and ofsatire. The following lines from Pope's Essay on Criticism are often quoted as a motto expressing the ideals of the period:

Tis more to guide, than spur the Muse's steed,
Restrain his fury, than provoke his speed,
The Winged Courser, like a gen'rous horse,
Shows most true mettle when you check his course.

During the period, the heroic couplet (rhymed iambic pentameter) became standard. Dryden's and Pope's work consisted of satires, mock-epic or mock-heroic poetry (a genre in which the tone and diction of epic poetry are ironically used for trivial and comic subjects in a satiric way), philosophical and didactic poems such as Pope's Essay on Criticism and Essay on Man, and translations of Virgil (by Dryden) and Homer (by Pope). Swift wrote prose satires and is, of course, best known for Gulliver's Travels.

Though there are exceptions, the trend during this period was for writers to avoid expressing their own personal or idiosyncratic emotions. The emphasis instead was on universal concerns, matters to which humanity in general could relate and which could "elevate" mankind either through explicit didacticism or satire, in which human follies were held up to ridicule. This was also the period in which the English began to see their literature as having international significance and greatness. Both Shakespeare and Milton came to be seen as the two principal iconic English writers, in spite of the fact that their work did not conform to neoclassical ideals. However, in invoking classical Greece and Rome as their ideal, the neoclassical poets had also developed a sense of their own culture's ability to create art that would be permanent in some sense instead of being only transiently of value. They saw not only their own work, but even more that of their greatest writers of the past, as fulfilling this goal.

The prefix "neo" means "new" and the word "classic" refers to the Greeks and Romans. If one were a neoclassicist, s/he would value the values, thinking, and ideals of the great orators and philosophers. As the Renaissance period led people back to learning and education, many referred back to the great thinkers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The medieval period was overwhelmed with superstition, paganism and Christianity. By the time the Renaissance promoted free thinking, many thought it would be best to follow the great examples of the past. Those examples in literature included using language in order to communicate and to instruct. Due to the hot political nature of the time period, though, many authors needed to hide their teachings in works of satire and fiction. The most notable of these are Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.