Juvenilia are literary, musical or artistic works produced by authors during their youth. Written juvenilia, if published at all, usually appears as a retrospective publication, some time after the author has become well known for later works. The term was first recorded in 1622 in George Wither's poetry collection ''Ivvenilia''. Later, other notable poets, such as

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the p ...

and

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

, came to use the term for collections of their early poetry. The stories and poems which novelist Jane Austen wrote before the age of eighteen are called her ''Juvenilia''. Exceptions to retrospective publication include Leigh Hunt's collection ''Juvenilia'', first published when he was still in his teens; and

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

's publication of ''Fugitive Pieces'' when the author was only 17 years old, and his subsequent publication of ''Hours of Idleness'' at the age of 18. In these early pieces, Byron explores many of the themes that would shape his later works.

References

Literary terminology {{Lit-genre-stub