1.
1876 in poetry
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Nationality words link to articles with information on the nations poetry or literature. February 24 – Première of first stage production of the poetic drama Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen with incidental music by Edvard Grieg, in Christiania, Norway. M. Moores first book of verse, The Sentimental Song Book, was published in Grand Rapids, and quickly went into a second printing. A copy fell into the hands of one James F. Ryder, Ryder sent out numerous review copies to newspapers across the country, with a cover letter filled with low key mock praise. And so Moore received national attention, following Ryders lead, contemporary reviews were amusedly negative. For instance, The Rochester Democrat wrote of Sweet Singer, that Shakespeare, could he read it, if Julia A. Moore would kindly deign to shed some of her poetry on our humble grave, we should be but too glad to go out and shoot ourselves tomorrow. Toru Dutt, A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields, Verse Translations and Poems, Bhowanipur, Calcutta, B. M. J
2.
1882 in poetry
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Nationality words link to articles with information on the nations poetry or literature. As a great lover of British poetry, Maxwell memorized poems, the best known is Rigid Body Sings closely based on Comin Through the Rye by Robert Burns, which he apparently used to sing while accompanying himself on a guitar. It has the opening lines, Gin a body meet a body Flyin through the air. Gin a body hit a body, Will it fly, a. J. Thatcher, Australian 19th century in poetry 19th century in literature List of years in poetry List of years in literature Victorian literature French literature of the 19th century Poetry
3.
1887 in poetry
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Nationality words link to articles with information on the nations poetry or literature. George Frederick Cameron, Lyrics on Freedom, Love and Death, sarah Anne Curzon, Laura Secord, the Heroine of 1812, A Drama, and Other Poems. The Canadian Birthday Book, poetry anthology, william Douw Lighthall, Thoughts, Moods and Ideals, Crimes of Leisure
4.
1875 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1875. January 16 – Henry James Byrons comedy Our Boys opens at the Vaudeville Theatre in London and it becomes the worlds longest-running play up to this time, with 1,362 performances until April 1879. It also opens this year in New York, at the New Fifth Avenue Theatre, henley has also met his future wife while in hospital and written the poems collected as In Hospital. October 1 – American poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe is reburied in Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, Baltimore, Maryland, some controversy arises years later as to whether the correct body was exhumed. This introduces his innovative sprung rhythm and metre but, being rejected for publication in 1876, is not published until 1918, flammarion publishing house founded in Paris, France. Isaac K. Funk establishes the house of I. K. Funk & Company, predecessor of Funk & Wagnells, in the United States, caroline M. Hewins begins a childrens library in Hartford, Connecticut. Nebelspalter is founded by Jean Nötzli of Zürich as a humorous political weekly. W. Harrison Ainsworth – The Goldsmiths Wife R. D. J. W
5.
1877 in archaeology
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The year 1877 in archaeology involved some significant events. Artist and photographer William Henry Jackson participates in the Hayden Survey of the Western United States, producing maps of Chaco Canyon, french diplomat and archaeologist Ernest de Sarzec begins excavation at Girsu in Mesopotamia. City architect Charles Edward Davis begins extended excavation and reconstruction at the Roman Baths in England, george Smith excavates Later Stone Age tools in caves near Smithfield, Free State. John Postlethwaite - Mines and Mining in the Lake District, ephraim G. Squier - Peru, Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas
6.
1877 in architecture
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The year 1877 in architecture involved some significant events. Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, designed by Giuseppe Mengoni, is completed, galleria dellIndustria Subalpina in Turin, designed by Pietro Carrera, is completed. Manchester Town Hall in Manchester, England, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, is completed, trinity Church in the United States, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, is consecrated. New railway stations for the North Eastern Railway are completed at York, largely designed by Thomas Prosser, maria Pia Bridge in Porto, Portugal, built by Gustave Eiffel, is completed. Rebuilt Ardverikie House in Scotland, designed by John Rhind, is completed, march 22 - Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings established by William Morris and others meeting in Bloomsbury, London. Richard Norman Shaw appointed architect to Bedford Park, London, RIBA Royal Gold Medal - Charles Barry
7.
1877 in music
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This article is about music-related events in 1877. December 30 The premiere of Brahms Symphony No.2 is given in Vienna by the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Hans Richter, peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky marries Antonina Milyukova. Ludwig Thuille and Richard Strauss meet as students at Innsbruck, G. W. Hunt Chopsticks m. Arthur de Lulli Dear Old Pals w. m. G. W. Hunt Early In De Mornin w. m, will Hays In The Gloaming w. Meta Orred m. Annie Fortescue Harrison Little Daisys Request by Arabella M. Root The Lost Chord w. Adelaide Anne Procter m, leon Minkus – La Bayadère Joachim Raff – Violin Concerto no.2 op.206 in A minor Josef Rheinberger – Violin Sonata no.2 op
8.
