The HyperTexts English Poetry Timeline This is a chronology of English poetry, from the earliest Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman

poetry, to the present day. All dates are AD. Some dates are approximations or educated guesses. This page is a work in progress, so please revisit it from time to time to see how far we've come! You can click on any hyperlinked poem title to read the poem or an excerpt and learn more about its history, context and writer(s). Anglo-Saxon Period (499-1066) The most ancient Old English poetry is actually Anglo-Saxon, which is heavily Germanic. The Angles and Saxons were Germanic tribes who relocated to England. (The name England derives from "Angle Land.") The Anglo-Saxon era ends with the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. From that day forward, Anglo-Norman and Latin poetry would dominate until the resurrection of "more English" poetry with the pens of poets like Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard. The defining Anglo-Saxon poems include Caedmon's Hymn, Bede's Death Song , Wulf and Eadwacer and Beowulf. 499 Anglo-Saxons invade England 537 Battle of Camlan; possible death of King Arthur 658 Caedmon's Hymn, the first English poem still extant today, marks the beginning of what came to be known as English poetry

673 Birth of Bede, the scholar/poet/historian who came to be known as the Venerable Bede and Good Bede 680 Possible earliest date for the composition of Beowulf 700 Cynewulf pens four Anglo-Saxon poems: Christ II, Elene, The Fates of the Apostles and Juliana; runic extracts from The Dream of the Rood are carved on the Ruthwell Cross 735 Bede's Death Song 800 Cynewulf writes and signs four Anglo-Saxon poems: Christ II, Elene, The Fates of the Apostles and Juliana 871 King Alfred the Great unites the Anglo-Saxons, defeats the Danes and becomes the first king of a united England 900 Deor, a scop, is writing poems such as Deor's Lament 924 King Athelstan reigns; he takes the title "King of all Britain" after defeating an alliance of Scots, Celts, Danes and Vikings 937 King Athelstan's victory at the battle of Brunanburh is celebrated by a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 950 Four early poetry manuscripts: Junius, the Vercelli Book, the Exeter Book and Beowulf; possible first extant English poem written by a woman is Wulf and Eadwacer; another such contender is The Wife's Lament;other notable poems include The Seafarer, The Wanderer, The Husband's Message, The Phoenix, Widsith and The Ruin 978 King Ethelred the Unready reigns; he loses battles with the Danes, pays Danegeld and eventually flees to Normandy 991 The Battle of Maldon, a poem about a battle between the English and Danes that took place in 991

1016 King Cnut (Canute) rules Denmark, Norway, England and parts of Sweden, but when he dies his huge empire disintegrates 1028 Birth of William of Normandy, also known as William the Bastard 1042 King Edward the Confessor reigns; he promises the throne of England to William of Normandy (soon to be known as the Conqueror) 1066 William the Conqueror defeats Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, becomes King William I; end of the Anglo-Saxon era Anglo-Norman or Middle English Period (1066-1332) During the Anglo-Norman era the English people and their language were subjugated to their conquerors, who preferred Latin and French poetry. But the conquerors had no answer for the attractions of Geoffrey Chaucer, who by 1362 was writing poetry in a rough-but-still-usually-understandable version of early modern English. 1085 William I orders extensive surveys of his English holdings, recorded in the Domesday Book 1086 William I notifies the Pope that England owes no allegiance to Rome, the first of many British rifts with the Vatican 1087 William II reigns 1095 First Crusade 1100 Henry I reigns; Layamon writes Brut, a 32,000-line poem 1154 Henry II reigns 1155 Wace's Anglo-Norman Roman de Brut

1160 Walter Map, Anglo-Latin poet, is writing poems; Thomas of Britain's Anglo-Norman Tristan 1162 Henry II has Thomas a Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury, assassinated 1172 Wace's Anglo-Norman Roman de Rou 1189 Richard I, aka Richard Cur de Lion ("Richard the Lionheart") reigns; he joins the Third Crusade; his brother John acts as regent 1195 Richard I returns to England briefly, but soon is off again to fight in France 1199 King John reigns after Richard I dies in France 1215 The Magna Carta, drafted in French, forces King John to grant liberties and rights to Englishmen in return for taxation 1216 Henry III reigns 1200 How Long the Night 1230 Guillaume de Lorris writes Roman de la Rose 1250 Nicholas of Guildford writes The Owl and the Nightingale 1265 Birth of Dante Alighieri; Simon de Montfort summons the first directly-elected English Parliament 1272 Edward I ("Longshanks") reigns, is crowned upon his return from the Ninth Crusade 1275 Jean de Meun extends Roman de la Rose 1296 Edward I defeats the Scots, seizes the throne of Scotland, removes

