Poetry

:Introduction about Poetry

The history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the
7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets
have written some of the most enduring poems in European
culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around
the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is unavoidably
ambiguous. It can mean poetry written in England, or poetry
written in the English language.

The oldest poetry written in the area currently known as

England was composed in Old English, a precursor to the
English language that is not something a typical modern
English-speaker could be expected to be able to read. In
addition, there was a tradition of English poets writing also in
Latin and classical Greek. Today's multicultural English society
is likely to produce some interesting poetry written in a wide
range of other languages, although such poetries are proving
slow to emerge.

With the growth of trade and the British Empire, the English
language had been widely used outside England. In the twenty-
first century, only a small percentage of the world's native
English speakers live in England, and there is also a vast
population of non-native speakers of English who are capable
of writing poetry in the language. A number of major national
poetries, including the American, Australian, New Zealand and
Canadian poetry have emerged and developed. Since 1922,
Irish poetry has also been increasingly viewed as a separate
area of study.
William Shakespeare:
William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23 April
1616)[a] was an English poet widely regarded as the
greatest writer in the English language.He is often called
England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or
simply "the Bard").[5][b] His extant works, including
collaborations, consist of three long narrative poems.
They also continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Today we remember Shakespeare as the greatest

playwright of all time; however, in his own lifetime, he
was equally revered as a poet. His first two books of
poetry, Venus and Adonis and Rape of Lucrece, were
reprinted many times. In fact, they were more popular in
print than any of Shakespeare’s plays. Many of the
earliest literary critics and anthologists of English-
language verse cite these two narrative poems because
of their exemplary lines. Like his plays, his poems were
probably sold unbound or in flimsy, paper bindings,
making their survival unlikely unless an early owner
bound them up with other booklets in sturdy bindings.

Shakespeare’s earliest publication, and by far the best-

selling work in his lifetime, was the nearly 1200-line
poem Venus and Adonis (1593), published in 10 editions
between 1594 and 1602. In Shakespeare’s re-telling of
the classical tale, Venus, the goddess of love, tries to
seduce Adonis, a young hunter, but is rebuffed. Adonis is
then killed on a hunting expedition by a wild boar.
Readers were titillated by the erotic nature of the poem,
and lines from it were frequently excerpted in print and
manuscript.

Because of its popularity, other printed poems soon

followed. Rape of Lucrece was published in 1594 to
great acclaim. His name appeared on the title page of
The Passionate Pilgrim (1599) despite the fact that only
a handful of the poems were by him. “The Phoenix and
the Turtle” appeared in Love’s Martyr in 1601, and
Shakespeare’s Sonnets in 1609.
John Milton:
John Milton was born on 9th December 1608 in
Bread Street, London, in England. He was a
renowned English poet, historian civil servant for
Commonwealth and pamphleteer. After William
Shakespeare, he is considered to be one of the
great writers in England. He was a prominent
author during a time of political upheaval and
religious flux.

Milton's poetry was slow to see the light of day, at

least under his name. His first published poem was
"On Shakespeare" (1630), anonymously included in
the Second Folio edition of William Shakespeare's
plays in 1632. An annotated copy of the First Folio
has been suggested to contain marginal notes by
Milton.[51] Milton collected his work in 1645
Poems in the midst of the excitement attending
the possibility of establishing a new English
government. The anonymous edition of Comus
was published in 1637, and the publication of
Lycidas in 1638 in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago
was signed J. M. Otherwise. The 1645 collection
was the only poetry of his to see print until
Paradise Lost appeared in 1667.Milton's magnum
opus, the blank-verse epic poem Paradise Lost,
was composed by the blind and impoverished
Milton from 1658 to 1664 (first edition), with small
but significant revisions published in 1674 (second
edition). As a blind poet, Milton dictated his verse
to a series of aides in his employ. It has been
argued that the poem reflects his personal despair
at the failure of the Revolution yet affirms an
ultimate optimism in human potential. Some
literary critics have argued that Milton encoded
many references to his unyielding support for the
"Good Old Cause".[52]

Milton followed up the publication Paradise Lost

with its sequel Paradise Regained, which was
published alongside the tragedy Samson Agonistes
in 1671. Both of these works also reflect Milton's
post-Restoration political situation. Just before his
death in 1674, Milton supervised a second edition
of Paradise Lost, accompanied by an explanation
of "why the poem rhymes not", and prefatory
verses by Andrew Marvell. In 1673, Milton
republished his 1645 Poems, as well as a collection
of his letters and the Latin prolusions from his
Cambridge days.
William Butler Yeats:
William Butler Yeats[a] (13 June 1865 – 28 January
1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, prose writer
and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century
literature. A pillar of the Irish literary
establishment, he helped to found the Abbey
Theatre, and in his later years served two terms as
a Senator of the Irish Free State. He was a driving
force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with
Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others.

Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland, and

educated there and in London. He was a
Protestant and member of the Anglo-Irish
community. He spent childhood holidays in County
Sligo and studied poetry from an early age, when
he became fascinated by Irish legends and the
occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his
work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the
20th century. His earliest volume of verse was
published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical
poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy
Bysshe Shelley, and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood. From 1900, his poetry grew more
physical and realistic. He largely renounced the
transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he
remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual
masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life. In
1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature.
William wordsworth:
William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was
an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English
literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads
(1798).Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally
considered to be The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical
poem of his early years that he revised and expanded a
number of times. It was posthumously titled and
published by his wife in the year of his death, before
which it was generally known as "the poem to
Coleridge".
Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until his
death from pleurisy on 23 April 1850.

He published his first poem at 17, was educated at

Cambridge and spent summer holidays walking in the
Alps.
Wordsworth visited France in 1791 and became a
supporter of the Republicans. He also lived in Germany
for a short time, although he complained of the cold and
of being homesick.Wordsworth’s best known poem is
probably Daffodils. It has been voted Britain’s 5th
favourite poem, has been released in a rap version, and
has been recited by 150,000 children at once.
During the 1790s, William Wordsworth produced a
collection of poetry, called the Lyrical Ballads. He tried to
use everyday language so the poems would appeal to
ordinary people.
His greatest work is The Prelude, an autobiographical
poem written in 1798 in blank verse. The 14 books of the
work also focus on a love of nature and the outdoors.
In 1796, William Wordsworth wrote his only play, which
was turned down by a London theatre. It was called The
Borderers and was a tragedy set during King Henry III’s
reign.
Wordsworth’s sister, Dorothy, was also a well known
poet and author.
Comic Mike Myers is a relative of Wordsworth – he is
the poet’s first cousin, 7 times removed.
He became Poet Laureate in 1843, although wrote no
poetry after being given the title. He also received an
honorary degree from Oxford University in 1838.
William Wordsworth died in April 1850 from a disease of
the lungs. He is buried in a churchyard in Grasmere and
his family home at Dove Cottage is now a museum.
Student:Mahmoud Mustafa Yehia
Prof:Ahmed Abdel-Salam & Aya Awad
Subject:Poetry
1st English General Department