Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400) is called the father of English literature and the father of English poetry.
The title comes from John Dryden, who called Chaucer “the father of English poetry” in the Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700). Chaucer earned it by writing major poetry in English, chiefly The Canterbury Tales, at a time when serious writing in England was done in Latin and French.
Below you get the three things this question usually hides: why Chaucer and not someone earlier, the full list of “father of” titles that UGC NET, SET, PGT and Assistant Professor papers ask about, and a 20-question quiz to check whether you can tell them apart under pressure.
Why Chaucer is called the father of English literature
He chose English. In the 1300s the court spoke French and scholars wrote in Latin. Chaucer wrote The Book of the Duchess, Troilus and Criseyde and The Canterbury Tales in the London dialect of Middle English, and that dialect became the basis of standard English.
He gave English its poetic forms. Chaucer brought the rhyme royal stanza (seven lines, ababbcc) into English in Troilus and Criseyde, and the heroic couplet (iambic pentameter in rhyming pairs) in The Canterbury Tales. English poetry used both for the next four hundred years.
He wrote about real people. The General Prologue describes thirty pilgrims from a knight to a miller, each with a trade, a dress and a voice. That realism, and the frame narrative that holds the tales together, is why critics treat him as the starting point of English literature rather than one more medieval poet.
Who said it. Dryden, in 1700: “Chaucer, I confess, is a rough diamond”, and in the same Preface, “the Father of English Poetry”. Earlier, Thomas Hoccleve had called him “the firste fyndere of our faire langage”, and Spenser called him the “well of English undefiled” in The Faerie Queene. Dryden’s phrase is the one examiners quote.
The complete “father of” list for English literature exams
These are the attributions that appear in previous year papers. Where two names are in use, the first is the standard exam answer and the second is given so a trap option does not catch you.
| Title | Who | Why, and the work to remember |
|---|---|---|
| Father of English literature | Geoffrey Chaucer | The Canterbury Tales; first great poet to write in English |
| Father of English poetry | Geoffrey Chaucer | Named so by Dryden, Preface to Fables (1700) |
| First English poet | Caedmon | Caedmon’s Hymn, recorded by Bede; 7th century |
| Father of English prose | King Alfred the Great | Translated Boethius, Bede and Gregory into Old English; some books give John Wycliffe for his Bible translation |
| Father of English history (and of English learning) | The Venerable Bede | Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) |
| Father of English printing | William Caxton | Set up the first English press at Westminster, 1476; printed Chaucer and Malory |
| Father of the English sonnet | Sir Thomas Wyatt | Brought the Petrarchan sonnet into English; Tottel’s Miscellany (1557) |
| Father of English blank verse | Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey | Used unrhymed iambic pentameter in his translation of the Aeneid; also shaped the English (Shakespearean) sonnet |
| Father of English tragedy | Christopher Marlowe | Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus; the “mighty line”. The first English tragedy itself is Gorboduc by Sackville and Norton |
| Father of English comedy | Nicholas Udall | Ralph Roister Doister (c. 1553), the first regular English comedy |
| Father of English drama | Christopher Marlowe | Often paired with Shakespeare as the greatest; the father title goes to Marlowe as the first major dramatist |
| Father of the English essay | Francis Bacon | Essays (1597), the first English essays, modelled on Montaigne |
| Father of English criticism | John Dryden | An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668); Dr Johnson gave him the title |
| Father of the English novel | Daniel Defoe | Robinson Crusoe (1719); Walter Scott and others give the title to Henry Fielding for Tom Jones, and Richardson’s Pamela is called the first English novel of character |
| Father of the English dictionary | Samuel Johnson | A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) |
| Father of the periodical essay | Richard Steele | Founded The Tatler (1709); Addison joined for The Spectator (1711) |
| Father of English hymnody | Isaac Watts | Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707) |
| Father of the Gothic novel | Horace Walpole | The Castle of Otranto (1764) |
| Father of the historical novel | Sir Walter Scott | Waverley (1814) |
| Father of English Romanticism | William Wordsworth | Lyrical Ballads (1798) with Coleridge; the 1800 Preface |
| Father of detective fiction | Edgar Allan Poe | “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841); C. Auguste Dupin |
| Father of free verse | Walt Whitman | Leaves of Grass (1855) |
| Father of American literature | Washington Irving | The Sketch Book (1819–20): “Rip Van Winkle”, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” |
| Father of Indian English poetry | Henry Louis Vivian Derozio | The Fakeer of Jungheera (1828); first Indian poet to write in English |
| First Indian novel in English | Bankim Chandra Chatterjee | Rajmohan’s Wife (1864) |
| Father of Indian English prose | Raja Rammohan Roy | Essays and tracts in English from the 1810s onward |
| Father of modern Indian drama | Michael Madhusudan Dutt | Sarmistha (1859); also wrote the sonnet and blank verse in Bengali |
20-question quiz: fathers of English literature
Tap an option to check it. Every question comes with a one-line explanation, and your score builds at the bottom.
