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COURSE GUIDE ENG372 ENGLISH POETRY Course Developer/Writer: Dr. Folasade Hunsu Department
of English Obafemi Awolowo University oyinhunsu@yahoo.com
Course Editor Professor A. E. Eruvbetine Department of
English University of Lagos Akoka, Lagos.
Course Coordinator Dr. Felix Gbenoba Department of Languages Faculty of Arts National Open University of Nigeria
Jabi, Abuja.
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Published By National Open University of Nigeria First Printed 2014 ISBN All Rights Reserved
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ENG372: ENGLISH POETRY INTRODUCTION The term English poetry is an ambiguous one. It can mean poetry written by the English people or poetry written in the English language. Nevertheless, this course is meant to acquaint you with poetry written by the English
poets and others from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland from the earliest days of Anglo-Saxon to the modern period of English. The history of English poetry extends from the middle of the 7
th century to the present day. Over this period, a lot of poems have been written in Western culture. By this, English language and its poetry have travelled allover the globe. The earliest surviving poetry was likely transmitted orally and then written down inversions that do not now survive Caedman is believed to have written some religious verses.The earliest surviving poetry was written in Anglo-Saxon and may have been composed as early as the 7
th century. This writing is generally accepted as the beginning
of Anglo-Saxon poetry while
Beowulf is one of the earliest surviving epic-poems. The earliest known English poem is a hymn on the creation.