the Stone of Scone to Westminster 1300 Dame Sirith, the earliest English fabliau; also the romances Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Hampton 1306 Robert Bruce is crowned King of Scotland; Edward I dies on his way north to invade Scotland 1307 Edward II reigns; Dante's Divina Commedia ("Divine Comedy") 1314 Robert Bruce defeats Edward II; lyrics Alysoun and Lenten ys come with love to toune ("Let us come with love to town") 1325 Cursor Mundi, a verse history of the world; births of poets John Gower and William Langland 1327 Edward III reigns 1332 English replaces French in Parliament and courts of law, heralding the end of the Anglo-Norman era Medieval or Chaucerian Period (1332-1486) Chaucer made the English vernacular popular in much the same way that Dante made the Italian vernacular popular and Martin Luther made the German vernacular popular. But English poetry was to shape-shift yet again with the appearance of Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, both born in the first decade of the sixteenth century. 1340 Birth of Geoffrey Chaucer 1348 The Black Death kills one-third of the population of England 1350 Boccaccio's Decameron 1352 Wynnere and Wastoure

1356 Edward III's eldest son, the Black Prince (also named Edward), is victorious in France; England controls most of southwest France 1362 Chaucer is writing poems in English 1368 Chaucer's The Book of the Duchess memorializes the death of John of Gaunt's wife Blanche 1376 Edward III and the Black Prince die within a year of each other; John Gower's Mirour de l'Omme or Speculum Meditantis 1377 Richard III reigns; William Langland's Piers Plowman 1380 Works of the so-called Gawain poet, including Pearl, Patience, Cleanness and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; John Wyclif translates the Bible into English 1381 The poll tax leads to the Peasants Revolt; Watt Tyler and John Ball march on London; Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde 1382 Richard III promises to repeal the poll taxes, but returning rebels are executed; John Wycliffe translates the Bible into English 1387 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 1388 Scots defeat Henry Hotspur at the Battle of Otterburn 1399 Richard III is deposed and dies of starvation in captivity; King Henry IV returns from exile in France to reign 1400 The alliterative Morte Arthure ("Death of Arthur"); the death of Chaucer leaves Canterbury Tales unfinished 1401 Owain Glyndwr leads Welsh revolt against English rule; his treaty with France compounds England's troubles

1406 James I of Scotland, while captive in England, writes The Kingis Quair 1412 John Lydgate's Troy Book 1413 King Henry V reigns 1415 Henry V attacks France in order to win back lost English territories there; he captures Harfleur and wins the battle of Agincourt; he or his son are in the line of succession to become King of France 1422 Henry VI reigns as King of England and France, but is only eight months old; regents are appointed 1426 John Lydgate's The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, a translation of Guillaume de Deguileville's Pleringe 1429 Joan of Arc, a young French peasant girl, begins her campaign to drive the English from France with considerable support and success 1431 Joan of Arc is burned at the stake as a witch; Henry VI is crowned King of France in Paris 1440 Eton College is founded and provides free education to 70 scholars 1453 England loses all its French possession except Calais and the Channel Islands, ending the Hundred Years' War; the Wars of the Roses begin almost immediately, with the houses of York and Lancaster pitted violently against each other 1460 Henry VI is captured by Yorkists but is freed by an army raised by his wife Margaret; births of the poets John Skelton and William Dunbar 1461 Henry VI and Margaret are defeated, flee to Scotland; Edward, the son of Richard of York, declares himself King Edward IV

