1.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victorias reign and remains one of the most popular British poets. Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as Break, Break, Break, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tears, Idle Tears, Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, Ulysses, and Tithonus. During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success and he is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England and he was born into a middle-class line of Tennysons, but also had a noble and royal ancestry. His father, George Clayton Tennyson, was rector of Somersby, also rector of Benniworth and Bag Enderby, and vicar of Grimsby. Rev. George Clayton Tennyson raised a family and was a man of superior abilities and varied attainments, who tried his hand with fair success in architecture, painting, music. He was comfortably well off for a clergyman and his shrewd money management enabled the family to spend summers at Mablethorpe. Alfred Tennysons mother, Elizabeth Fytche, was the daughter of Stephen Fytche, vicar of St. James Church, Louth and rector of Withcall, Tennysons father carefully attended to the education and training of his children. Tennyson and two of his brothers were writing poetry in their teens and a collection of poems by all three was published locally when Alfred was only 17. One of those brothers, Charles Tennyson Turner, later married Louisa Sellwood, the sister of Alfreds future wife. Another of Tennysons brothers, Edward Tennyson, was institutionalised at a private asylum, Tennyson was a student of Louth Grammar School for four years and then attended Scaitcliffe School, Englefield Green and King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, where he joined a society called the Cambridge Apostles. A portrait of Tennyson by George Frederic Watts is in Trinitys collection, at Cambridge, Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam and William Henry Brookfield, who became his closest friends. His first publication was a collection of his rhymes and those of his elder brother Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellors Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, reportedly, it was thought to be no slight honour for a young man of twenty to win the chancellors gold medal. He published his first solo collection of poems, Poems Chiefly Lyrical in 1830, claribel and Mariana, which later took their place among Tennysons most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although decried by critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day. In the spring of 1831, Tennysons father died, requiring him to leave Cambridge before taking his degree and he returned to the rectory, where he was permitted to live for another six years and shared responsibility for his widowed mother and the family
2.
English poetry
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This article focuses on poetry written in English from the United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The article does not include poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, the earliest surviving English poetry, written in Anglo-Saxon, the direct predecessor of modern English, may have been composed as early as the 7th century. This is generally taken as marking the beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry and it is possible to identify certain key moments, however. The Dream of the Rood was written before circa AD700, by and large, however, Anglo-Saxon poetry is categorised by the manuscripts in which it survives, rather than its date of composition. While the poetry that has survived is limited in volume, it is wide in breadth, beowulf is the only heroic epic to have survived in its entirety, but fragments of others such as Waldere and the Finnesburg Fragment show that it was not unique in its time. Other genres include much religious verse, from works to biblical paraphrase, elegies such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Ruin, and numerous proverbs, riddles. With one notable exception, Anglo-Saxon poetry depends on alliterative verse for its structure, with the Norman conquest of England, beginning in 1111 the Anglo-Saxon language rapidly diminished as a written literary language. The new aristocracy spoke predominantly Norman, and this became the language of courts, parliament. While Anglo-Norman or Latin was preferred for high culture, English literature by no means died out, other transitional works were preserved as popular entertainment, including a variety of romances and lyrics. With time, the English language regained prestige, and in 1362 it replaced French and Latin in Parliament, the reputation of Chaucers successors in the 15th century has suffered in comparison with him, though Lydgate and Skelton are widely studied. A group of Scottish writers arose who were believed to be influenced by Chaucer. The rise of Scottish poetry began with the writing of The Kingis Quair by James I of Scotland, the main poets of this Scottish group were Robert Henryson, William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas. The Renaissance was slow in coming to England, with the generally accepted start date being around 1509 and it is also generally accepted that the English Renaissance extended until the Restoration in 1660. However, a number of factors had prepared the way for the introduction of the new learning long before this start date. A number of medieval poets had, as noted, shown an interest in the ideas of Aristotle. The introduction of printing by Caxton in 1474 provided the means for the more rapid dissemination of new or recently rediscovered writers and thinkers. Caxton also printed the works of Chaucer and Gower and these books helped establish the idea of a poetic tradition that was linked to its European counterparts. In addition, the writings of English humanists like Thomas More and Thomas Elyot helped bring the ideas, the establishment of the Church of England in 1535 accelerated the process of questioning the Catholic world-view that had previously dominated intellectual and artistic life
3.
