Poet's Corner
Poetry Timeline 700 - 1699
700-1699 | 1700-1799 | 1800-1849 | 1850-1899 | 1900-1924 | 1925-1949 | 1950-1974| 1975+
c. 700-800
- Beowulf composed at about this time.
- Cynewulf writes and signs 4 Anglo-Saxon poems: Christ II, Elene, The Fates of the Apostles, and Juliana.
1000
The Battle of Maldon, a poem on the fight between the English and the Danes in 991, written.
1265
Dante Alighieri born.
1300 (-1699)
The Renaissance begins in the 14th century and continues for the next 300 years.
c. 1307-1321
Dante's Divina Commedia.
1321
Dante Alighieri dies.
1343
Geoffrey Chaucer born.
c. 1387-1400
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales written.
1400
Geoffrey Chaucer dies.
1456
William Dunbar born.
1474
Caxton prints the first book in England.
1477
Thomas More born.
1513
William Dunbar dies.
1535
Sir Thomas More executed.
1552
Edmund Spenser born.
1558 (-1603)
The Elizabethan Age begins with the coronation in 1558 of Elizabeth I as Queen of England and continues until her death in 1603. Elizabethan literature is recognized as some of the finest in the English language.
1564
- William Shakespeare born.
- Christopher Marlowe born.
1572
John Donne born.
1575 (-1799)
The literary style known as Baroque arises in teh late 16th century and remains influential until the early 18th century.
1590
Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Books I-III.
1593
Christopher Marlowe murdered.
1599
Edmund Spenser dies.
1600
- (-1799) The Enlightenment period in European social and cultural history begins in the 17th century and continues into the 18th century.
- (-1650) Metaphysical poetry becomes a prominent style of verse in the first half of the 17th century.
1609
Shakespeares' sonnets published.
1616
- William Shakespeare dies.
- Ben Jonson is named Poet Laureate of England.
1644
Matsuo Basho born.
Source: Exploring Poetry, Gale, 1997.