1464 Henry VI is captured and brought to the Tower of London 1469 Edward IV is defeated, flees to Flanders; Henry VI is restored to the throne 1471 Edward IV returns to England, defeats Margaret's army; Henry VI is stabbed to death in the Tower of London 1473 William Caxton prints the first typeset English book, his translation of the history of Troy 1477 William Caxton prints Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 1483 Edward IV dies; his son Edward V reigns briefly but is declared illegitimate and is probably murdered in the Tower of London; Richard III declares himself King 1485 Henry Tudor lands in Wales, then defeats and kills Richard III, becoming King Henry VII 1486 Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York, uniting the houses of Lancaster and York and cementing the Tudor dynasty; the Wars of the Roses end Tudor and Elizabethan Period (1486-1620) The Tudor era saw the introduction of the sonnet and blank verse, both of which were based on iambic pentameter. The poetry of Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard may mark the beginning of modern English poetry. The era ended with the deaths of Queen Elizabeth and William Shakespeare in the first decade of the seventeenth century. 1491 Birth of Henry Tudor (Henry VIII) 1492 Columbus discovers the Americas; John Skelton made Laureate by the University of Louvain

1503 Birth of Thomas Wyatt, perhaps the first modern English poet; William Dunbar's The Thrissill and the Rois and Sweet Rose of Virtue 1507 William Dunbar's The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis, The Goldyn Targe, Lament for the Makaris and The Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen 1509 King Henry VIII reigns; birth of Henry Howard, poet and first cousin of Anne Boleyn 1517 Martin Luther publishes his 95 theses against the Roman Catholic Church, starting the Protestant Reformation 1521 Pope Leo X declares King Henry VIII the Fidei Defensor or Defender of the Faith, in honor of Henry's book Defense of the Seven Sacraments, which attacked Luther's theology and was dedicated to Leo X 1527 Henry VIII seeks the Pope's permission to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon but is refused, creating a huge rift and leading to Henry's "divorce" from the Roman Catholic Church 1533 Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn in defiance of Rome and many of his own bishops and advisors, including Thomas More, his former Chancellor; Pope Clement VII excommunicates Henry; Henry soon declares himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England 1534 Around this time, Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard introduce the English sonnet, modeled after the Petrarchan sonnet 1535 Sir Thomas More is executed after refusing to recognize Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church of England; Thomas Cromwell is made Vicar-General and begins to seize the Church's lands and other holdings; first complete English translation of the Bible by Miles Coverdale 1536 Anne Boleyn is beheaded; Henry VIII marries his third wife, Jane Seymour; Thomas Wyatt, imprisoned in the Tower of London for his alleged

affair with Anne Boleyn, may have written his great poems Whoso List to Hunt and They Flee from Me around this time 1537 Jane Seymour dies giving birth to Prince Edward (later Edward VI); Henry Howard develops blank verse in his translation of the Aeneid 1539 The abbots of Colchester, Glastonbury and Reading are executed for treason as Henry VIII continues to acquire Church holdings 1540 Henry VIII marries his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, in January but the marriage is annulled in July; Thomas Cromwell is executed for treason; Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard 1542 Catherine Howard is executed for treason; James V of Scotland dies and is succeeded by his six-day-old daughter Mary (later, Mary Queen of Scots) 1543 Henry VIII marries the twice-widowed Catherine Parr, his sixth and last wife 1547 Henry Howard is decapitated on the order of Henry VIII, who dies the same year; King Edward VI reigns at age nine, but is sickly 1552 Birth of Edmund Spencer, perhaps the first great English Romantic poet and precursor of Shelley, Keats, et al 1553 Edward VI dies of tuberculosis; his will appoints Lady Jane Grey as his successor but his sister Mary deposes her and reigns as Queen Mary I 1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger leads a revolt to depose Mary I, who was Catholic and considering a marriage to the Catholic Philip of Spain; the revolt is crushed and Wyatt and Lady Jane Grey are executed; Mary's sister Elizabeth is sent to the Tower of London; Mary marries Philip of Spain 1555 "Bloody Mary" begins her brutal persecution of Protestants; she