William Edmondstoune Aytoun
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William Edmondstoune Aytoun FRSE was a Scottish poet, lawyer by training, and professor of rhetoric and belles lettres at the University of Edinburgh. He published poetry, translation, prose fiction, criticism and satire and was a contributor to the Edinburgh literary periodical Blackwoods Magazine. He was also a collector of Scottish ballads, in the early 1850s, Professor Aytoun lent his name as a supporter of the fledgling National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights. His distinctive legacy as a teacher has led to him being called the first modern professor of English Literature, William Aytoun was born in the New Town of Edinburgh, the only son of Joan Keith and Roger Aytoun, a writer to the signet. To his mother, a woman of culture, he owed his early fondness for literature, his political sympathies and he also counted poet Sir Robert Aytoun among his relatives. At the age of eleven years William was sent to the Edinburgh Academy, William Aytoun published his first book, Poland, Homer, and other Poems, in 1832, at the age of 19. This youthful work expressed fervent concern for the cause of Poland, in 1833 he journeyed to London where he spent a few months studying law, but decided in September of that year to travel on to Aschaffenburg where he studied German. While in Germany he made a verse translation of the first part of Goethes Faust. He remained in Germany until April 1834, on return to Scotland, Aytoun resumed his legal studies in his fathers chambers. He was admitted a writer to the signet in 1835, by his own confession, though he followed the law, he never could overtake it. Aytoun was a contributor to the Edinburgh literary periodical Blackwoods Magazine beginning in 1836 with the acceptance of his translations from Uhland. In 1839 he joined the staff of Blackwoods, an association which he maintained until the end of his life and his reputation as a keen satirist is also demonstrated by his dramatic verse Firmilian, a Spasmodic Tragedy, or The Student of Badajoz under the nom-de-plume of T. Percy Jones, a mock-tragedy in which he parodied the poems of the Spasmodic poets and it was intended to satirise a group of poets and critics, including George Gilfillan, Sydney Thompson Dobell, Philip James Bailey, and Alexander Smith. His parody played a role in ending the vogue for such works. In 1845, Aytoun was appointed professor of rhetoric and belles lettres at the University of Edinburgh and his lectures attracted large numbers of students, raising the attendance from 30 to 150. William Aytoun was married to Jane Emily Wilson, the daughter of Professor John Wilson and she died in 1859 and he then remarried, his second wife being Fearnie Jemima Kinnear, who died in 1904. He had no children by either wife, William Edmonstoune Aytoun is buried close to Professor Wilson in the south section of Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Aytoun, William Edmonstoune, a Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature
4.
Thomas De Quincey
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Thomas Penson De Quincey was an English essayist, best known for his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of literature in the West. De Quincey was born at 86 Cross Street, Manchester, Lancashire and his father was a successful merchant with an interest in literature who died when he was quite young. Soon after his birth the family went to The Farm and then later to Greenheys, in 1796, three years after the death of his father, Thomas Quincey, his mother – the erstwhile Elizabeth Penson – took the name De Quincey. In the same year, De Quinceys mother moved to Bath, Somerset, De Quincey was a weak and sickly child. His youth was spent in solitude, and when his brother, William, came home. De Quinceys mother was a woman of character and intelligence. It is purported that at time, in 1799, De Quincey first read Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth. In 1800, De Quincey, aged fifteen, was ready for the University of Oxford and that boy, his master at Bath had said, could harangue an Athenian mob better than you or I could address an English one. He was sent to Manchester Grammar School, in order that after three years stay he might obtain a scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford, but he took flight after nineteen months. His first plan had been to reach William Wordsworth, whose Lyrical Ballads had consoled him in fits of depression and had awakened in him a reverence for the poet. From July to November 1802, De Quincey lived as a wayfarer and he soon lost his guinea by ceasing to keep his family informed of his whereabouts, and had difficulty making ends meet. Still, apparently fearing pursuit, he borrowed money and travelled to London. Having failed, he lived close to starvation rather than return to his family, discovered by chance by his friends, De Quincey was brought home and finally allowed to go to Worcester College, Oxford, on a reduced income. Here, we are told, he came to be looked upon as a strange being who associated with no one, in 1804, while at Oxford, he began the occasional use of opium. He completed his studies, but failed to take the oral examination leading to a degree and he became an acquaintance of Coleridge and Wordsworth, having already sought out Charles Lamb in London. His acquaintance with Wordsworth led to his settling in 1809 at Grasmere and he lived for ten years in Dove Cottage, which Wordsworth had occupied and which is now a popular tourist attraction, and for another five years at Fox Ghyll near Rydal. De Quincey was married in 1816, and soon after, having no money left and his wife Margaret bore him eight children before her death in 1837
5.
