Greek Poetry.— In the classical age of Greek literature, the 5th century ac., a high degree of literary development had already taken place, yet at the same time the close con nection of the three rhythmic arts remained conspicuous, as is evidenced by the fact that the lyrical odes of Pindar and the dramatic odes of 1Eschylus and Sophocles were written for musical performance in connection with pro cessional or dance movements of the singers. The Greeks divided their poetry into three chief classes, epic, dramatic and lyric, the third class including subtypes called elegiac. iambic and melic (for an account of these see under Lvaic Poway), all of which were charac terized by different kinds of musical accom paniment. It happens that the body of sur viving epic and tragic poetry of the Greeks is more complete and representative than that of their lyric poetry; but it is doubtless not for this reason alone that their epic and tragedy have largely influenced the great body of mod ern poetry, whereas their lyrics have exerted no such influence. For the Greek epic deals with story material which has remained im pressively interesting, and the best Greek tragedies are concerned with emotional and spiritual problems of lastingly vital character; whereas the Greek lyrics are centred more in local and temporary matters, and also lack, for the most part, the subjective and spiritual qualities which are valued in modern lyric poetry. In the later age of Greek literature centring at Alexandria in the 3d century ac., a new type of poetry was developed, the Pas toral, dealing with the environment and loves of real or imaginary shepherds,— a type widely imitated in succeeding ages.
Latin Poetry.— In the classical age of Roman literature, the 1st century B.C. and the 1st A.D., poetic composition was more largely confined to conscious imitation than in any other important period, and the poetic types of the Greeks became the types of Latin poetry. Certain differences of emphasis, however, nat urally developed. Thus dramatic poetry occu pied a much less important place than in Greece, while satiric, which by the Greeks was viewed as a minor form of the lyrical group, became highly important; indeed it is the Romans who gave us the type name Satire and who elevated the form, in the work of Horace, Persius and Juvenal, to one of prime significance as an expression of the spirit of their race and age. Another distinctive achievement was the eleva tion of expository or didactic poetry in Lucre tius's great work, We Rerum Natura,' which remains the world's chief masterpiece of philo sophic poetry.
Mediaeval Poetry.—The poetry of the Mid dle Ages (that is, about 400 to 1400 A.0.) is divisible into two great classes, that arising from the mass of the people in the vernacular languages and that proceeding from the culti vated classes for whom Latin was the literary tongue. In the former class, narrative poetry takes an immensely preponderant place, develop ing on popular lines, especially those of the metrical romance, independent of literary tradi tion. It is to this vernacular poetry that we
chiefly turn for the expression of that naive or child-like spirit which is associated with the mediaeval °age of faith)) or of wonder,°— the purely popular poetry of earlier ages being largely lost. Mediaeval Latin poetry, on the other hand, follows certain elements of the classical tradition, but is especially marked by the influence of the Church. Hence a number of new poetic types, most of them character ized by a large didactic element: in place of the national epic, religious epic and legend; in place of the lyric of love or wine, the hymn; and above all, appearing in many different types, the allegorical poem,— for the method of allegory is especially characteristic of the effort of mediaeval Christianity to interpret all mat ters of this world in terms of the spiritual realm.
Renaissance Poetry.— The poetry of the Renaissance (that is, generally speaking, the period beginning in the late 14th century in Italy and the late 15th century in western Europe) is characterized by a turning away from the methods of mediaeval literature, par ticularly allegory and didacticism, and a fresh interest in the types and methods of classical poetry, particularly Latin. Hence the effort to revive the formal epic and the formal satire; the imitation of the poetic tragedies of Seneca; a considerable development of pastoral poetry; and the revival of unrimed verse in various metres imitative of those of Greek and Latin. One notes also the saturation of poetry with the old pagan mythology, and a tendency to devote the art to the things of this world as distinguished from those of the spirit. A new type of lyric came into prominence, devoted to courtly love, for which the sonnet form was chiefly used; this fashion arose in Italy and spread to France, Spain and England.
Neo-Classical Poetry.—The principal Euro pean literatures were dominated, in the 17th and 18th centuries, by what may be called the neo-classical doctrines, which emphasized the theory and form, rather than the inspiring spirit, of ancient poetry. Poetry, in this school, was treated as a formal art, based on reason and on rules, with diminished emphasis on the elements of emotion and imagination; its spirit is well represented by Boileau's Art Pottique (1674) in France and Pope's Essay on Criticism (1711) in England. These poems also exemplify the revival of the didactic type, now frequently equivalent to the prose essay. Satire, formal epic and formal tragedy, are again characteristic of this age, as of the Renaissance; while in lyric poetry the. more sentimental types, like the sonnet, tend to disappear and the more in tellectual and elaborate, like the formal ode, to become prominent.