has 283 religious dissenters killed, most of them burned at the stake, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer 1557 Tottel's Miscellany, perhaps the first modern English poetry publication, includes poems by Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard 1558 Mary I dies childless; Queen Elizabeth I reigns; Protestant reforms are reinstituted but Elizabeth is not as bloody as her sister Mary 1563 John Foxes The Book of Martyrs, about religious persecutions, is published 1564 Birth of William Shakespeare, generally considered the greatest English poet and playwright (and also a talented songwriter) 1565 Sir Walter Raleigh, a poet and explorer, brings potatoes and tobacco from the New World 1566 Isabella Whitney's The Copy of a Letter 1568 Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England and is imprisoned by Elizabeth 1572 Births of poets John Donne and Ben Jonson 1579 Edmund Spenser's Shepheardes Calender; Sir Philip Sidney's Old Arcadia and Defence of Poetry or An Apologie for Poetrie 1582 Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh founds the first American colony and names it Virginia after Elizabeth (the Virgin Queen) 1585 James VI of Scotland writes Essays of a Prentice in the Arte of Poesie, citing the poems of Alexander Montgomerie

1586 Chidiock Tichborne is hanged, castrated, and disemboweled for treason; the great elegy he wrote to himself while awaiting death in the Tower of London is now known as Tichborne's Elegy 1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed at Fotheringhay Castle on charges of treason 1588 A Spanish Armada of 130 ships sailing against England is defeated by bad weather and the English fleet under admirals Francis Drake and John Hawkins; the resulting English dominance of the seas greatly enhances the prospects of the British Empire 1590 Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream; Edmund Spencer's The Faerie Queene 1591 Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella 1591 John Donne is writing satires, elegies, songs and sonnets 1593 Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis; the poet/playwright Christopher Marlowe is murdered, perhaps assassinated, at age 29 1594 Shakespeare is a member of the Lord Chamberlain's men 1595 The poet Robert Southwell is hanged, drawn and quartered 1597 Francis Bacon's Essays; John Dowland's The First Booke of Songes or Ayres 1597 George Chapman's translation of Homer's Illiad 1598 Shakespeare acts in Ben Jonson's play Sejanus 1599 The Globe Theater opens for business in London; Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to his Love is answered by Sir Walter Raleigh's The Nymph's Reply

1600 The East India Company is founded; Thomas Nashe's poem A Litany in the Time of Plague 1601 The first performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet; Thomas Campion's poems My Sweetest Lesbia and When to Her Lute Corinna Sings 1603 Death of Queen Elizabeth I; James VI of Scotland becomes King James I of England, Scotland, and Ireland; Sir Walter Raleigh is sent to the Tower of London 1604 Shakespeare is granted a coat of arms; James I becomes a patron of Shakespeare's acting company 1606 John Donne's Song, The Sunne Rising and The Cannonization are written around this time, are published two years after his death, in 1633 1608 Birth of the English poet John Milton; Donne writes his Holy Sonnets 1609 Shakespeare completes his Sonnets 1610 Galileo says the earth moves around the sun, comes close to losing his life to the Roman Catholic Church, will spend his last days under house arrest 1611 The King James Bible is published; it says the earth is immovable with fixed foundations 1612 Heretics are burned at the stake in England for the last time 1613 The Globe Theatre burns during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII 1616 Death of William Shakespeare; Ben Jonson's Works including On My First Son and Song: To Celia; George Chapman's translation of

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey 1618 Sir Walter Raleigh fails in his last expedition to find El Dorado and upon his return to England is executed for alleged treason; he writes his great poem The Lie while incarcerated in the Tower of London The Cavalier Era The Cavalier Era is marked by poems that praise the virtues of war, chivalry, state, God, church and religion. Far greater poets to come (i.e., John Milton, William Blake, Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, A. E. Housman, Thomas Hardy, Robert Frost, et al) were more realistic, and dissenters. 1620 The Pilgrims set sail for America in the Mayflower; they land at Cape Cod and found the New Plymouth colony 1628 Ann Dudley marries, becoming Anne Bradstreet, then sails to America in 1630 1633 George Herbert's Redemption, Virtue, The Collar, The Pulley, The Temple 1638 Sir John Suckling's Song: Why so pale and wan, fond lover? 1640 Thomas Carew's A Song, To My Inconstant Mistress 1645 Edmund Waller's Song: Go, Lovely Rose; On a Girdle 1646 Richard Crashaw's On the Baptized Ethiopian (one of the first English language poems to express the idea of racial equality) 1648 Robert Herrick's Delight in Disorder; To Daffodils; Upon Julia's Clothes; To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time 1649 Richard Lovelace's To Lucasta, Going to the Wars; To Althea, from

