RESTORATION & NEOCLASSICAL LITERATURE 1660-1790 RESTORATION & NEOCLASSICAL POETRY 1. Age of nonfiction: Essays, journalism, scientific, political, legal, and scholarly work. 1. Drama: marked decline in artistry from the Renaissance, but still a popular entertainment. Rarely produced today. 1. Fiction: early novels: Adventure novels (Robinson Crusoe), Political Satire (Gulliver’s Travels), and the Picaresque: a novel focusing on episodes in the life of a lovable scoundrel hero. 1. Lasting literary legacy: POETRY RESTORATION & NEOCLASSICAL POETRY 1. Focus & subjects: public commentary, politics, philosophy, science 1. Tone: elevated, serious, high-minded, philosophical, grand, intellectual 1. Style: highly structured, imitated Greek and Roman classics 1. What to remember? THE HEROIC COUPLET RHYMING COUPLET A rhyming couplet is two rhyming lines of poetry that are right next to each other. The lines both rhyme and make up a complete thought or sentence. Their thematic or syntactical connection is just as significant as their physical closeness and rhyme: Rhyming couplets have been popular in English language poetry since the Renaissance. Here are two examples from Shakespeare: Good night, good night. Parting is such sweet sorrow That I shall say good night till it be morrow. Did my heart love till now? Foreswear it, sight. For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night. RHYMING COUPLET Rhyming couplets can serve the meaning of a poem or verse in many possible ways: emphasize a point, conclude a long stanza or monologue, summarize important ideas in longer poems, establish tone, rhythm, meter, etc. But Restoration and Neoclassical poets took rhyming couplets to the extreme with their devotion to the HEROIC COUPLET. HEROIC COUPLET What is a Heroic Couplet? A long poem Based on Latin poetry from Rome’s classical era Made entirely of successive rhyming couplets Lines are composed in iambic pentameter (10 syllables each) Most lines act as a complete grammatical clause (end stopped) Purpose and subjects: return to classical Greek and Roman ideals, public discourse, political commentary, moral education, ◈ Tone: intellectual, objective, rational, didactic, measured, aristocratic ◈ Literary Devices: classical allusions, foreign language words, difficult metaphor, elevated diction, and others ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ HEROIC COUPLET What is a Heroic Couplet? A long poem Based on Latin poetry from Rome’s classical era Made entirely of successive rhyming couplets Lines are composed in iambic pentameter (10 syllables each) Most lines act as a complete grammatical clause (end stopped) Purpose and subjects: return to classical Greek and Roman ideals, public discourse, political commentary, moral education, ◈ Tone: intellectual, objective, rational, didactic, measured, aristocratic ◈ Literary Devices: classical allusions, foreign language words, difficult metaphor, elevated diction, and others ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ Picaresque A genre of prose fiction that depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrupt society. Picaresque novels typically adopt a realistic style, with heavy elements of comedy and satire. First popularized in English in the Neoclassical period. Henry Fielding’s novels: The History of Tom Jones Laurence Sterne’s Novels: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy Tobias Smollett’s Novels: The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
