The form here is rhymed couplets, very stately, very regular. Enlightenment poets shared the Englightenment faith that clear-sightedness and reason could lead to a new era of understanding. Thats the universal light provided here by Nature its the truth itself. Both poets and scientists alike strove toward that light in this era. In Japan, the haiku tradition was upheld by two of the very greatest of poets, Yosa Buson and Issa Kobayashi. The Greats: In addition to the poets and poems already mentioned, the poetry of the Irishman Jonathan Swift (the same man who wrote Gullivers Travels), the poetry of Samuel Johnson, John Dryden, and Alexander Pope, and the satires of Frances Voltaire are all standouts of the Enlightenment. For more poems from the Enlightenment, check out the following s: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1, edited by M.H. Abrams The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa,

We define each period and recommend some of the finest poets of each era. With all the excitement packed into three centuries, the most recent 300 years of poetic history is just about a match for the preceding 4,700! The 19th Century This century saw the Industrial Revolution reach full throttle, bringing great strides in technology, creating great wealth and great poverty, and introducing many social and political changes across the world. Poetry, too, was changing rapidly. Three developments especially marked this eventful poetic century: Romanticism, Symb

The Romantic Period Some readers get confused by the term Romantic. People in the Romantic period werent any more inclined to love than those who lived in other periods. The word Romantic came to mean a new, often revolutionary outlook, emphasizing the importance of personal emotions, the inspiration of the artist, innovation in ideas and the arts, the feeling of new beginnings, and unity with nature (which in some writers almost became a religion). Some of these developments came about as a reaction to the industrial revolution. The Romantic era is one of the three or four greatest periods in the history of poetry. In Europe especially, poetry was the most-read literary form. Several novels in verse, including Don Juan (by English poet George Gordon, Lord Byron) and Eugene Onegin (by the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin) were international bestsellers. But the real poetry of the era was lyric poetry, personal, intense, titanic. When ma

One of the great geniuses of this age, or any age, was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. As a poet, playwright, novelist, philosopher, and politician, he helped create and sustain the notion of Romanticism and of the Romantic poet. His ideas about nature, the emotions, the soul,