| Literary Period | Time | Key Texts |
| Anglo-Saxon period (Old English) | 450-1066 | Beowulf |
| Middle English Period Age of Chaucer (1340-1400) Barren Age (1400-1485) | 1066-1485 | Canterbury Tales, Le Morte d’ Arthur |
| Early Renaissance | 1485-1558 | |
| The Renaissance Elizabethan Age (1558-1603) Jacobean Age (1603-1625) Caroline Age (1625-1649) Commonwealth Age/Puritan Interregnum (1649-1660) | 1500-1660 | Tottle’s Miscellany The Faerie Queene, Hamlet, The Alchemist, Paradise Lost |
| The Neo-classical Period The Restoration (1660-1700) Augustan Age/Age of Pope (1700-1745) Age of Sensibility/Age of Johnson (1745-1785) | 1660-1785 | Essay of Dramatic Poesie, An Essay on Criticism |
| Romantic Period | 1789-1850 | Lyrical Ballad |
| The Victorian Period Early Victorian Age/Age of Tennyson (1832-1871) Aestheticism & Decadence, Age of Hardy/Late Victorian (1871-1901) | 1832-1901 | In Memoriam |
| The Modern Age The Edwardian Period (1901-1912) The Georgian Period (1912-1936) | 1901-1945 | The Waste Land |
| The Postmodern Period | 1945 onward | Waiting for Godot |
The above table shows the different literary Periods and sub periods of English literature.