Poets Tennyson, Mrs. Browning, Robert Brown- ing, Jean Ingelow, Swinburne, Morris, Arnold Prose Writers: Macaulay, Grote, Froude, Dick- PAGE 53-61 PART II. THE LITERATURE OF AMERICA. REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS: Mather, Edwards Prose Writers: Franklin Jefferson, Hamilton, 80-82 Poets: Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, Holmes, Poe, Saxe, Read, Boker, Taylor, Alice Cary, Celia Thaxter, Aldrich, Stedman, Hol- land, Harte, Miller, Stoddard, Hayne, Timrod 85-104 Prose Writers: Irving, Prescott, Bancroft, Mot- ley, Cooper, Hawthorne, Stowe, Everett, Web- INTRODUCTION. DEFINITIONS.-Literature is thought expressed in writing. English Literature is the literature of the English language, wherever produced; but it is sometimes divided, for convenience, into English literature proper-the literature produced in England; and American literature-the literature produced in America. FORMS.-Literature exists in two forms,-Poetry and Prose. POETRY.-Poetry is imaginative composition in metrica form. It is of eight kinds,-Epic, Dramatic, Narrative and Descriptive, Lyric, Didactic, Pastoral, Elegiac, and Humorous. An Epic poem is a long poetic recital of some great event. Examples: Homer's Iliad, Milton's Paradise Lost. Dramatic poetry is poetry in the form of dialogue. It is of two kinds,tragedies and comedies. The finest dramas in the world are those of Shakspeare. Examples: Hamlet (trageay), Merchant of Venice (comedy). A Narrative poem is a tale in verse. A Descriptive poem is one that describes something. Narration and description are generally combined. Examples: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Scott's Lady of the Lake. Lyric poetry is poetry suitable for music. It includes Psalms, Hymns, Songs, Odes, and Sonnets. Examples: Shelley's Skylark, Wordsworth's Ode to Duty, Moore's Last Rose of Summer, etc. Didactic poetry is poetry designed chiefly to instruct. Examples: Pope's Essay on Man, Wordsworth's Excursion, Bryant's Thanatopsis. Pastoral poetry is poetry descriptive of country life. Examples: Whit. tier's Snow-Bound, Tennyson's Enoch Arden, Taylor's Lars. Elegiac poetry is poetry commemorative of the dead. Examples: Gray's Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, Tennyson's In Memoriam. Humorous poetry is poetry of an amusing character. Examples: Cowper's John Gilpin, Saxe's Proud Miss McBride. PROSE.-Prose is composition without metre or rhyme. It is of nine kinds,-History, Biography, Novels, Travels, Letters, Reviews, Essays, Treatises, and Discourses. History is a record of past events. Examples: Hume's History of Eng land, Bancroft's History of the United States. A Biography is an account of the life of an individual. Example: Irving's Life of Washington. To this class belong autobiographies and diaries. A Novel is a fictitious story. Among the best examples are the novels of Scott, Thackeray, and Dickens. A Book of Travels is a record of the experiences and observations of a traveller. Examples: Bayard Taylor's Views Afoot, etc. A Letter is a composition addressed to a particular person. Letters are generally included in biography. Example: Life and Letters of Lord Byron, A Review is a long article founded on some literary work. Among the best reviews are those of Macaulay, Lowell, and Whipple. An Essay is a brief and somewhat informal composition on any subject Among the best essays are those of Lord Bacon, Addison, and Lamb (Elia) A Treatise is a composition setting forth in a systematic manner the principles of some science or art. Examples: Haven's Mental Science, Brooks's Geometry. A Discourse is a composition intended to be read aloud or spoken by the writer. Discourses are of five kinds,-Orations, Addresses, Sermons, Lectures, and Speeches. PARTS.-Though English literature embraces all works written in the English language, whether produced in England or America; yet it is practically most convenient to consider the literature of each country separately, and this plan has been adopted in the present work. Most of the biographical sketches are followed by one or more extracts to be memorized; and in order to afford still further opportunity of thought-culture, and to illustrate more fully the variety and richness of our literature, a collection of literary gems has been added as a separate division. The body of the work consists, therefore, of three parts: PART I. THE LITERATURE OF ENGLAND. COMMON-SCHOOL LITERATURE. PART I. THE LITERATURE OF ENGLAND. O RE INTRODUCTION. RIGIN.-English literature may be said to have begun with Chaucer, about the middle of the fourteenth century. There are works that were written much earlier, but they are in a language so different from modern English that they cannot be read without a glossary. The works produced in England from about 450 to 1050 A. D., were in Anglo-Saxon, now a dead language. Those produced between 1050 and 1350 were in a dialect which was neither Anglo-Saxon nor English, but a mixture of the two, approximating more and more, toward the close of the period, to the language of Shakspeare. The dialect used during the first part of this interval, say from 1050 to 1200, is known as SemiSaxon; that used during the last part of it is known as Old English. PERIODS.-We find that literature at different times has ditferent characteristics, varying with the intellectual, social, and political conditions that prevail in the nation. It is thus possible to divide the literature of a people into certain epochs or periods more or less marked. Of course there is and can be no sharp dividing line between these periods: literature is not a succession of pools, but a continuous stream, sometimes widening, sometimes narrowing, but ever flowing on. Since these divisions are to some extent arbitrary, we have in this work fixed them at such dates as are easily remembered. We find in English Literature nine of these periods : Period I. The Age of Chaucer, 1350–1400. PERIOD I.—AGE OF CHAUCER. (Edward III., Richard II., Henry IV.) `HIS age is memorable in history on account of the military THIS glories of Edw. III. and his heroic son the Black Prince; by which the Saxon and Norman elements of the people were united, a national sentiment established, and the supremacy of England secured. It was also a period of religious agitation, of awakening thought, and of vigorous protest against the abuses and corruption that had invaded the church. At this time were sown, by Wyckliffe and others, the seeds that produced, more than a century later, the English Reformation under Henry VIII. The chief literary representative of this age is our first great poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. GEOFFREY CHAUCER. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), known as "the father of English poetry," was not only the earliest of our great poets, but was also the only author of the first class that England produced till the middle of the sixteenth century. His principal work is the Canterbury Tales. It consists of twenty-four stories supposed to have |
