It is an epic poem written in the 1660s by John Milton and spanning 12 books, Paradise Lost is widely considered the greatest English language epic. Although it is about the fall of Man from the Garden of Eden, one must wonder about Milton - despite his world view of "God gave you free will but unless you toe the line you'll get pounded," he still makes the character of Satan a dangerously alluring epic anti-hero.
A glorious visionary work written in the seventeenth century, when the fiery forge that shaped the best of the English language was burning hot (Shakespeare, the King James Version of the Bible) and patterns that resonate deeply to the present day were set.
Milton sought to 'justify the ways of God to men', but ended up giving Satan most of the best tunes, his speech to his battered horde as they awake to the enormity of their fall from Heaven:
"Here at least we shall be free; The Almighty hath not built Here for His envy, will not drive us hence: Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice, To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."
Literature is a sort of aesthetic expression, usually involving words, but can be made of patterns or symbols. Most people think of literature as novels, but it can be anything you read, write, or create, as long as it has a special meaning. For example, a regular old to-do list is not literature, while a combination of certain symbols can be considered such.
Coleridge gave succinct expression to the essence of literature when he said, “Prose is words in their best order; poetry is the best words in their best order.” I don’t think that this should mean that poetry is the ultimate literary art or the purity of expression to which prosaic writing aspires. Yet I think that some have certainly claimed as much for poetry. And perhaps Coleridge too insinuates that poetry is superior in his definition. This can be contested, but what is more certain is that literature involves words, style, and excellence. These are the basic elements that compose literature in an broad sense—the variables that remain can specify an indeterminate number of genres.
Beowulf is one of the oldest surviving epic poems in what is identifiable as an early form of the English language. In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of a Germanic tribe from southern Sweden called the Geats, travels to Denmark to help defeat a monster named Grendel. This poem, about Danish and Swedish kings and heroes, was preserved in England because the English people are descendants of Germanic tribes called the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Jutes and northern Saxon tribes came from what is now southern Denmark and northern Germany. Thus, Beowulf tells a story about the old days in their homeland.
Beowulf is the greatest of the surving works composed in Old English. An Epic poem, Beowulf was composed orally in a form of poetry in which each line is effectively split in half, with the first half linking with the second alliteratively. It is the epic story of Beowulf, the man's man, a badass whose dark side you would not want to experience. He embodies all of the social ideals of the culture that created him: loyalty, honesty, courage, justice, and generosity. Despite much of the blood and horror, Beowulf proves to be a story of good versus evil and one man's quest to become immortal through fame. (The Geats did not believe in much of an afterlife, therefore the only way to live beyond death was by the legends you inspired.)
Believed to be composed circa 700 c.e., Beowulf has instances of blatantly obstrusive Christian influence in an otherwise pagan work. The snippits of Christianity were likely inserted by a priest who recorded the narrative in writing. (Priests were practically the only people in that day who were literate, and they probably didn't like all of that profane, godless paganism.) Apparently the priests would insert bits of Christianity (who knows what they took out?) as not to fully corrupt anyone who might read Beowulf.
The Canterbury Tales is a very long poem about a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. Writen by Geoffrey Chaucer, it is by far one of the best pieces of literature ever writen, even though it is not complete or perfect. The Canterbury Tales was what many later authors aimed at, it was even (apparently) an influence to the great Shakespeare. The book (or poem if you will) by itself was not much; it consisted of a main plot (a poet joining a pilgrimage to Canterbury and during the trip everyone must tell stories), and several stories intertwined within. So why is it so excellent? The way Chaucer pieced together the stories was genuis. You best understand the characters by the story they tell, or how they tell it - something even modern writers would have difficulty doing.