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
9.
William McGonagall
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William Topaz McGonagall was a Scottish weaver, poet and actor. He won notoriety as a bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for. He wrote about 200 poems, including The Tay Bridge Disaster and The Famous Tay Whale, collections of his verse remain popular, with several volumes available today. McGonagall has been lampooned as the worst poet in British history, the chief criticisms are that he is deaf to poetic metaphor and unable to scan correctly. McGonagalls fame stems from the effects these shortcomings are considered to generate in his work. Scholars argue that his rhythms, weak vocabulary, and ill-advised imagery combine to make his work amongst the most unintentionally amusing dramatic poetry in the English language. His work is in a tradition of narrative ballads and verse written and published about great events and tragedies. In an age before radio and television, their voice was one way of communicating important news to an avid public, William McGonagalls parents, Charles and Margaret, were Irish. It has been suggested that McGonagall may have falsified his place of birth, McGonagall moved north and was apprenticed as a handloom weaver in Dundee, following in his fathers footsteps. In 1846, he married Jean King, they had five sons, despite the industrial revolution slowly making weavers obsolete, McGonagall appeared to prosper, as there was still need for skilled workers to perform tasks of great complexity. Before he showed an interest in poetry, he displayed a keenness for acting, though Mr Giles Theatre, the theatre was filled with his friends and fellow workers, anxious to see what they expected to be an amusing disaster. The play should have ended with Macbeths death, but McGonagall believed the actor playing Macduff was trying to upstage him, by the 1870s, McGonagall and his family were struggling. Work as a weaver was more difficult to find and his oldest daughter shamed the family by giving birth to an illegitimate child, Gilfillan, himself an untrained and poorly-reviewed polemic Christian preacher who occasionally dabbled in poetry, commented admiringly Shakespeare never wrote anything like this. McGonagall realised if he were to succeed as a poet, he required a patron and he received a letter of rejection, written by a royal functionary, thanking him for his interest. vii McGonagall took this as praise for his work. During a trip to Dunfermline in 1879, he was mocked by the Chief Templar, in July 1878, he walked from Dundee to Balmoral, a distance of about 60 miles over mountainous terrain and through a violent thunderstorm to perform for Queen Victoria. When he arrived, he announced himself as The Queens Poet, the guards informed him Youre not the Queens poet. McGonagall presented the letter but was refused entry and had to return home and these were popular, the people of Dundee possibly recognising that McGonagall was so giftedly bad he backed unwittingly into genius. He met with the ire of the publicans, on one occasion being pelted with peas for reciting a poem about the evils of strong drink
10.
Julia A. Moore
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Julia Ann Moore, the Sweet Singer of Michigan, born Julia Ann Davis in Plainfield Township, Kent County, Michigan, was an American poet, or more precisely, poetaster. Like Scotlands William McGonagall, she is famed chiefly for writing bad poetry. Young Julia grew up on her familys Michigan farm, the eldest of four children, when she was ten, her mother became ill, and Julia assumed many of her mothers responsibilities. Her formal education was thereby limited, in her mid-teens, she started writing poetry and songs, mostly in response to the death of children she knew, but any newspaper account of disaster could inspire her. At age 17, she married Frederick Franklin Moore, a farmer, Julia ran a small store and, over the years, bore ten children, of whom six survived to adulthood. She continued to write poetry and songs, moores first book of verse, The Sentimental Song Book was published in 1876 by C. M. Loomis of Grand Rapids, and quickly went into a second printing. A copy ended up in the hands of James F. Ryder, a Cleveland publisher, Ryder sent out numerous review copies to newspapers across the country, with a cover letter filled with low key mock praise. And so Moore received national attention, Following Ryders lead, contemporary reviews were amusedly negative. The Rochester Democrat wrote of Sweet Singer, that Shakespeare, could he read it, if Julia A. Moore would kindly deign to shed some of her poetry on our humble grave, we should be but too glad to go out and shoot ourselves tomorrow. The Hartford Daily Times said that to meet such steady and unremitting demands on the lachrymal ducts one must be provided, as Sam Weller suspected Job Trotter was, with a main, as is allus let on. It was, more or less, the last gasp of that school of poetry that had been broadly popular in the U. S. throughout the mid-19th century. Moore gave a reading and singing performance, with orchestral accompaniment and she managed to interpret jeering as criticism of the orchestra. Moores second collection, A Few Choice Words to the Public appeared in 1878, Moore gave a second public performance in late 1878 at the same opera house. By then she had figured out that the praise directed to her was false and she began by admitting her poetry was partly full of mistakes and that literary is a work very hard to do. Afterwards, her husband forbade her to any more poetry. Three more poems were published, and she would write poems for friends. The ending of Sunshine and Shadow was perhaps intended to be self-referential, according to some reports, though, her husband was not grateful, but embarrassed. Shamed or not, he moved the family 100 miles north to Manton in 1882, moores notoriety was known in Manton, but the locals respected her, and did not cooperate with the occasional reporter trying to revisit the past
11.
