ENGLISH-AMERICAN LITERATURE MODULE 2

LESSON 1: LITERATURE IN THE PERIOD OF

ENLIGHTENMENT

Objectives:

 Identify the types of literature that rose during the Enlightenment

 Analyze a novel based on its plot overview.
 Write a sonnet.
 Identify the rhyme schemes of selected poems.

WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT?

The Enlightenment, sometimes referred as “Age of Reason”, was an age of unprecedented optimism in
the potential of knowledge and reason to understand and change the world (http://www.essential-
humanities.net/western-art/literature/enlightenment/). It could also be summarized as “the age in which humanism
reached its fully-developed form”. During the Enlightenment, secular subjects flourished like never before, as did
the application of critical thought to all knowledge. This historic and philosophical period obtained the
name “Enlightenment” because the philosophers of that time believed that education was capable of rapid
social progress.

Poetry

Poetry can be defined as follows:

 Poetry like a song is an expression of a feeling, an insight, and a discovery.

 Poetry is about life.
 Poetry is the language of the imagination, almost entirely figurative, and also a musical literary
language
 Poetry is a personal type of writing where words flow and carry you along the realms of
beautiful thought.
 Poetry is composed of three features: rhyme, figurative language, and sensory images or
imagery.
`
I. Rhyme is the repetition of similar or identical sounds at the end or middle of verses or lines in poetry.
It is a popular literary device in which the repetition of the same or similar sounds occurs in two or more
words, usually at the end of lines in poems or songs. (Source: literarydevices.com)

Rhyme Scheme - the regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem.

1
 In indicating the rhyme scheme of a poem, we use this system: lines that rhyme with each other
are given identical letters – all lines that rhyme with the first rhyming line are lettered a, with the
second rhyming line, b, and so on.

Example:

To see the world in a grain of sand A

And heaven in a wild flower, B
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand A
And eternity in an hour B
(William Blake)

Milton’s the prince of poets – so we say; A

A little heavy, but no less divine: B
An independent being in his day – A
Learned, pious, temperate in love and wine; B
But his life falling into Johnson’s way, A
We’re told this great high priest of all the Nine B
Was whipt at college – a harsh sire-odd spouse, C
For the first Mrs. Milton left his house C
(Lord Byron)

Poetry in the Enlightenment Period

John Milton, the foremost name in English literature after Shakespeare, was highly featured in England
during the late seventeenth century. While Shakespeare was the poet of impulse, of the loves, hates, fears, and
jealousies that rule humankind, Milton was the poet of steadfast will and purpose. He was chiefly concerned with
the soul. Milton represents the religious consciousness of the Puritans of England.

From childhood, Milton was unusually intelligent, making his father, a prosperous notary public,
take charge of the boy’s education. At the age of 12, he was already a scholar in spirit, unable to rest until
midnight because of the joy his studies gave him. . In 1655 at the age of 48, Milton became blind which
threatened his ability to write; thus, his relationship with God became complicated.

Two of his masterpieces are Paradise Lost and On His Blindness. Paradise Lost recounts Satan’s
engineering of the fall of humanity from the Garden of Eden. It is considered as the greatest epic poem in English,
and the greatest modern epic. Meanwhile, the poem On His Blindness was based on his life’s narrative. In the
poem On His Blindness, Milton expressed his struggles in understanding what God expects of him now that he is
losing his sight. However, he still believes that God expects him to use his talent for writing poetry in a way that
honors Him.

Source: www.study.com
 On His Blindness

When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent, which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask; but Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replied: “God doth not need
Either man’s work or His own gifts; who best Bear
His mild yoke, they serve Him best; His state Is
kingly; thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.”

On His Blindness is a sonnet, a type of lyric poetry that has a fixed form and consists of fourteen
(14) lines.

