English Poetry: A Compass Charting Changes in the Social Space

Abstract

Reading literature of any language or race opens window through which picture of a society is viewed, for literature is essentially said to mirror or at least represent or reproduce a society upon which it is written. The chronicle of literatures of the globe faithfully registers the ups and downs, and the good and the ghastly of the societies which it feeds on. It also deals with the passages of these societies towards modern "progress" through which, quite paradoxically, human being became inhuman and animal-like. In this chapter, I would spend my efforts to briefly outline the image of society” the backdrop of English literature” Age wise. Here my sole aim would be to crystallize the core factors for the changes that the society went through; and to map its march towards modern civilization and the gradual collapse of the moral and ethical base for which man fell from the crest of creation to the unplumbable depth of degeneration. This portion would also endeavor to document how eventually the problems of existence are rendered relevant and important today in English literature, particularly in poetry.