John Keats
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John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He had a significant influence on a range of poets. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keatss work was the most significant literary experience of his life, the poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. This is typical of poets, as they aimed to accentuate extreme emotion through the emphasis of natural imagery. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular, John Keats was born in Moorgate, London, on 31 October 1795 to Thomas Keats and his wife, born Frances Jennings. There is no evidence of his exact birthplace. Although Keats and his family seem to have marked his birthday on 29 October and he was the eldest of four surviving children, his younger siblings were George, Thomas, and Frances Mary Fanny who eventually married Spanish author Valentín Llanos Gutiérrez. Another son was lost in infancy and his father first worked as a hostler at the stables attached to the Swan and Hoop Inn, an establishment he later managed, and where the growing family lived for some years. Keats believed that he was born at the inn, a birthplace of humble origins, the Globe pub now occupies the site, a few yards from the modern-day Moorgate station. He was baptised at St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, and sent to a dame school as a child. His parents were unable to afford Eton or Harrow, so in the summer of 1803, he was sent to board at John Clarkes school in Enfield, the small school had a liberal outlook and a progressive curriculum more modern than the larger, more prestigious schools. In the family atmosphere at Clarkes, Keats developed an interest in classics and history, the headmasters son, Charles Cowden Clarke, also became an important mentor and friend, introducing Keats to Renaissance literature, including Tasso, Spenser, and Chapmans translations. The young Keats was described by his friend Edward Holmes as a character, always in extremes, given to indolence. However, at 13 he began focusing his energy on reading and study, in April 1804, when Keats was eight, his father died. The cause of death was a fracture, suffered when he fell from his horse while returning from a visit to Keats. Frances remarried two months later, but left her new husband soon afterwards, and the four went to live with their grandmother, Alice Jennings. In March 1810 when Keats was 14, his mother died of tuberculosis and she appointed two guardians, Richard Abbey and John Sandell, to take care of them. That autumn, Keats left Clarkes school to apprentice with Thomas Hammond, a surgeon and apothecary who was a neighbour, Keats lodged in the attic above the surgery at 7 Church Street until 1813
6.
Coventry Patmore
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Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore was an English poet and critic best known for The Angel in the House, his narrative poem about an ideal happy marriage. The eldest son of author Peter George Patmore, Coventry Patmore was born at Woodford in Essex and was privately educated and he was his fathers intimate and constant companion and inherited from him his early literary enthusiasm. It was Coventrys ambition to become an artist and he showed much promise, earning the silver palette of the Society of Arts in 1838. In 1839 he was sent to school in France for six months, on his return, his father planned to publish some of these youthful poems, Coventry however had become interested in science, and poetry was set aside. In 1847 he married Emily Augusta Andrews, daughter of Dr. Andrews of Camberwell, Three daughters followed – Emily, Bertha and Gertrude, before their last child, a son, was born in 1860. He later returned to writing however, enthused by the success of Alfred Lord Tennyson, and in 1844 he published a volume of Poems. Patmore, distressed at its reception, bought up the remainder of the edition, what upset him most was a cruel review in Blackwoods Magazine, but the enthusiasm of his friends, together with their more constructive criticism, helped foster his talent. In his time at the British Museum Patmore was instrumental in starting the Volunteer Movement in 1852 and he wrote an important letter to The Times on the subject, and stirred up much martial enthusiasm among his colleagues. The four works were published together in 1863 and have come to symbolise the Victorian feminine ideal – which was not necessarily the ideal amongst feminists of the period, by 1861 the family was living in Elm Cottage, North End, Hampstead. On 5 July 1862 Emily died after a lengthy and lingering illness and this departure into criticism continued in 1879 with a volume of papers entitled Principle in Art, and again in 1893 with Religio Poetae. His second wife Marianne died in 1880, and in 1881 he married Harriet Robson from Bletchingley in Surrey and their son Francis was born in 1882. In later years he lived at Lymington, where he died in 1896 and he was buried in Lymington churchyard. A collected edition of Patmores poems appeared in two volumes in 1886, with a preface which might serve as the authors epitaph. I have written little, it runs, but it is all my best, I have never spoken when I had nothing to say, I have respected posterity, and should there be a posterity which cares for letters, I dare to hope that it will respect me. Spirituality informs his inspiration, the poetry is glowing and alive, the magnificent piece in praise of winter, the solemn and beautiful cadences of Departure, and the homely but elevated pathos of The Toys, are in their manner unsurpassed in English poetry. Patmore is today one of the least-known but best-regarded Victorian poets and his son Henry John Patmore also became a poet. London, George Bell and Sons,1889, courage in Politics and other Essays. William Barnes, the Dorset Poet, The Library Magazine, Vol. II, “Distinction, ” The Eclectic Magazine, Vol. LII,1890 Three Essayettes, The Eclectic Magazine, Vol. LVI, July/December 1892
7.
