Early British Literature covers a millennium of writing in English, from the early medieval period through the eighteenth century. British literature becomes a significant cultural and imaginative force with the rise of vernacular literature in the medieval and early modern fields. The key works and authors remain points of reference not just in later periods of British literature, but also for American and post-colonial writers. Early British writers developed an array of forms (poetry, prose, drama) and genres (narrative verse, epic, allegory, lyric poetry, historical writing, sermon, dramatic tragedy, satire, the novel, and more) that provided the foundations for English literature.
