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 includeCaedmon's Hymn, Bede'sDeath Song , Wulf and EadwacerandBeowulf.

499 Anglo-Saxons invade England

537 Battle of Camlan; possible death of King Arthur

658Caedmon'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 ofBeowulf

700 Cynewulf pens four Anglo-Saxon poems:Christ II,Elene,The Fates of the ApostlesandJuliana;runic extracts fromThe Dream of the Roodare carved on the Ruthwell Cross

735 Bede'sDeath Song

800 Cynewulf writes and signs four Anglo-Saxon poems:Christ II,Elene,The Fates of the ApostlesandJuliana

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 asDeor'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 theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle

950 Four early poetry manuscripts:Junius,theVercelli Book, theExeter BookandBeowulf;possible first extant English poem written by a woman isWulf and Eadwacer;another such contender isThe Wife's Lament;other notable poems includeThe Seafarer, The Wanderer, The Husband's Message, The Phoenix, WidsithandThe 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 theDomesday 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 writesBrut, a 32,000-line poem

1154 Henry II reigns

1155 Wace's Anglo-NormanRoman de Brut

1160 Walter Map, Anglo-Latin poet, is writing poems; Thomas of Britain's Anglo-NormanTristan

1162 Henry II has Thomas a Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury, assassinated

1172 Wace's Anglo-NormanRoman de Rou

1189 Richard I, akaRichard 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 TheMagna 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 writesRoman de la Rose

1250 Nicholas of Guildford writesThe 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 extendsRoman 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 romancesGuy of WarwickandBevis 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'sDivina Commedia("Divine Comedy")

1314 Robert Bruce defeats Edward II; lyricsAlysounandLenten 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'sDecameron

1352 WynnereandWastoure

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'sThe Book of the Duchessmemorializes 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'sMirour de l'OmmeorSpeculum Meditantis

1377 Richard III reigns; William Langland'sPiers Plowman

1380 Works of the so-called Gawain poet, includingPearl, Patience, CleannessandSir 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'sTroilus and Criseyde

1382 Richard III promises to repeal the poll taxes, but returning rebels are executed; John Wycliffe translates theBibleinto English

1387 Chaucer'sCanterbury 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 alliterativeMorte Arthure("Death of Arthur"); the death of Chaucer leavesCanterbury Talesunfinished

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, writesThe Kingis Quair

1412 John Lydgate'sTroy 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'sThe Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, a translation of Guillaume de Deguileville'sPleringe

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'sCanterbury 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'sThe Thrissill and the RoisandSweet Rose of Virtue

1507 William Dunbar'sThe Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis, The Goldyn Targe,Lament for the MakarisandThe 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 theFidei Defensoror Defender of the Faith, in honor of Henry's bookDefense 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 theBibleby 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 poemsWhoso List to HuntandThey Flee from Mearound this time

1537 Jane Seymour dies giving birth to Prince Edward (later Edward VI); Henry Howard develops blank verse in his translation of theAeneid

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 FoxesThe 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'sThe 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'sShepheardes Calender;Sir Philip Sidney'sOld ArcadiaandDefence of PoetryorAn 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 writesEssays 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 asTichborne'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'sRomeo and JulietandA Midsummer Night's Dream;Edmund Spencer'sThe Faerie Queene

1591 Sir Philip Sidney'sAstrophel and Stella

1591 John Donne is writing satires, elegies, songs and sonnets

1593 Shakespeare'sVenus and Adonis;the poet/playwrightChristopher 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'sEssays;John Dowland'sThe First Booke of Songes or Ayres

1597 George Chapman's translation of Homer'sIlliad

1598 Shakespeare acts in Ben Jonson's playSejanus

1599 The Globe Theater opens for business in London; Christopher Marlowe'sThe Passionate Shepherd to his Loveis answered by Sir Walter Raleigh'sThe Nymph's Reply

1600 The East India Company is founded; Thomas Nashe's poemA Litany in the Time of Plague

1601 The first performance of Shakespeare'sHamlet; Thomas Campion's poemsMy Sweetest LesbiaandWhen 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'sSong,The Sunne RisingandThe Cannonizationare written around this time, are published two years after his death, in 1633