Lake Poets
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The Lake Poets were a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England, United Kingdom, at the turn of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single school of thought or literary practice then known and they were named, only to be uniformly disparaged, by the Edinburgh Review. They are considered part of the Romantic Movement, the three main figures of what has become known as the Lakes School were William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. They were associated with other poets and writers, including Dorothy Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, Charles Lloyd, Hartley Coleridge, John Wilson. The Lake Poet School was initially a derogatory term that was also a misnomer, as it was neither particularly born out of the Lake District, the principal members of the group were William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. Although Dorothy Wordsworth wrote no poetry of her own, she provided much of the inspiration for her brother Williams, in addition, many of the first and second generation practitioners of Romantic poetry had a complex and not entirely easy relationship with the Lakes. For the most part other Romantic poets either struggle with a Lake Poet identity or come to define themselves against what the Lakes seem to offer in poetic terms. For Wordsworth, who settled at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, with his sister Dorothy after some years of wandering, the Lakes became bound up with his identity as a poet. Born and brought up on the fringes of the Lake District, Wordsworth came back to the area in December 1799, not just a nature poet, his poetry is about the organic relationship between human beings and the natural world. Wordsworths early radical political ideas led him to his second poetic innovation, in 1810 he published his Guide to the Lakes, tellingly subtitled for the Use of Tourists and Residents, and with a Section Three entitled Changes, and Rules of Taste for Preventing their Bad Effects. Another aspect of it was the link to the ideas of Uvedale Price, whom Wordsworth knew, the Guide ran to five editions during Wordsworths lifetime and proved to be very popular. Indeed, it has said that the architectural axioms of building and gardening in the Lake District for the next hundred years were established by the Guide. For other writers, the pull was more uncertain. Coleridge followed Wordsworth to the Lakes and moved into Greta Hall in 1800. and this led him to resort to the Kendal Black Drop, making matters desperate. Coleridge moved out of the area in 1804, Robert Southey, it has been argued, although becoming identified as the central Lake Poet, was mostly a prose writer and did not particularly subscribe to the Wordsworthian vision of the Lakes. Keats, in the Summer of 1818, had a response to that of Shelley, finding his heros house full of fashionable people. Keats moved on to Scotland which provided him with the inspiration he sought, byron did not visit the Lakes, but he ridiculed the isolation and narrowness of mind of the older Lake Poets, as well as of their abandonment of radical politics. The hale and hearty John Wilson provided an alternative take on the role of Lake Poet and he lived near Windermere between 1808 and 1815 and knew the older Lake Poet trio well
8.
1854 in architecture
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The year 1854 in architecture involved some significant events and new buildings. Pena National Palace in Sintra, Portugal, designed by Baron Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege, church of St. Walburge, Preston, Lancashire, England, designed by Joseph Hansom. St Georges Hall, Liverpool, England, completed by Charles Robert Cockerell to the design of Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, the Kościuszko Mound in Kraków, Poland, erected in commemoration of Tadeusz Kościuszko, a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and the United States. The Semper Gallery in Dresden, Germany, designed by Gottfried Semper, royal Gold Medal - Philip Hardwick Grand Prix de Rome, architecture - Joseph Auguste Émile Vaudremer
9.
