Modern English is the form of English used from about 1500 to the present. In poetry studies, the term usually covers both Early Modern English, the language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible, and the English used by contemporary poets. It is the stage of the language most readers of English poetry encounter today.
Example
I walk the city after rain,
my shoes bright with the streetlight's shine;
this is modern English, plain and clear,
not the older speech of Chaucer's time.
Related Definitions
[n] English since about 1450