Must-Prepare Topics for Classical Poetry

The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)

1. Representation of 14th Century in England 
2. Humour 
3. Satire and Irony 
4. Chaucer’s Treatment of Ecclesiastical Characters 
5. Chaucer’s Contribution in English Language and Versification 
6. Chaucer: A Medieval as well as Modern 

Faerie Queene (1590) by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

1. As an Allegory 
2. Plan and Purpose of the Poem 
3. Elements of Renaissance and Reformation 
4. As an Epic or Romance 
5. Edmund Spenser as a Poet 

Love and Divine Poems by John Donne (1572-1631)

1. As a Metaphysical Poet 
2. Wit in Donne’s Poetry 
3. Conceits in Donne’s Poetry 
4. A Critical Evaluation of The Sun Rising, Good Morrow, Twicknam Garden 
5. John Donne as a Love Poet 

Paradise Lost (1667) by John Milton (1608-1674)

1. Epic Similes 
2. Milton’s Grand Style 
3. Blank Verse 
4. Description of Hell 
5. Who is the Hero? / A Character Sketch of Satan 
6. Satan’s Speeches 
7. An Assessment of Milton as a Poet 

Absalom and Achitophel (1681) by John Dryden (1631-1700)

1. Political Satire / Political Allegory 

The Rape of the Lock (1712) by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

1. A Character Sketch of Belinda 
2. As a Representative Poem / Social Satire 
3. Supernatural Machinery 
4. As a Mock-Epic Poem 
5. Alexander Pope as a Poet 
6. Augustan Age in English Literature 

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