British literature

Francis Bacon

matter both Christian mysticism and eroticism, Donne’s metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or “unpoetic” figures, such as a compass or a mosquito, to reach sur­prise effects.

George Chapman (?1559-?1634) was a successful play­wright who is remembered chiefly for his translation in 1616 of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into English verse. This was the first ever complete translation of either poem into the English language and it had a profound influence on English literature.

3. 
   Prose
   

Philosopher Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) wrote the utopian novel New Atlantis, and coined the phrase "Knowledge is Power". Francis Godwin's 1638 The Man in the Moone recounts an imaginary voyage to the moon and is now regarded as the first work of science fiction in English literature.^[35]

At the Reformation, the translation of liturgy and Bible into vernacular languages provided new literary models. The Book of Common Prayer (1549) and the Authorized King James Version of the Bible have been hugely influ­ential. The King James Bible, one of the biggest transla­tion projects in the history of English up to this time, was started in 1604 and completed in 1611. It represents the culmination of a tradition of Bible translation into English from the original languages that began with the work of William Tyndale (previous translations into English had relied on the Vulgate). It became the standard Bible of the Church of England, and some consider it one of the greatest literary works of all time.

Samuel Pepys, took the diary beyond mere business transaction notes, into the realm of the personal