Chapter 2: Movements in

Poetry
Asyraf Syahir Mohd Najib
Overview
• Renaissance
• Romanticism
• Realism
• Modernism
• Confessionalism
• Postmodernism
Renaissance
Renaissance: Historical Background
• The Renaissance (French for Rebirth)was a period of European
cultural, artistic, political and economic “rebirth” following the Middle
Ages.
• The Renaissance promoted the rediscovery of classical philosophy,
literature, and art.
• It centres around the ideas of Humanism (a philosophy that emphasized
the ability for humans to act, rather than simply reliance on the will of
God)
• Renaissance paves way to less blind subservience to the Catholic
Church and more to the possibilities inherent in the human mind. 
• Renaissance art combined influences of increased awareness of nature,
a revival of classical learning, and a more individualistic view of man.
• The world was viewed from an anthropocentric perspective.
Characteristics of Poetry during the
Renaissance Era
• Poetic forms most commonly employed during this period were the
lyric, tragedy, elegy or pastoral.
• Poetry were highly structural; relying on traditional poetic forms. It
emphasizes rhythm through the focus on rhymes and meters (especially
iambic pentameter)
• Poetry uses aristocratic tone (unconcerned with the working people).
• Poetry (like other art forms) adopts a humanistic approach.
• Poetry, while employing intensity of feelings, were thought to be filled
with logic and reason.
• A great deal of Renaissance poetry is inspired by love or passion, with
many poets dedicating works to their love interests.
• Kings and queens hired poets to tell their own family history, or to
entertain the court with songs and poems.
Notable poets during the Renaissance Era
• Francesco Petrarch
• William Shakespeare
• Edmund Spenser
• Christopher Marlowe
• John Milton
• Emilia Lanier
Romanticism
Romanticism: Historical Background
• Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that ran from
the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth century.
• Romanticism arose as a reaction against the excessive rationalism of
the Enlightenment.
• It stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience; placing
emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, and the awe
experienced in confronting the sublimity of nature
• Romanticism is characterized by the 5 I’s: individuality, imagination,
idealism, inspiration, intuition.
• Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational,
the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the
visionary, and the transcendental.
• The artist is regarded as a supremely individual creator, whose creative
spirit is more important than strict adherence to formal rules and
traditional procedures
Characteristics of Poetry during the
Romantic Era
• Romantic poets embraced imagination and naturalness.
• Romantic poetry glorifies nature.
• Heavily uses vivid sensory descriptions (imageries).
• Focuses on the supernatural and the occult.
• Emphasizes personal freedom.
Notable poets during the Romantic Era
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• William Wordsworth
• John Keats
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Lord Byron
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
Realism
Realism: Historical Background
• Realism, an artistic movement that began in France in the 1850s,
rejected Romanticism, seeking instead to portray contemporary subjects
and situations with truth and accuracy.
• It revolts against the exotic subject matter and exaggerated
emotionalism of Romanticism.
• Social realism emphasized the depiction of the working class and
treated working class people with the same seriousness as other classes
in art.
Characteristics of Poetry during the Realist Era
• Realist works depicted people of all classes in ordinary life situations,
which often reflected the changes brought on by the Industrial and
Commercial Revolutions.
• Realism also aimed to avoid artificiality in the treatment of human
relations and emotions; treatments of subjects in a heroic or sentimental
manner were rejected.
• It also focuses on the living idiom of talk and speech (living vernacular)
rather than a “literary” language. 
Notable Realist Poets
• Robert Frost
• Edgar Lee Masters
• Emily Dickinson
• Walt Whitman (transition from transcendentalism)
• George Eliot
Modernism
Modernism: Historical Background
• Modernism refers to a global movement in society and culture that
from the early decades of the twentieth century sought a new alignment
with the experience and values of modern industrial life.
• Modernism fostered a period of experimentation in the arts from the
late 19th to the mid-20th century, particularly in the years following
World War I.
• In an era characterized by industrialization, rapid social change, and
advances in science and the social sciences (e.g., Freudian theory),
Modernists felt a growing alienation incompatible with Victorian
morality, optimism, and convention. 
• Modernist writers broke with Romantic pieties and clichés (such as the
notion of the Sublime) and became self-consciously skeptical of
language and its claims on coherence.
Characteristics of Modern Poetry
• A rejection of history and conservative values (such as realistic
depiction of subjects)
• Innovation and experimentation with form (a tendency to opt for
abstraction).
• Focuses on individualism rather than the society; modernist writers
were fascinated with how the individual adapted to the changing world.
• Focuses on symbolism and absurdity.
Notable Modernist Poets
• Gertrude Stein
• Ezra Pound
• TS Elliot
• WH Auden
• William Butler Yeats
• Hart Crane
Confessionalism
Confessionalism: Background
• This style of writing emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s; dealing
with subject matter that previously had not been openly discussed in
American poetry (taboos).
• It is the poetry of the personal or the "I”; hence, the name confessional.
• It is usually autobiographical.
Characteristics of Confessionalist Poetry
• It deals with taboo and private subject matters; about death, trauma,
sexuality, depression and relationships.
• The confessional poets were not merely recording their emotions on
paper; craft and construction were extremely important to their work
(extensive use of figures of speech, symbols, and imageries). 
• They grounded their work in actual events, referred to real persons, and
refused any metaphorical transformation of intimate details into
universal symbols.
Notable Confessionalist Poets
• Sylvia Plath
• Anne Sexton
• Robert Lowell
• WD Snodgrass
• John Berryman
Postmodernism
Postmodernism: Background
• Defined variously as a reaction to modernism (and its values) or merely
the movement that followed it.
• It includes other 20th-century theoretical movements such
as poststructuralism and deconstruction; and mainly focuses on
discourse and the power of language in structuring thought and
experience.
• In essence, it stems from a recognition that reality is not simply
mirrored in human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed as the
mind tries to understand its own particular and personal
reality. Consequently, postmodernism is accused of relativism.
Characteristics of Postmodernist Poetry
• Focuses on iconoclasm.
• Focuses on artistic formlessness; breaking free from traditional or
classical artistic structure.
• Usually revolves around populism; and rejects elitism and
authoritarianism.
• Emphasizes on metafiction and fragmentation.
• Emphasizes self-reflexivity and hyperrealism.
• Heavy use of intertextuality (allusions).
Notable Postmodern Poets
• Charles Olson
• Robert Duncan
• Denise Riley
• Robert Creeley
• Allen Fisher
• E E Cummings
Contents taken from
• https://www.britannica.com/art/Renaissance-art
• https://www.thoughtco.com/renaissance-timeline-4158077
• https://www.history.com/topics/renaissance/renaissance
• https://www.britannica.com/event/Renaissance
• https://blog.ung.edu/press/poetry-and-drama-in-the-renaissance/
• https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/liter
ature-in-the-renaissance/
• https://www.infobloom.com/what-is-renaissance-poetry.htm
• https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/romanticism
• https://www.britannica.com/art/Romanticism
• https://examples.yourdictionary.com/10-key-characteristics-of-romantic
ism-in-literature.html
• https://www.britannica.com/art/Modernism-art
• https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/modernism
• https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/modernism
• https://penandthepad.com/themes-english-restoration-poetry-1856.html
• https://poets.org/text/brief-guide-confessional-poetry
• https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/151109/an-introduction-t
o-confessional-poetry
• http://www.textetc.com/modernist/postmodernism.html
• https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/postmodernism
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1991/04
/14/father-of-the-postmodernist-poets/d74974fd-3600-41c9-8253-5b05
cbff239d/
• https://literariness.org/2017/11/12/postmodern-british-poetry/