1. Who is called the father of English literature?
- Caedmon
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- John Gower
- William Langland
2. Who first called Chaucer “the father of English poetry”?
- Thomas Hoccleve
- Edmund Spenser
- Matthew Arnold
- John Dryden
3. In which work does Dryden call Chaucer the father of English poetry?
- Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern
- An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
- Absalom and Achitophel
- Mac Flecknoe
4. Who is called the father of English prose?
- Sir Thomas Malory
- John Lyly
- King Alfred the Great
- Roger Ascham
5. Who is regarded as the father of English tragedy?
- Thomas Kyd
- Christopher Marlowe
- Ben Jonson
- William Shakespeare
6. Nicholas Udall is called the father of English comedy for which play?
- Gammer Gurton’s Needle
- The Shoemaker’s Holiday
- Every Man in His Humour
- Ralph Roister Doister
7. Who is called the father of English criticism?
- Sir Philip Sidney
- Ben Jonson
- John Dryden
- Samuel Johnson
8. Who is called the father of the English essay?
- Francis Bacon
- Abraham Cowley
- Charles Lamb
- Joseph Addison
9. Who is most often called the father of the English novel?
- Samuel Richardson
- Laurence Sterne
- Tobias Smollett
- Daniel Defoe
10. Who introduced blank verse into English poetry?
- Sir Thomas Wyatt
- Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
- Christopher Marlowe
- Edmund Spenser
11. Who is known as the father of English history?
- The Venerable Bede
- Geoffrey of Monmouth
- Raphael Holinshed
- Edward Gibbon
12. Who is called the father of English printing?
- Wynkyn de Worde
- Richard Pynson
- William Caxton
- Johannes Gutenberg
13. Who is called the father of the English sonnet?
- Earl of Surrey
- Sir Philip Sidney
- Edmund Spenser
- Sir Thomas Wyatt
14. Who is called the father of the historical novel?
- Maria Edgeworth
- Sir Walter Scott
- Horace Walpole
- Ann Radcliffe
15. Horace Walpole is called the father of the Gothic novel for which book?
- Vathek
- The Monk
- The Castle of Otranto
- The Mysteries of Udolpho
16. Who is called the father of Indian English poetry?
- Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
- Michael Madhusudan Dutt
- Toru Dutt
- Sri Aurobindo
17. Who wrote Rajmohan’s Wife, the first Indian novel in English?
- Lal Behari Day
- Raja Rammohan Roy
- Romesh Chunder Dutt
- Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
18. Who is called the father of English hymnody?
- Charles Wesley
- Isaac Watts
- John Newton
- William Cowper
19. Who is called the father of American literature?
- Washington Irving
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- James Fenimore Cooper
- Edgar Allan Poe
20. Who is regarded as the father of free verse?
- Ezra Pound
- T.S. Eliot
- Walt Whitman
- Gerard Manley Hopkins
Got a few wrong? These are the one-mark questions that separate qualifying from missing by two marks.
The Crash Course for UGC NET English (December 2026) covers the history of English literature age by age, with 150+ video lectures by Nakul Grover, 100 bonus study files and mock tests included.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the father of English literature?
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400), the author of The Canterbury Tales. He is called the father of English literature because he was the first major poet to write in English rather than Latin or French.
Who is called the father of English poetry, and who gave him the title?
Geoffrey Chaucer. John Dryden called him “the father of English poetry” in the Preface to Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700).
Is Caedmon the father of English poetry?
No. Caedmon is the first English poet whose name we know; his Hymn (7th century) is the earliest surviving English poem. The title “father of English poetry” belongs to Chaucer.
Who is the father of Indian English literature?
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio is called the father of Indian English poetry, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee wrote the first Indian novel in English (Rajmohan’s Wife, 1864), and Raja Rammohan Roy is called the father of Indian English prose. There is no single “father of Indian English literature” that all books agree on, so read the option list carefully.
Who is the father of the English novel: Defoe, Richardson or Fielding?
Daniel Defoe is the standard exam answer for Robinson Crusoe (1719). Richardson’s Pamela (1740) is called the first novel of character, and Walter Scott called Fielding the father of the English novel. If only one of the three appears in the options, it is the answer.