Prison; To Amaratha, That She Would Dishevel Her Hair 1650 Anne Bradstreet's The Vanity of All Worldly Things (perhaps the first notable poem by an American poet); her book The Tenth Muse is the first poetry collection published by an English woman 1655 Henry Vaughan's Regeneration, The Retreat 1659 James Shirley's The Glories of Our Blood and State; Sir John Suckling's Out Upon It! The Miltonian Era John Milton stands out as the first great Romantic, anti-establishment poet: a powerful voice of strong dissent against the status quo. While he claimed to "justify the ways of God to man," as William Blake pointed out, Milton actually spoke for the rebellious angels, and made Romantic heroes of Satan, Adam and Eve. 1645 John Milton's L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, On Shakespeare, How Soon Hath Time 1660 John Milton briefly jailed after copies of his books were burned by the public executioner; he was pardoned in December 1667 John Milton's Paradise Lost is published 1671 John Milton's Paradise Regained is published 1673 John Milton's Methought I Saw, When I Consider How My Light Is Spent The Metaphysical Era The metaphysical poets seemed to over-value wit and extravagant, strained "conceits." As a result, the poems of the era's major poets, John

Dryden and Alexander Pope, may strike modern readers as being fanciful, boring and overly didactic. If they were trying to emulate John Donne, it seems they lacked his passionate warmth and as a result their poems failed to be moving, the test of true poetry. 1681 Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress 1682 John Dryden's Mac Flecknoe 1709 Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism 1712 Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock 1733 Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man 1743 Alexander Pope's The Dunciad 1749 Samuel Johnson's The Vanity of Human Wishes The Romantic Era The Romantic Movement brought a sea change in to the world of art, poetry, literature and other creative endeavors. The writers and artists of the Romantic Movement created work that celebrated nature, individuality and (one might suggest) heresy. Emotion, imagination, and independent thinking are three elements commonly found in Romanticism. 1712 Birth of the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, who believed in the value of the individual and his/her capacity for good. 1716 Birth of the English poet Thomas Gray. 1750 Rousseau becomes famous for his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences. 1751 Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard" is one of the

greatest poems in the English language: it validates the value of Everyman, a major Romantic theme. 1752 Birth of the English poet Thomas Chatterton, called the "marvellous boy" by William Wordsworth. Wordsworth named Chatterton one of his primary influences even though he died at age seventeen. 1755 Rousseau has a significant article on political economy published in Diderot's landmark Encyclopdie. 1757 Birth of the English poet William Blake, perhaps the greatest of the English Romantic poets; Edmund Burke's Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful 1759 Birth of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, generally considered to be the greatest Scottish poet of all time; Christopher Smart's "Jubilate Agno" 1760 The beginning of the Industrial Revolution, a significant influence on the artists and writers of the Romantic Movement. 1761 Rousseau's novel Julie, or the New Heloise is published. It contains rhapsodic descriptions of nature and becomes an immense success. 1762 Rousseau's Emile, or on Education is published. Because it denies original sin and divine revelation, both Catholic and Protestant authorities take offense. 1770 Birth of the English poet William Wordsworth; Oliver Goldsmith's "The Deserted Village" is published; death by suicide of Thomas Chatterton, the "marvellous boy," at age seventeen. 1772 Birth of the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 1773 Phyllis Wheatley's Poems is the first book of poetry by an AfroAmerican slave.

1774 Birth of the English poet Robert Southey; William Cowper's "Lines Written During a Period of Insanity" is written. 1778 Rousseau dies. 1782 Rousseau's Confessions is published posthumously. 1783 Blake's Poetical Sketches. 1786 Robert Burns has the poems "To a Mouse," "A Winter Night" and "To a Mountain Daisy" published. 1787 The poem "An Evening Walk" by William Wordsworth is published. 1788 Birth of the English poet George Gordon, Lord Byron. 1789 Start of the French Revolution. The upheavals in France greatly influenced the artists and writers of the Romantic Movement. William Blake's Songs of Innocence is published; the poems include "The Lamb," "Holy Thursday" and "The Little Black Boy." 1792 Birth of the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. 1793 Birth of the English poet John Clare. 1794 Blake's Songs of Experience is published; the poems include "The Sick Rose," "London" and "The Tyger." 1795 Birth of the English poet John Keats. 1796 Robert Burns dies. 1797 Robert Southey's poem "Winter" is published. 1797 Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is born in England; Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan.

