakespeare, Edmund Spencer, Sir Philip Sydney, Christopher Marlowe, John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, Jeremy Taylor
4. Neo-Classical Period (1660-1785):
Ø Major Writers: John Milton, John Dryden, William Congreve, John Locke, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Samuel Johnson, Henry Fielding, William Blake
5. Romantic Period (1798-1832):
Ø Major Writers: William Wordsworth, William Blake, S.T. Coleridge, P.B. Shelly, John Keats, Lord Byron
6. Victorian Period (1832-1901):
Ø Major Writers: Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Mahew Arnold, Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, John Stuart Mill,
.
7. The Modern Period (1901-1939):
Ø Major Writers: George Bernard Show, William Butler Yeats, Bertrand Russel, David Herbert Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Somerset Maugham, W.W. Gibson, Rupert Brooke.
8 8.The Post-Modern Period (1939-Till Now):
8 8.The Post-Modern Period (1939-Till Now):
Ø Major Writers: Kurt Vonnegut, Jorge Luis Borges, Sammuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, Chuck Palahniuk.
Quotations & Proverbs from Literature
v All the world’s a stage
And all the men women merely players
They have their exits and entrance;
An one man in his time plays many parts
His acts being seven ages.
(William Shakespeare, As You Like It)
v I came, I saw, I conquered
(Julius Caesar, Shakespeare)
v Cowards die many times before their death
The valiant never taste of death but once.
(Julius Caesar, Shakespeare)
v Give me the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.
(John Milton, Areopagitica)
v A mixure of lie doth ever add pleasure.
(Of Truth, Francis Bacon)
v Studies serve for delight, for ornament and for ability.
(Of Study, Francis Bacon)
v Reading maketh a full man; conference ready man; and writing an exact man.
(Of Study, Francis Bacon)
v Nature never did betray the heart that loved her
( Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth)
v The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart and soul of all my moral being.
( Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth)
v Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide sea.
(The Rime of the Ancient Mariners, S.T. Coleridge)
v He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small.
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
(The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, S.T. Coleridge)
v Joy is my name, Sweet joy befall thee
(The Infant Joy, Songs of Innocence, William Blake)
v Where Mercy, love and pity dwell,
There God is dwelling too.
( The Divine Image, Songs of Innocence, William Blake)
v If winter comes, can spring be far behind!
(Ode to the West Wind, Shelley)
v Beauty is truth, truth beauty that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know
(Ode on a Grecian Urn, John Keats)
v Time is the destroyer is time the preserver.
(T.S. Eliot)
v Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful imagination.
(Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads)
v Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of knowledge.
(Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads)
v Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge.
It is as immortal as the heart of man.
(Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads)
v Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.
(Rousseau)
v The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
(Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost)
v Morning shows the day
(John Milton)
v To be or not to be: that is the question
(Shakespeare, Hamlet)
v Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven
(John Milton)(maximum people follow this rule but I am against it)
Oh! God give me the calibre to endure the mental torment in every moment of my life.
Because this is the pathway to heaven.
(Md Rizvy Rahman)
