Neoclassicism | Movement Variations

Neoclassicism Movement Variations

The neoclassical period was framed by specific historical events. Scholars generally agree that the movement began with the return of the Stuarts to the English throne in 1660 and ended with the publication of "Lyric Ballads" by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798. The period itself includes the Restoration Age (1660-1700), the Augustan Age, (1700-1750), and the Age of Johnson (1750-1798).

The Restoration Age (1660-1700)

England underwent a transformation at the outset of the Restoration, in strong reaction against Puritanism. The period was marked by a resurgence of scientific thought as well as investigation. It is at this point, with the infusion of French influences, that Neoclassicism begins to develop.

During the Restoration Age, the Heroic couplet, a rhyming couplet written in iambic pentameter (a verse with five iambic feet), was the major verse form. The poetry itself was typically didactic or satirical in nature—the work's main aim was either...
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