English literature Facts for Kids

Selected English-language writers: (left to right, top to bottom) Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie.

English literature means all the amazing stories, poems, and plays written in the English language. It includes works from England, but also from many other countries around the world where English is spoken.

English literature started a very long time ago, with stories and poems written in what's called Old English. One of the most famous is an epic poem called Beowulf. This poem was written between the 8th and 11th centuries. It's hard for us to understand today, but many people have translated it into modern English. Even though it's set in Scandinavia (Northern Europe), it's the most famous Old English story. The poem doesn't rhyme, but it uses alliteration (where words close together start with the same sound).

Middle English and Early Modern English
- William Shakespeare
- Other Important Works
The Rise of Novels and Modern Writers
English Literature Around the World
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Middle English and Early Modern English

Later, a very important poet named Geoffrey Chaucer (who lived from about 1343 to 1400) wrote in Middle English. His most famous work is The Canterbury Tales. This book tells the stories of different people traveling together on a pilgrimage. Chaucer also helped introduce rhyme royal into English poetry. This is a special way of writing poetry with seven lines that follow a specific rhyming pattern.

Modern English literature began in the 16th century. Poets like Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey wrote the first English sonnets. A sonnet is a poem with 14 lines. Henry Howard also invented blank verse, which is poetry that doesn't rhyme but still has a rhythm. Edmund Spenser wrote a long epic poem called The Faerie Queene. Philip Sidney wrote a series of sonnets called Astrophel and Stella.

The time from about 1470 to 1650 is sometimes called Early Modern English. This period saw many famous writers. These included playwrights like Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and, of course, William Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is one of the most famous writers in the English language. He wrote many plays and poems. One of his most famous lines is from his play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: To be, or not to be, that is the question:. This play was first published in 1603.

Other Important Works

In 1611, the King James Version of the Bible was published. This version of the Bible had a big impact on the English language. Later, John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, which became one of the most popular books ever published.

The Rise of Novels and Modern Writers

In the 18th century, the first modern novels began to appear. Writers like Daniel Defoe (who wrote Robinson Crusoe), Jonathan Swift (who wrote Gulliver's Travels), Laurence Sterne, and Horace Walpole helped create this new way of telling long stories.

Many important English writers have shaped literature in more recent times. These include poets like William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Robert Browning, and Ted Hughes. Famous novelists include Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf.

T. S. Eliot was a very important poet in the 20th century. His best-known poem is The Waste Land, published in 1922. He also wrote The Four Quarters, which he thought was his best work.

English Literature Around the World

Not all English literature is written by people born in England. Because of the British Empire, the English language spread all over the world starting in the 17th century. This means that English literature includes writers from many different backgrounds and countries.

For example, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, and Dylan Thomas was Welsh. Edgar Allan Poe was American, Hilaire Belloc was French, and Emma Lazarus was Jewish. More recently, Salman Rushdie is Indian, V. S. Naipaul was Trinidadian, and Vladimir Nabokov was Russian. Even the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote some poems in English!

This shows that English literature is a huge and diverse collection of writings. It includes all the different ways English is spoken and written around the world.