Irish poetry
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Irish poetry includes poetry in two languages, Irish and English. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century and this culminated in the work of the poets of the Irish Literary Revival in the late 19th and early 20th century. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe, the earliest examples date from the 6th century, and are generally short lyrics on themes from religion or the world of nature. They were frequently written by their authors in the margins of the illuminated manuscripts that they were copying. The best known example is Pangur Bán and it was practical for poems to be short because the Irish recognized that it was necessary to use any means necessary to make the poems lasting in their oral culture. To accomplish such a feat as well as they have, they used complicated rhyme schemes that would render a poem nonsensical if any of the key words were changed from the original version, in an oral culture, Irish poetry had many uses. A poem could be used to both the poet and the subject of the poem, oftentimes kings would commission poets to create a piece about them. Such poems would be passed on to descendants so they would remember the deeds of past generations. Kings would also commission poets to write poems of advertisement, speaking of the greatness and worthiness. Oral poetry, because it was in the vernacular, was used for entertainment. Poems that were entertaining could also be informative, teaching people lessons or offering them wisdom of experience for dealing with situations they would encounter in their everyday lives. Finally, poems, especially those featured in the sagas, were thought to be an instrument of the supernatural, Another source of early Irish poetry is the poems in the tales and sagas, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Unlike many other European epic cycles, the Irish sagas were written in prose, Irish bards formed a professional hereditary caste of highly trained, learned poets. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles and they were chroniclers and satirists whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, glam dicin, the Metrical Dindshenchas, or Lore of Places, is probably the major surviving monument of Irish bardic verse. It is a great onomastic anthology of naming legends of significant places in the Irish landscape, the earliest of these date from the 11th century, and were probably originally compiled on a provincial basis. As a national compilation, the Metrical Dindshenchas has come down to us in two different recensions. Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland, verse tales of Fionn and the Fianna, sometimes known as Ossianic poetry, were extremely common in Ireland and Scotland throughout this period
10.
Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton
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Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, FRS was an English poet, patron of literature and politician. Milnes was born in London, the son of Robert Pemberton Milnes, of Fryston Hall, Castleford, West Yorkshire, and he was educated privately, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827. After graduating with an M. A. in 1831, Milnes travelled abroad and he went to Italy and Greece, and published in 1834 a volume of Memorials of a Tour in some Parts of Greece, describing his experiences. Milnes returned to London in 1837, and was elected to Parliament as member for Pontefract as a Conservative, in parliament he interested himself particularly in the question of copyright and the conditions of reformatory schools. He left Prime Minister Sir Robert Peels party over the Corn Law controversy and his easy good nature had the effect that his political career was viewed with less seriousness by his contemporaries than it might otherwise have been. In 1848, he went to Paris to see something of the revolution, on his return he wrote, as a ‘Letter to Lord Lansdowne, ’1848. In 1863, Palmerston elevated Milnes to the peerage as Baron Houghton, of Great Houghton in the West Riding of the County of York. George W. E. Russell said of him, As years advanced he became not less Liberal, Milnes literary career was often influenced by church matters. He wrote a tract in 1841, which was praised by John Henry Newman and he took part in the discussion about Essays and Reviews, defending the tractarian position in One Tract More. He published two volumes of verse in 1838, Memorials of Residence upon the Continent and Poems of Many Years, Poetry for the People in 1840 and Palm Leaves in 1844. He also wrote a Life and Letters of Keats in 1848, Milnes ballads were among the most popular of their day. In 1868, Lord Houghton was elected to the Royal Society, in 1870, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society. Despite his piety, he had apparently an almost unsurpassed collection of literature, which he bequeathed to the British Library. A man whom his biographer Saunders said, had many fine tastes and some coarse ones, Milnes has been considered an author of The Rodiad. However, his chief distinctions were his sense of literary merit in others, and he was surrounded by the most brilliant men of his time, many of whom he had been the first to acclaim. His reputation rests largely on the part he played, as a man of influence in society and in moulding public opinion on literary matters, in connection with his large circle of talented friends. He secured a pension for Tennyson, helped to make Ralph Waldo Emerson known in Britain and he helped David Gray by writing a preface for The Luggie. He helped to obtain a job for Coventry Patmore at the British Museum and he was, in the traditional sense, a patron of literature, who never abused the privileges of his position
