english literature has many famous stories and plays. william shakespeare was a famous english writer of poems and plays. his english is early modern english, and not quite like what people speak or write today. early modern english sounded different, partly because the language was beginning a "great vowel shift". later, many short stories and novels also used english. the novel as we know it is first seen in 18th century english. therefore, today, many famous songs and movies (cinema films) use the english language.