5/ What were the three periods of English Enlightenment in Literature? Who were representatives of each period?

·        Early Enlightenment (1688 – 1740): This period saw the flourishing of journalism which played an important part in the country’s public life. The representatives of this period were Joseph Addison and Thomas Steele.

·        Mature Enlightenment (1740 – 1750): The social moralizing novel was born in this period. It was represented by the writers as Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollett.

·        Late Enlightenment (1750 – 1780): The writers of this period like the Enlighteners of the first two period such as Oliver Goldsmith and Lawrence Sterne in the genre of the novel and Richard Sheridan in drama, expressed the democratic bourgeois tendencies of their time.

6/ Comment on the main themes in Burn’s poems.

The main themes in Robert Burn’s poems is his deep love for his motherland, for its history and folklore. Burn’s poetry is closely connected with the national struggle of the Scottish people for their liberation from England oppression, the struggle that had been going on in Scotland for many century. Burn expressed the most sacred thoughts and hopes of the Scottish people, who, even in their poverty, are full of proud love of freedom, hatred for all oppressors, contempt for the rich, human dignity and an optimistic belief in their beautiful future.