Literally rebirth in French. Started in 14th Century Italy (where it is called rinascimento), spread all over Europe and lasted till about 17th Century. The name refers to the rebirth of interest in classical culture of pre-Christian era, a culture that was completely surpressed during the Middle Ages. It was for the first time in centuries that European intelligentsia considered alternatives to the strictness and harshness of Christianity in arts and philosophy, leading to the dictum Carpe Diem (seize the day), increased study of science, new type of architecture, independent thought, which eventually completed the transition to the modern era. The artist was given a high position and allowed to look elsewhere than God and spiritual matters for inspiration. Man became the measure of all things as indicated in these two excerpts: "I have set you in the center of the world, so that from there you may more easily survey whatever is in the world. We have made you neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal, so that, more freely and more honorably the molder and maker of yourself, you may fashion yourself in whatever form you shall prefer... O supreme generosity of God the Father! O highest and marvelous felicity of man! To him it is granted to have whatever he chooses, to be whatever he wills." - Pico della Mirandola's The Dignity of Man, 1486, (God speaking to Adam)
Character in a story treated by both Christopher Marlowe and Goethe. Sells his soul to the devil in return for magical powers. The story is both a tragedy (Faustus is dragged off to Hell at the end) and a love story (Faustus does, truly, fall in love with Helen of Troy). The story and elements of it permeate much of Western literature, with ideas of selling your soul to get something, of making a deal with the devil, and of the Faustian Bargain. The earliest recorded version of the story, written in Middle High German, was printed in 1587, 5 years before Christopher Marlowe's play appeared, though it must have existed still earlier. The manuscripts are titled: "The history of Doctor Johann Faustus, sorcerer and nigromancer, how he committed himself on an occasion to the devil, what sort of strange adventure he experienced, caused and created, until he gained his just rewards." Johann Faustus was born to a poor farmer, but grew up with his wealthy cousin, who sent him to study theology. Faustus' thirst for knowledge and natural aptitude for academia soon earned him his magister, and then his doctor; still unsatisfied, he pursued the more arcane arts, including necromancy, which led to his pact with Mephistopheles. The first 2 parts of the work treat Doctor' Faustus arguments with the devil, disputations over various bits of knowledge. The third relates his visits across the world and through time; to the court of Charles V, summoning Helen of Troy to a dinner with his students (she quickly disappears again, and the story hints at very little of the love story later writers were to make of it), and countless others. An important point to note is that the ending of Faust changes depending on the author. Sometimes he is dragged to hell. The original and Marlowe's play have this ending. And Goethe lets him obtain salvation, with angels snatching Faust away from Mephistopheles at the last moment. Different times, different ideas, I suppose.
In the late 1500's it was fashionable for English gentleman authors to write sonnets, lyric poems composed of 14 lines. The sonnet is composed with a formal rhyme scheme, denoting different thoughts, moods, or emotions, sometimes summed up in the last lines of the poem. The two main forms of the sonnet are the Petrarchan (Italian) and the Shakespearean (English). Sonnets had been glorified by Petrarch in Italy more than 200 years before English poets even knew about them. Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, were among the first to introduce the sonnet into England. William Shakespeare's first and second years in London were spent writing in the Petrarchan style. The Petrarchan sonnet has an eight line stanza, or octave, and six-line stanza, or sestet. The octave has two quatrains, rhymingabba, abba, but avoiding a couplet; the first quatrain gives the theme, and the second develops it. The sestet is built on two or three different rhymes; the first three lines reflect on the theme, and the last three lines bring the whole poem to an end.
William Shakespeare composed 154 sonnets in his lifetime. After his first two years in London, Shakespeare started writing in the English sonnet form. According to some scholars, the English sonnet was made for a language less beautiful in rhymes than Italian. It differs from the Petrarchan sonnets in that it is divided into three quatrains, each rhymed differently, with an independently rhymed couplet at the end. The rhyme scheme of the English sonnet is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Each quatrain takes a different appearance of the idea or develops a different image to express the theme. All of Shakespeare's sonnets were in this form except for the poems he wrote earlier in life.The 154 sonnets can be formed three groups: 1. Twenty-six sonnets written mostly to a young man, 17 of them urging marriage. 2. One hundred and one sonnets, also written to a young man (probably the same young nobleman as in the first 26). These have a variety of themes, such as the beauty of the loved one; destruction of beauty; competition with a Rival Poet; despair about the absence of a loved one; and reaction toward the young man's coldness. 3. The remaining 27 sonnets are written mainly to a woman, popularly known as "The Dark Lady." Many students of Shakespeare's work believe that he had a love affair with this woman. Most Elizabethan sonnets were written about joys and sorrows of love. Some of Shakespeare's sonnet arrangements are thought to be autobiographical. This is why scholars have tried to learn about William Shakespeare's life from his sonnets. This is an example of the Shakespearean sonnet form:
So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse, (A) And found such faire assistance in my verse, (B) As every Alien pen hath got my use, (A) And under thee their poesy disperse. (B) Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing, (C) And heavy ignorance aloft to flie, (D) Have added feathers to the learned's wing, (C) And given grace a double majestie. (D) Yet be most proud of that which I compile, (E) Whose influence is thine and born of thee, (F) In others'works thou dost but mend the style (E) And arts with thy sweet graces graced be. (F) But thou art all my art, and dost advance (G) As high as learning my rude ignorance. (G)
Sonnet 78 (above) is typical of Shakespeare's use of the English form of the sonnet with its rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. In sonnet 78, the first few lines reflect on the theme of his writings, and the last two lines bring the sonnet to a conclusion. This sonnet clearly shows that Southhamptons (another poet who later became a rival) is giving help to one or more rivals. "The dumbe," and "heavie ignorance" in the final couplet of the sonnet may be Shakespeare himself, according to some scholars. The "learned's wing" represents another poet to which Southampton had given motivation. William Shakespeare composed 154 sonnets in his lifetime. He is also noted as being the first writer to be commemorated at Westminster Abbey's poet's corner. There also is a bust of him over a door at Westminster Abbey. Shakespeare's personal life is strongly reflected in his sonnets. SONNET 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
SONNET 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. SONNET 130 My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask’d, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.
