While the Age of Johnson and the Age of Sensibility are terms often used interchangeably,

Johnson’s age is considered to be the last of the neoclassical eras, while writers in the latter
period are famed with an anticipation of the Romantic Period with their focus on the individual
and imagination.

The Age of Sensibility is marked by works that focus more directly on anticlassical features of
old ballads and new bardic poetry. These writers began to embrace new forms of literary
expression formerly avoided by writers of the Age of Johnson such as medieval history and folk
literature. Classic prose fiction examples from the Age of Sensibility include Laurence Stern’s
Tristram Shandy (1759) and Henry Mackenzie’s The Man of Feeling (1771). The poetry of
William Collins, William Cowper, Thomas Gray, and Christopher Smart are also attributed to
the Age of Sensibility.