This aesthetic trend, equally associated with painting, arose in France during the latter half of the 19th century. Literary realism is characterized by the desire to describe everyday reality such as it is, in a meticulous way and without trying to embellish it. This movement expressed itself almost exclusively through the novel, unlike [Read more]

This literary movement, which spread to all of the western world, was particularly important in France. Announced at the end of the Enlightenment by Rousseau, Mme de Staël and Chateaubriand, romanticism commenced in 1820 with the publication of Lamartine's "Meditations".

The characteristics of romanticism are the importance [Read more]

The terms "trouvère" and "troubadour" in reality are equivalent. They were both lyric poets who plied their trade in France during the Middle Ages. The only thing that differentiated them was their respective languages.

The first spoke "Langue d'Oïl", the set of dialects used in northern France [Read more]

A cloud of mystery surrounds the existence of Homer, the celebrated Greek poet. He is attributed with the paternity of the two oldest poetic works which have journeyed through time to us, namely "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey".

Homer lived during the 8th century BC. Legend has it that he was blind and recited his poetry [Read more]

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate.Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date.Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;And every fair from fair some time declines,By chance, or nature's changing course, [Read more]

BalladPoem used in the Middle Ages, often accompanied by music and comprising three stanzas, the last of which is shorter.

RondeauA poem of fixed form containing two rhymes and repeated verses, notably employed between 13th and 16th centuries. Initially, a rondeau was a song intended for dancing.

SonnetThis type of poetry appeared [Read more]