Chapter 7

English poets 1660 -1798

Dryden and his main works Who is Dryden ?

He is one of the famous writers of the 17th century.

Dryden’s poetry : Satire and translation. Written in rhymed couplets.

In his satire “Absalom and Achitophel” he uses a Bible story to attack politicians.

In another one he attacks a riveal poet “shadwell”

Dryden and his main works Dryden’s works :

He was able to write biting satire owing to his great command of the heroic couplet.

He also wrote some short poems. Best of them were /

The ode for “Saint Cecilia’s Day” and “Alexander’s Feast”

He also wrote some translations including : Satires of Juvenal, Virgil and parts of Horace and

Ovid. Homer and Theocritus.

Alexander Pope and his main works He wrote mainly in verse and used the couplet. His essay on criticism is considered one of the important

works of the time. It contains sayings often remembered as, “a little

learning is a dangerous thing” Pope also wrote a delightful poem “the rape of the lock” He also translated the Iliad and the Odyssey. He wrote an important poem “An Essay on Man”

Oliver Goldsmith and his main works

One of the important writers of the 18th century which is often called the Age of Reason.

He wrote two good poems : The Traveller The Deserted Village

Thomas Gray and his main works He is another great poet of the age.

His poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churehyard” is one of the most beautiful and famous English poems. It describes his thoughts when he looks at the graves and wonders what the buried people might have done if they had had better opportunities.

In his “Ode on a Distant prospect of Eton College” , in which he was a school boy” Grey thinks of the boys still at school and of their happiness and future troubles.