Poetry groups and movements or schools may be self-identified by the poets that

form them or defined by critics who see unifying characteristics of a body of wo

rk by more than one poet. To be a 'school' a group of poets must share a common
style or a common ethos. A commonality of form is not in itself sufficient to de
fine a school; for example, Edward Lear, George du Maurier and Ogden Nash do not
form a school simply because they all wrote limericks.
There are many different 'schools' of poetry. Some of them are described below i
n approximate chronological sequence. The subheadings indicate broadly the centu
ry in which a style arose.
Contents [hide]
1
Prehistoric
2
Sixteenth century
3
Seventeenth century
4
Eighteenth century
5
Nineteenth century
6
Twentieth century
7
Alphabetic list
8
References
Prehistoric[edit]
The Oral tradition is too broad to be a strict school but it is a useful groupin
g of works whose origins either predate writing, or belong to cultures without w
riting.
Sixteenth century[edit]
The Castalian Band.
Seventeenth century[edit]
The Metaphysical poets
The Cavalier poets
The Danrin school
Eighteenth century[edit]
Classical poetry echoes the forms and values of classical antiquity. Favouring f
ormal, restrained forms, it has recurred in various Neoclassical schools since t
he eighteenth century Augustan poets such as Alexander Pope.
Nineteenth century[edit]
Pastoralism was originally a Hellenistic form, that romanticized rural subjects
to the point of unreality. Later pastoral poets like William Wordsworth, were in
spired by the classical pastoral poets such as Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlo
we.
The Parnassians were a group of late 19th-century French poets, named after thei
r journal, the Parnasse contemporain. They included Charles Leconte de Lisle, Tho
dore de Banville, Sully-Prudhomme, Paul Verlaine, Franois Coppe, and Jos Mara de Her
edia. In reaction to the looser forms of romantic poetry, they strove for exact
and faultless workmanship, selecting exotic and classical subjects, which they t
reated with rigidity of form and emotional detachment.
Romanticism started in late 18th century Western Europe, but existed largely wit
hin the nineteenth. Wordsworth's and Coleridge's 1798 publication of Lyrical Bal
lads is considered by some as the first important publication in the movement. R
omanticism stressed strong emotion, imagination, freedom within or even from cla
ssical notions of form in art, and the rejection of established social conventio
ns. It stressed the importance of "nature" in language and celebrated the achiev
ements of those perceived as heroic individuals and artists. Romantic poets incl

ude William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Perc
y Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats (those previous six sometimes referred to as th
e Big Six, or the Big Five without Blake); other Romantic poets include James Ma
cpherson, Robert Southey, and Emily Bront.
Symbolism started in the late nineteenth century in France and Belgium. It inclu
ded Paul Verlaine, Tristan Corbire, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stphane Mallarm. Symbolists
believed that art should aim to capture more absolute truths which could be acc
essed only by indirect methods. They used extensive metaphor, endowing particula
r images or objects with symbolic meaning. They were hostile to "plain meanings,
declamations, false sentimentality and matter-of-fact description".
Modernist poetry is a broad term for poetry written between 1890 and 1970 in the
tradition of Modernism. Schools within it include Imagism and the British Poetr
y Revival.
The Fireside Poets (also known as the Schoolroom or Household Poets) were a grou
p of 19th-century American poets from New England. The group is usually describe
d as comprising Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenlea
f Whittier, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr..
Twentieth century[edit]
The Imagists were (predominantly young) poets working in England and America in
the early 20th century, including F. S. Flint, T. E. Hulme, Richard Aldington an
d Hilda Doolittle (known primarily by her initials, H.D.). They rejected Romanti
c and Victorian conventions, favoring precise imagery and clear, non-elevated la
nguage. Ezra Pound formulated and promoted many precepts and ideas of Imagism. H
is "In a Station of the Metro" (Roberts & Jacobs, 717), written in 1916, is ofte
n used as an example of Imagist poetry:
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
The Objectivists were a loose-knit group of second-generation Modernists from th
e 1930s. They include Louis Zukofsky, Lorine Niedecker, Charles Reznikoff, Georg
e Oppen, Carl Rakosi, and Basil Bunting. Objectivists treated the poem as an obj
ect; they emphasised sincerity, intelligence, and the clarity of the poet's visi
on.
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement in the 1920s involving many Afric
an-American writers from the New York Neighbourhood of Harlem.
The Beat generation poets met in New York in the 1940s. The core group were Jack
Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, who were joined later by Gre
gory Corso.
The Confessionalists were American poets that emerged in the 1950s. They drew on
personal history for their artistic inspiration. Poets in this group include Sy
lvia Plath, Anne Sexton, John Berryman, and Robert Lowell.
The New York School was an informal group of poets active in 1950s New York City
whose work was said to be a reaction to the Confessionalists. Some major figure
s include John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, Kenneth Koch, Barbara Gues
t, Joe Brainard, Ron Padgett, Ted Berrigan and Bill Berkson.
The Black Mountain poets (also known as the Projectivists) were a group of mid 2
0th century postmodern poets associated with Black Mountain College in the Unite
d States.
The San Francisco Renaissance was initiated by Kenneth Rexroth and Madeline Glea
son in Berkeley in the late 1940s. It included Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer, and R

