The Four Ages of Poetry

    The essay “The Four Ages of Poetry” exposes the deficiencies of modern poetry by positing the theory that in its development poetry passed through four ages: Age of Iron, Age of Gold, Age of Silver, and Age of Brass.

    Poetry to him was originated in the Iron Age. The golden age is the age of the noblest poetic productions followed by the artificial silver age. The Brass age, for him is the age of poetic decay and decline and romanticism is the example of such decadence.

    Peacock attacks on the individual Romantic poets and by emphasizing that the Lake poets in general “wrote verses on a new principle” by remaining ignorant of history and human nature, by cultivating the fancy at the expense of memory and reason.

    Peacock’s attack to poetry is motivated by his utilitarian view of poetry. To him Romantic poetry is essentially the most worthless of all intellectual exercise. Like Plato, he says that society should promote those who promote utility poetry thus to him romantic poetry is a more frivolous amusement, a more waste of time and energy, and the supreme of reason over imagination is asserted.

Plato    Plato is the first major figure in the history of western philosophy. He is an idealist, moralist and a rationalist. He locates reality in what he calls ideas or forms rather than the world of appearance that we locate with our senses. Plato believes in the idea that is form which itself is formless but it is fixed. Idea is archetype and always remains the same. Reality can’t be found in the world of appearance but in the ideal world.The world that we perceive around us is the world of imitation or shadow of the idea or ideal world. When a poet imitates this world, his creation, obviously is twice removed from reality. Poets do not use their own rationality; they are inspired by the divine inspiration, so they are only forced to use their emotion. Further, more Plato stressed that the poets possess the madness and are not in control of themselves when they write. Read More...

Aristotle    Aristotle’s poetics is a reply to Plato’s Republic. Plato believes in two word but Aristotle believes in only one word, therefore he is monoist not a dualist for him it is nature that contains truth. He defines art is perfecting the imperfect nature. For him art is an imitation with beautification. Art is the imitation of object beautifying nature. No matter artist imitate but they make better world than what it is so artist is not merely imitator but also creator.Aristotle avoids the idea that the world of appearance is merely an ephemeral copy of the changeless ideas. Read More..

Plotinus    Plotinus, neo- platonic philosopher believes in two worlds, two part of the same world, one part is helpful to go to another world. Plotinus challenges Plato’s theory that art imitates nature and is thus twice removed from the essence or reality. He gives a higher position to art in his system. Plotinus believes that everything emanates from the one and strives to return to it. For, Plotinus the more beautiful the thing is, the closer it is to the one. The beauty of the artist’s creation lies not in any physical object that it copies but in what the artist imposes in his materials. Plotinus concentrates on the idea that artist is the creator. Nature is in complete and it is artist who takes raw materials from nature and imposes form, which is beautiful and finally reshapes it by offering newness. Read More...

Lodovico Castelvetro    Castelvetro is a good commentator on Aristotle’s poetics. In his treatment of the unity of time, his ideas are more rigid than Aristotle later followed by many neo- classical critics.Aristotle holds that the science, the art and history are not subject of poetry. But poetry resembles to history since history is divided in to subject matter and words so is with poetry. However history and poetry differ because subject matter of history is worldly events by the rational will of god, where as the subject matter of poetry is imagined by the poet. The subject matter of both disciplines may be same but not identical. Read More...

John Dryden    John Dryden’s present essay “An essay on Dramatic Poesy” gives an explicit account of neo – classical theory of art in general. He defends the classical drama standing on the line of Aristotle saying it is an imitation of life, and reflects human nature clearly.He also discusses the three unities, rules that require a play take place in one place, during one day, and that it develops one single action or plot.The essay is written in the form of dialogue concerned to four gentlemen: Eugenius, Crites, Lisideius and Neander. Neander seems to speak for Dryden himself.Eugenius takes the side of the modern English dramatists by criticizing the faults of the classical playwright, who did not themselves observe the unity of place. Read More...

Oscar Wilde    Oscar Wilde believes that art does not copy life and nature rather constitutes its own world reality independent in to a new and perfect form. Therefore, art is not a mere copy of nature rather it is the creative force of humanity.Wild claims “Art never expresses anything but itself”. It does not express any imitating stuffs from life and nature. Art has its own substance form and made of expression. Read More...

Emile Zola     Emile Zola is a French theorist and an advocator of naturalism; a scientific study of human nature, behaviour and psychology. Naturalism is an artistic movement emerged in the reaction of subjectivism of Romanticism.Naturalism uses the scientific criteria of observation and experimentation in writing and criticism. This theory is influenced by Darwinian Theory, which observes man as a victim of nature. Read More...