1608 Birth of the English poet John Milton; Donne writes hisHoly Sonnets

1609 Shakespeare completes hisSonnets

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 TheKing James Bibleis 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'sHenry VIII

1616 Death of William Shakespeare; Ben Jonson'sWorksincludingOn My First SonandSong: To Celia; George Chapman's translation of Homer'sIliadandOdyssey

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 poemThe Liewhile 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 Plymouthcolony

1628 Ann Dudley marries, becoming Anne Bradstreet, then sails to America in 1630

1633 George Herbert'sRedemption, Virtue, The Collar, The Pulley, The Temple

1638 Sir John Suckling'sSong: Why so pale and wan, fond lover?

1640 Thomas Carew'sA Song, To My Inconstant Mistress

1645 Edmund Waller'sSong: Go, Lovely Rose; On a Girdle

1646 Richard Crashaw'sOn the Baptized Ethiopian(one of the first English language poems to express the idea of racial equality)

1648 Robert Herrick'sDelight in Disorder; To Daffodils; Upon Julia's Clothes; To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

1649 Richard Lovelace'sTo Lucasta, Going to the Wars; To Althea, from Prison; To Amaratha, That She Would Dishevel Her Hair

1650 Anne Bradstreet'sThe Vanity of All Worldly Things(perhaps the first notable poem by an American poet); her bookThe Tenth Museis the first poetry collection published by an English woman

1655 Henry Vaughan'sRegeneration, The Retreat

1659 James Shirley'sThe Glories of Our Blood and State;Sir John Suckling'sOut 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'sL'Allegro, Il Penseroso, On Shakespeare, How Soon Hath Time

1660 John Miltonbriefly jailed after copies of his books were burned by the public executioner; he was pardoned in December

1667 John Milton'sParadise Lostis published

1671 John Milton'sParadise Regainedis published

1673 John Milton'sMethought 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'sTo His Coy Mistress

1682 John Dryden'sMac Flecknoe

1709 Alexander Pope'sAn Essay on Criticism

1712 Alexander Pope'sThe Rape of the Lock

1733 Alexander Pope'sAn Essay on Man

1743 Alexander Pope'sThe Dunciad

1749 Samuel Johnson'sThe 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 hisDiscourse 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 inDiderot's landmarkEncyclopdie.

1757 Birth of the English poet William Blake, perhaps the greatest of the English Romantic poets; Edmund Burke'sPhilosophical 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 novelJulie, or the New Heloiseis published. It contains rhapsodic descriptions of nature and becomes an immense success.

1762 Rousseau'sEmile, or on Educationis 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'sPoemsis the first book of poetry by an Afro-American 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'sConfessionsis published posthumously.

1783 Blake'sPoetical 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'sSongs of Innocenceis 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'sSongs of Experienceis 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 writesThe Rime of the Ancient MarinerandKubla 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'sThe Lay of the Last Minstrel.

1807 Thomas Moore'sIrish 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 Keatsis published.

1818 The novelFrankensteinby 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'sTamarlane 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'sVoices of the Night.

1842 Robert Browning'sDramatic 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'sThrough 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'sHuckleberry Finntakes 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 publishesThe Wanderings of Oisin.He would become a leading poet of modernism.

1890 Emily Dickinson's poems are published posthumously.

1896 A. E. Housman'sA Shropshire Lad. Gay and an atheist, Housman was one of the strongest voices of early modernism.

1898 Thomas Hardy'sWessex Poems. Oscar Wilde'sThe Ballad of Reading Gaol.

1899 Ernest Dowson'sDecorations: 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'sChamber Music.

1908 Ezra Pound'sA Lume Spento.

1910 "Memphis Blues" composed.

1912 Harriet Munroe founds the literary journalPoetry, is influenced by Pound. The Titanic sinks.

1913 D. H. Lawrence'sLove 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'sHarmonium. 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'sThe Bridge.

1934 Adolf Hitler becomes dictator of Germany.

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