Neoclassicism: ①It refers to the literary principle according to which the writing and criticism of poetry and drama were to be guided by rules and precedents derived from the best ancient Greek and Roman authors. It flourished from the mid-seventeenth century until the end of the eighteenth century and the rise of Romanticism. ②in a more general sense, often employed in contrast with Romanticism,the term has also been used to describe the characteristic world-view or value-system of this “age of reason” denoting a preference for rationality, clarity, restraint, order and decorum, and for general truths rather than particular insights. ③Neoclassical writers tried to control literary creation by some fixed laws and rules. Rimed couplets instead of blank verse, the three unities of time, place and action, regularity in construction, and the presentation of types rather than individuals were the standards required of the drama.Poetry was elegant in structure and diction and was noted for its seriousness and earnestness in tone and constant didacticism. Prose should be precise, direct and flexible.④Neoclassical literature was heavily didactic and moralizing became a very popular means of public education.