How to Write a Sonnet

 Choose an idea about your sonnet. It could be a feeling, like happiness, or being inlove. It could
be anything about a person, about music, about your favorite subject, etc.
 Your sonnet must rhyme in a specific pattern. It must be written in 3 sets of four lines (quatrain)
and 1 set of 2 lines. In the final 2 lines (couplet), use words whose rhyme has not been used in the
first three quatrains.
For example:
Sonnet 1 Sonnet 2 Sonnet 3
FIRST QUATRAIN ABAB ABBA AABB
dove dove dove
sing sing love
love ring sing
ring love ring
SECOND CDCD CDDC CCDD
QUATRAIN fear fear fear
sweet sweet hear
hear meat sweet
meat hear meat
THIRD QUATRAIN EFEF EFFE EEFF
make make make
go go fake
fake low go
low fake low
COUPLET GG GG GG
look look look
book book book
Rise of the Novel

Novels received unparalleled attention in modern times. The modern history of the novel can be divided
into two ages: the formative age of the novel, ca. 1500-1800; and the period ca. 1800-present, in which the novel
has thrived as the leading form of Western literature (essential-humanities.net). Jonathan Swift is probably the
most well-remembered among the novelists during the Enlightenment. He wrote the most widely familiar novel of
the formative age, “Gulliver’s Travels”. This novel could be considered as mere children’s literature and which
solely focuses on Gulliver’s narratives about the adventures that befall him on these travels. Based on the analysis
of the plot, each of the societies that Gulliver encounters has a metaphorical relation to the 18th century
in England. Swift’s sense of humor charmed his admirers and cemented his reputation in literary history.

Another novel which has numerous references to the age of Enlightenment is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel
Defoe. It was first published in London in 1719. This novel is about an Englishman from the town of York who
ignored his family’s advice and left his comfortable middle-class home in England to go to sea. In the
novel, Crusoe narrates his experiences in all his voyages including the time where he was trapped on an
uninhabited island after his ship crushed into oceanic waters. He also describes how he strives for his existence as
he combats hunger, thrust, cold and other disadvantages of living on an unknown land without social life
conditions.
 MIND CHALLENGE

I. Read and analyze the poem On His Blindness by John Milton and answer the following
questions.

1. What is the chief idea expressed in the poem?

2. In what different ways can we serve God?

3. Is being handicapped a blessing or a curse? Explain.

II. TRUE OR FALSE. Write True if the statement is true. If the statement is false, write False and
underline the word that makes the statement incorrect.

1. One of the figures who stood most prominently in English literature during the
Enlightenment was John Milton.
2. There are three features of poetry: rhyme, rhyme scheme, and figurative language.
3. “In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the ardour of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire
What the hand, dare seize the fire?”

The rhyme scheme in the stanza above is ABAB.

4. Gulliver’s Travels is considered children’s literature
5. Paradise Lost is a novel about a middle-class man who gets stranded to an uninhabited
island.
III. Read the plot overview of Robinson Crusoe in https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/crusoe/summary/ and
answer the following questions:

1. If you were Robinson Crusoe, will you pursue your wish to go to the sea or study law just like what his father
wanted for him?

2. What did Crusoe experience when he fell ill after surviving the failed expedition to West Africa?

3. Who is Friday? How did Crusoe and Friday meet?

4. Some analysts describe the story of Robinson Crusoe as “too good to be true”. Some said it’s a story
about hope and perseverance. In our reality, do you think Crusoe will have a happy ending just like in
the novel? Explain your answer.

IV. Identify the rhyme scheme of the poem. Write the letter on the end of each line. My

Last Duchess by Robert Browning (excerpt)

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
 PERFORMANCE TASK

Re-read the steps on how to write a sonnet. Using these guidelines, choose one topic from the list
below and write a sonnet about it.

 Your journey/experience this quarantine period

 Unrequited love
 Goals in life

RESOURCES:

Books:
Lapid, M.G. & Serrano, J.B. 2018. English Communication Arts and Skills through Anglo-American and
Philippine Literatures. Quezon City: The Phoenix Publishing House, Inc.
Rollins-Natividad, V. 2017. English in Perspective: Anglo-American Literature. Philippines: ABIVA
Publishing House, Inc.

Websites:

https://literarydevices.net/lyric/

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/crusoe/summary/

https://libraryguides.mdc.edu/Britishlit

https://elegantessays.com/essays/literature/ideological-elements-of-enlightenment-in-robinson-crusoe.html#

https://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/91-FE-LyricPoetry.html