Poet's Corner

Poetry Timeline 1700 - 1799

700-1699 | 1700-1799 | 1800-1849 | 1850-1899 | 1900-1924 | 1925-1949 | 1950-1974| 1975+

1700 (-1725)

The Scottish Enlightenment, a period of great literary and philosophical activity, occurs in the early part of the 18th century.

1712

Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" is published as The Rape of the Locke. An Heroi-Comical Poem [2 cantos]; the full version, The Rape of the Lock. An Heroi-Comical Poem. In Five Canto's, is published in 1714 and revised in 1718.

1715

Nicholas Rowe is named Poet Laureate of England.

1718

Laurence Eusden is named Poet Laureate of England.

1730

Colley Cibber is named Poet Laureate of England.

1740-1750

The Graveyard School, refering to poetry that focuses on death and grieving, emerges as a significant genre in the middle of the 18th century.

1740s-1780s

Pre-Romanticism, a transitional literary movement between Neoclassicism and Romanticism, takes place in the middle part of the 18th century.

1740

The anonymous ballad "Barbara Allan" is published in the collection Tea Table Miscellany, or a Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English, edited by Allan Ramsay.

1744

Alexander Pope dies.

1750 (-1899)

The Welsh Literary Renaissance, an effort to revive interest in Welsh language and literature, begins in the middle of the 18th century and continues into the following century.

1754

Phillis Wheatley is born.

1757

• William Blake born.
• William Whitehead is named Poet Laureate of England.

1759

Robert Burns is born.

1765

The anonymous ballad "Sir Patrick Spens" is published in the collection Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, edited by Thomas Percy.

1769

The anonymous ballad "Get Up and Bar the Door" is published in the collection The Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc., edited by David Herd.

1770

William Wordsworth born.

1772

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is born.

1775 (-1850)

Romanticism as a literary movement arises in the latter part of the 18th century and continues until the middle of the 19th century.

1776

Phillis Wheatley's "To His Excellency, General Washington" is published in the March 30 edition of the Virginia Gazette and the April issue of Pennsylvania Magazine.

1784

Phillis Wheatley dies.

1785

Thomas Warton is named Poet Laureate of England.

1786

Robert Burns's "To a Mouse, on Turning up her Nest with the Plough, November, 1785" is published in his collection Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.

1788

George Gordon, Lord Byron is born.

1789

William Blake's "Introduction to Songs of Innocence" and "The Lamb" are published in his collection Songs of Innocence.

1790

• Robert Burns's "John Anderson, My Jo" is published in his collection Scots Musical Museum.
• Henry James Pye is named Poet Laureate of England.

1792

Percy Bysshe Shelley is born.

1794

• William Blake's "Introduction to Songs of Experience," "A Poison Tree" and "The Tyger" are published in his collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
• Robert Burns's "A Red, Red Rose" is published in the collection A Selection of Scots Songs, edited by Peter Urbani.
• William Cullen Bryant is born.

1795

John Keats is born.

1796

Robert Burns dies.

1798

Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" are published, as is William Wordsworth's "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey," in the collection Lyrical Ballads.

Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale, 1997.