obin Blaser. They were consciously experimental and had close links to the Black
Mountain and Beat poets.
The Movement was a group of English writers including Kingsley Amis, Philip Lark
in, Donald Alfred Davie, D. J. Enright, John Wain, Elizabeth Jennings and Robert
Conquest. Their tone is anti-romantic and rational. The connection between the
poets was described as "little more than a negative determination to avoid bad p
rinciples."
The British Poetry Revival was a loose movement during the 1960s and 1970s. It w
as a Modernist reaction to the conservative Movement.
The Hungry generation was a group of about 40 poets in West Bengal, India during
1961 1965 who revolted against the colonial canons in Bengali poetry and wanted t
o go back to their roots. The movement was spearheaded by Shakti Chattopadhyay,
Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roychoudhury, and Subimal Basak.
The Martian poets were English poets of the 1970s and early 1980s, including Cra
ig Raine and Christopher Reid. Through the heavy use of curious, exotic, and hum
orous metaphors, Martian poetry aimed to break the grip of "the familiar" in Eng
lish poetry, by describing ordinary things as if through the eyes of a Martian.
The Language poets were avant garde poets from the last quarter of the 20th cent
ury. Their approach started with the modernist emphasis on method. They were rea
cting to the poetry of the Black Mountain and Beat poets. The poets included: Le
slie Scalapino, Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, Ron Silliman, Barrett Watten,
Lyn Hejinian, Bob Perelman, Rae Armantrout, Carla Harryman, Clark Coolidge, Hann
ah Weiner, Susan Howe, and Tina Darragh.
The Misty Poets are a group of Chinese poets whose style is defined by the obscu
rity of its imagery and metaphors. The movement was born after the Cultural Revo
lution. Leading members include Bei Dao, Gu Cheng, Duo Duo, and Yang Lian.
The New Formalism is a late-twentieth and early twenty-first century movement in
American poetry that promotes a return to metrical and rhymed verse. Rather tha
n looking to the Confessionalists, they look to Robert Frost, Richard Wilbur, Ja
mes Merrill, Anthony Hecht, and Donald Justice for poetic influence. These poets
are associated with the West Chester University Poetry Conference, and with lit
erary journals like The New Criterion and The Hudson Review. Associated poets in
clude Dana Gioia, Timothy Steele, Mark Jarman, Rachel Hadas, R. S. Gwynn, Charle
s Martin, Phillis Levin, Kay Ryan, Brad Leithauser.
Alphabetic list[edit]
This is a list of poetry groups and movements.
Absurdism
Aestheticism
Black Arts Movement
Cairo poets
Chhayavaad
Classical Chinese poetry
Crescent Moon Society
Cyclic Poets
Dadaism
Danrin school
Deep image
Della Cruscans
Dymock poets
Fugitives (poets)
Generation of '27

Georgian poets
Goliard
Graveyard poets
The Group (literature)
Harlem Renaissance
Harvard Aesthetes
Heptanese School (literature)
Lake Poets
La Pliade
Los Contemporneos
Misty Poets
Modern Chinese poetry
Ngritude
Neotericism
Net-poetry
New Apocalyptics
Nijo poetic school
Others (art group)
Oulipo
Poetic transrealism
Rhymers' Club
Rochester Poets
Scottish Renaissance
Sicilian School
Poetry Slam
Sons of Ben
Southern Agrarians
Spasmodic poets
Spectrism
Surrealist poets
The poets of Elan
Uranian poetry
Vitalist poetry