“Characteristics of Neoclassical Poetry”The writings of Alexander Pope and John Dryden from the late 17th to 18th centuries are called neoclassical literature. The neoclassical structure comes from Greek and Roman literature and constitutes a new form of classicism. This literature is quite effectively designed using regular meter, competent use of intense figurative devices, and anxiously controlled rhymes. We find this form of work mainly in Greek and Latin poetry. Conveniently, the neoclassical period can be divided into three relatively clear parts: first, the Restoration era (1660–1700), in which Milton, Bunyan, and Dryden exerted a dominant influence; second, the Augustan era (1700-1750), in which Pope was the prominent central poetic figure, while others, such as Defoe, Smollett, Fielding, and Richardson, presided over the sophistication of the novel; and finally the era of Johnson (1750-1798), which, although subject to and characterized by the spirit and personality of the instinctive Dr. Samuel Johnson, whose sympathies were with the declining Augustan past, saw the beginning of 'a new understanding and appreciation of the work of Shakespeare, developed by Sterne and others, of the novel's sensibility and the emergence of the Gothic school — attitudes which, in the context of the development of a Nature worship, the influence of German Romantic concepts, religious trends like the rise of Methodism, and political events like the American and French Revolutions established the intellectual and emotional foundations of English Romanticism. (Victorian Web July) Neoclassical Poets The English poets from 1660 to 1798 are truly known as neoclassical poets because they had great respect for and greatly imitated classical writers. predefined rules, ...... middle of paper ...... individual who can be distinguished as rational. We recognize it as the age of reason. Reason may be considered the highest mental faculty, but according to many thinkers it was a complete guide covering all areas. Religious belief and morality were based on foundations. Neoclassical Assumptions and Their Implications According to neoclassical theorists, human nature is constant, it never changes with the change of time and place, so the past is a good guide to work on. Art, they thought, should express this essential nature: “Nothing can please many, and please for long, except representations of a general nature” (Samuel Johnson). The individual is the model for judging and analyzing human nature. Thus, neoclassical artists more effectively emphasized fundamental human characteristics rather than individual differences, as demonstrated in the character of Molie..