Hi.
(octave)Ref: NTC's Dictionary of Literary Terms.This stanza pattern was used with distinction by such English poets as Edmund Spenser, John Milton, John Keats and Lord Byron.
Since I may not remember all the writer names, can I change this structure into the following ones :
This stanza pattern was used with distinction by some English poets like John Milton, John Keats.
or
This stanza pattern was used with distinction by some English poets such as John Milton, John Keats.
Thank you.
If you can't remember all the poets' names just say
'This stanza pattern was used with distinction by such English poets as John Milton and John Keats'.
Rover
[not a teacher]
I'm curious why you're asking about "not remembering" all the writers, as this seems implicit in the quote, since it uses "by such English poets as". This is suggesting these are exemplars* of the stanza pattern, not an exhaustive list. Had the quote been phrased as "was used with distinction exclusively by English poets ... ", then I could understand how you might ask about switching to "such as" when limiting the list.
*I believe it is appropriate to use the plural form here, but I am not positive, since these are all examples of a single category, namely authors.![]()
'This stanza pattern was used was used with distinction exclusively by such English poets as John Milton and John Keats'.
'This stanza pattern was used was used with distinction exclusively by English poets such as John Milton and John Keats'.
In both these examples, Milton and Keats are presented as examples of those English poets who used the stanza pattern, just as they are in the version without 'exclusively'.
Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.
My intent was to replace "such as" completely, as in:
'This stanza pattern was used with distinction exclusively by English poets John Milton and John Keats'.
which to me, limits the entire list to two authors. I'm not sure what this means:
'This stanza pattern was used with distinction exclusively by such English poets as John Milton and John Keats'.
I think if the OP asked "Since I may not want to include all the writer names" instead of "remember", I would understand the question better, if that was the intent.