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UNIT 2 18^TH CENTURY CLASSICISM IN ENGLAND

only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty, which, as an ancient interpreter of Plato teaches us, come from images created by the mind alone”.

In English, the term “Neoclassicism” is used primarily of the visual arts: the similar movement in English literature which began considerably earlier is called Augustan literature, which had been dominant for several decades, and was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the virtual arts became fashionable.

3.2 Features of English Neoclassicism

The Restoration period clashed with the Neoclassical period in England. The poets of the Restoration and eighteenth century saw the poetry of the early seventeenth century as excessive, even unrefined. They associated the intensity of the tropes in metaphysical poetry with political and epistemological instability. Although the eighteenth century poets valued sociability, the „spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling‟ that for Wordsworth defined good poetry would no doubt have struck eighteenth poets as unnecessarily impulsive. Between these two periods and the styles associated with them, the poets of the eighteenth century aimed for a balance. Formally, this balance was best achieved in the work of Alexander Pope as we shall see. Stylistically, Restoration and eighteenth-century poetry was dominated by the heroic couplet. This form features pairs or couplets of iambic pentameter lines. That is, each line is composed of ten syllables arranged into five groups or „feet‟ of unstressed and stressed syllables; both line sin the pair and with the same sound. Each line, then, can represent a kind of balance within itself.

Moreover, the prevalence of this pattern also created an expectation in readers, an expectation against which the poet could play unexpected rhythms and rhymes.

The topicality of Restoration poetry, which today makes the poetry seem inaccessible, represents its own kind of balance – an attempt to counter-balance the political pull of power contemporaries.

3.3 Poetry in Neoclassical England

Over the course of the Restoration and eighteenth century, poetry became increasingly balanced. Poetry was dominated by two poets during this period: John Dryden in the Restoration and Alexander Pope through at least the first third of the eighteenth century. Both of them, though, were engaged with the precedent and influence of John Milton (1608-74). For several reasons, Milton is not usually thought of as a Restoration poet, but as his most important poems were all published after 1660 he certainly fits in any consideration of Restoration literature.

Because the bulk of his public career spans the English Civil Wars of the 1640s and the Interregnum of the 1650s, Milton is treated, understandably, as a writer from a generation before that of the Restoration authors. In that sense of the Restoration, Milton is not a Restoration poet.

Poetry during the Restoration period in England employed the use of satire. The satire was highly political and social. Political satire is mostly associated with John Dryden while the social satire belongs to Alexander Pope. One thing is important, poetry was written with Neoclassical features. Various rules were followed and this made poetry somehow jerky. Moreover, poetry was used for both political and social commentary – for instance, Dryden sided with successive monarchs. Dryden‟s “Absalom and Achitophel” and Macflecknoe” reflect the topical issues of the period.

Like Dryden, Alexander Pope could certainly write satirical poetry. In its focus on dullness, Pope‟s Dunciad for instance, owes a debt to Dryden‟s “MacFlecknoe”.

However, Pope‟s “essays” such as “An Essay on Criticism” (1711) and “An Essay on Man” (1733-4) also mark an important shift away from the often topical poetry of the Restoration and towards the general and universal claims associated with the enlightenment.

Self Assessment Exercise

What is difference between political satire and social satire?

4.0 CONCLUSION

The eighteenth century classicism in England went along with the Restoration.

Like it has been discussed, the most popular poets around this time were John Dryden and Alexander Pope whose poetry turned around England during the eighteenth century. Both poets had thrived on the use of satire to elucidate most topical issues of the period. Poetry then followed the style of former Greek and Roman epics.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this poem, we have been able to tell you the nature of poetry during the Neoclassical period in England. We reviewed the works of Milton, Dryden and Pope. We said that Milton will not be adjudged a Restoration poet because of the period in which he wrote. We also informed you that thriving device used during this period was satire.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

Comment on English Neoclassicism in relation to the Restoration period.

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

Gontar, C. (2000). “Neoclassicism”. Heibrunn timeline of art history. New York:

The Metropolitan Museum of Arts.

Fritz, N. (1980). Painting and sculpture in Europe, 178- - 1880. 2^nd edition.

Ford, B. (1992). Eighteenth-century Britain: The Cambridge Cultural History.

New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hoskins, W.G. (1970). The Making of the English Landscape. Baltimore:

Pengium.

Jones, S. (1985). The Eighteenth Century: Cambridge Introduction to the History of Art. Cambridge University Press.

Clarke, J.C.D. (2000). English Society, 1660 – 1832: Religion, Ideology and Politics during the Ancient Regime. Cambridge University Press.

Porter, R. (1995). London: A Social History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

UNIT 3 JOHN DRYDEN‟S POETRY