Poetry is one of the oldest forms of English literature, dating from the 7th century to the present day. The earliest examples of English language poetry was passed from person to person orally, and perhaps written down at a later date. Among the most respected names in English language poetry are W.H. Auden, William Blake, Geoffrey Chaucer, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost. Among the many different kinds of poetry are "blank verse," unrhymed iambic pentameter most famously used in the plays of William Shakespeare, "elegy," a sad tribute to the departed and "lyric," which express the thoughts and feelings of the author.
Drama is a work of fiction performed on a stage and is presented by actors who inhabit the roles created by the playwright. English language works of drama date back to the medieval period. Among the many outstanding voices of the English language are Edward Albee, Samuel Beckett, Anton Chekhov, William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Tennessee Williams.
Fiction includes short stories and novels, and among the English language authors who have created the most memorable works in this area are Margaret Atwood, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, William Faulkner and Henry Fielding.
Most works of English literature were written in English. They can include books by authors whose native language might be one other than English. Translated works, such as works by ancient Greeks Sophocles and Aeschylus, or Russian novelists Vladimir Nabokov and Fyodor Dostoevsky, may also be included.