1798 Lyrical Ballads, written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, is published. This poetry collection becomes the foundational text of the Romantic Movement. 1805 Sir Walter Scott's The Lay of the Last Minstrel. 1807 Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies. 1814 Oxford University expels Percy Bysshe Shelley for writing a tract on the necessity of atheism. 1814 Lord Byron's poem "She Walks in Beauty (Like the Night)" is published. 1814 Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin marries Percy Bysshe Shelley. 1816 Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's "Christabel." 1817 William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis" 1818 The poem "Endymion" by John Keats is published. 1818 The novel Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is published. It is a landmark Gothic/Romantic work. 1819 John Keats publishes his famous poems "Ode to a Grecian Urn" and "Ode to a Nightingale." 1819 "Don Juan" by Lord Byron is published. 1820 Percy Bysshe Shelley's poems "To a Skylark," "Ode to the West Wind" and "Prometheus Unbound" are published. 1821 John Keats dies at age twenty-five.

1822 Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns in a boating accident at age thirty. 1824 Lord Byron dies at age thirty-six, due to complications related to a fever. 1827 Edgar Allan Poe's Tamarlane and Other Poems. 1830 Alfred, Lord Tennyson publishes "The Kraken" and other lyrical poems. 1832 John Clare's poem "Remembrances" is published. 1835 John Clare's poem "Evening" is published. The Victorian Era 1837 Queen Victoria takes the throne of the United Kingdom, heralding the decline Romanticism and the rise of much more staid Victorianism. 1839 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Voices of the Night. 1842 Robert Browning's Dramatic Lyrics, including "My Last Duchess." 1846 Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning are married: poetry's first "super couple." Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte and Anne Bronte publish a joint collection of poems. 1847 Tennyson publishes "Tears, Idle Tears." Longfellow publishes "Evangeline." 1850 Tennyson publishes "In Memoriam" and is made Poet Laureate. 1854 Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade." Early Modernism

1861 The Confederates attack Fort Sumter, starting the Civil War. 1862 Emily Dickinson's "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" is published; hers is one of the first voices of modernism. 1865 Walt Whitman publishes his elegy for Abraham Lincoln, "When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd." His was another uniquely modern voice. 1867 Matthew Arnold's magnificent "Dover Beach," one of the first great poems of modernism. 1871 Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. 1881 Oscar Wilde's poems are published; he and Whitman were among the first gay poets to "come out" publicly. 1884 Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn takes a strong stand against racism and slavery. Huck says he would rather go to hell then turn in his friend Jim, the escaped slave. 1889 William Butler Yeats publishes The Wanderings of Oisin. He would become a leading poet of modernism. 1890 Emily Dickinson's poems are published posthumously. 1896 A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad. Gay and an atheist, Housman was one of the strongest voices of early modernism. 1898 Thomas Hardy's Wessex Poems. Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol. 1899 Ernest Dowson's Decorations: in Verse and Prose. Dowson would be a major influence on T. S. Eliot, and thus on modernism. Modernism

1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright fly the first airplane. 1905 Albert Einstein reveals his Special Theory of Relativity. 1907 James Joyce's Chamber Music. 1908 Ezra Pound's A Lume Spento. 1910 "Memphis Blues" composed. 1912 Harriet Munroe founds the literary journal Poetry, is influenced by Pound. The Titanic sinks. 1913 D. H. Lawrence's Love Poems. 1915 T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." 1917 The U.S. enters World War I, begins to dominate international affairs. 1918 Wilfred Owen writes his graphic anti-war poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est." He dies just before the armistice. 1920 Women's suffrage adopted in the U.S. 1922 T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland." 1923 Wallace Stevens's Harmonium. Yeats wins the Nobel Prize for Literature. 1924 Robert Frost wins the Pulitzer Prize. 1925 E. E. Cummings receives the Dial Award. 1926 Langston Hughes' The Weary Blues.

1928 Edward Arlington Robinson wins the Pulitzer Prize. 1930 Hart Crane's The Bridge. 1934 Adolf Hitler becomes dictator of Germany. The HyperTexts