''On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry'' (''Über naive und sentimentalische Dichtung'') is a 1795–6 paper by

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

on poetic theory and the different types of poetic relationship to the world. The work divides poetry into two forms. Naïve poetry is poetry of direct description while sentimental poetry is self-reflective. While naïve presents a straight narrative or description, sentimental poetry is built around the author's reflections and relationship to the material. Schiller classifies all poets as either naïve or sentimental. Almost all Classical Greek poets wrote in the naïve mode, with the exception of

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

. The modern poetry of Schiller's era tended to the sentimental, but figures such as Shakespeare and Goethe were mainly naïve poets to Schiller. This classification of poetry differed from that of

Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (after 1814: von) Schlegel ( ; ; 10 March 1772 – 12 January 1829) was a German literary critic, philosopher, and Indologist. With his older brother, August Wilhelm Schlegel, he was one of the main figures of Jena Roma ...

, who saw poetry as firmly divided by era.

References

Works by Friedrich Schiller 1795 documents Essays in literary theory Essays about poetry 18th-century German literature {{poetry-essay-stub