Grand Rapids, Michigan
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Grand Rapids is the second-largest city in Michigan, and the largest city in West Michigan. It is on the Grand River about 30 miles east of Lake Michigan, as of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 1,005,648, Grand Rapids is the county seat of Kent County, Michigan. A historic furniture-manufacturing center, Grand Rapids is home to five of the leading office furniture companies. Its more common nickname of River City refers to the landmark river for which it was named. The city and surrounding communities are diverse, based in the health care, information technology, automotive, aviation. Grand Rapids is the hometown of U. S. President Gerald Ford, for thousands of years, succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples occupied the area. Over 2000 years ago, people associated with the Hopewell culture occupied the Grand River Valley, later, a tribe from the Ottawa River traveled to the Grand River valley, fighting three battles with the Prairie Indians who were established in the area. The tribe later split, with the Chippewas settling in the lower peninsula, the Pottawatomies staying south of the Kalamazoo River. In 1740, an Ottawa man who would later be known as Chief Noonday, between 1761 and 1763, Chief Pontiac visited the area annually, gathering over 3,000 natives and asking them to volunteer to fight the British in Detroit, which would culminate into Pontiacs War. The Potawatomi attacked the Ottawa in 1765, attempting to take the Grand River territory but were defeated, by the end of the 1700s, there were an estimated 1,000 Ottawa in the Kent County area. After the French established territories in Michigan, Jesuit missionaries and traders traveled down Lake Michigan, at the start of the 19th century, European fur traders and missionaries established posts in the area among the Ottawa. They generally lived in peace, trading European metal and textile goods for fur pelts and they were French-speaking and Roman Catholic. They likely both spoke Ottawa, Madelines maternal ancestral language, La Framboise, whose mother was Ottawa and father French, later merged her successful operations with the American Fur Company. By 1810, Chief Noonday established a village on the west side of the river with about 500 Ottawa, madeline La Framboise retired the trading post to Rix Robinson in 1821 and returned to Mackinac. The first permanent European-American settler in the Grand Rapids area was Isaac McCoy, general Lewis Cass, who commissioned Charles Christopher Trowbridge to establish missions for Native Americans in Michigan, ordered McCoy to establish a mission in Grand Rapids for the Ottawa. In 1824, Baptist missionary Rev. L. Slater traveled with two settlers to Grand Rapids to perform work, the winter of 1824 proved to be difficult, with Slaters group having to resupply and return before the spring. Slater then erected the first settler structures in Grand Rapids, a log cabin for himself, in 1825, McCoy returned and established a missionary station
12.
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
13.
William Allingham
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William Allingham was an Irish poet, diarist and editor. His wife, Helen Allingham, was a well-known water-colorist and illustrator, William Allingham was born on 19 March 1824 in the little port of Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, and was the son of the manager of a local bank who was of English descent. His younger brothers and sisters were Catherine, John, Jane, Edward, during his childhood his parents moved twice within the town, where the boy enjoyed the country sights and gardens, learned to paint and listened to his mothers piano-playing. When he was nine, his mother died and he obtained a post in the custom-house of his native town, and held several similar posts in Ireland and England until 1870. During this period were published his Poems and Day and Night Songs, lawrence Bloomfield in Ireland, his most ambitious, though not his most successful work, a narrative poem illustrative of Irish social questions, appeared in 1864. He also edited The Ballad Book for the Golden Treasury series in 1864, on 22 August 1874 he married the illustrator, Helen Paterson, who was twenty-four years younger than he. His wife gave up her work as an illustrator and would become known under her married name as a water-colour painter. In 1877 appeared Allinghams Songs, Poems and Ballads, in 1881, after the death of Carlyle, the Allinghams moved to Sandhills near Witley in Surrey, where their third child, Henry William, was born in 1882. At this period Allingham published Evil May Day, Blackberries and Irish Songs, in 1888, because of Williams declining health, they moved back to the capital, to the heights of Hampstead village. But in 1889, on 18 November, William died at Hampstead, according to his wishes he was cremated. His ashes are interred at St. Annes church in his native Ballyshannon, posthumously Allinghams Varieties in Prose was published in 1893. William Allingham A Diary, edited by Mrs Helen Allingham and D. Radford, was published in 1907 and it contains Allinghams reminiscences of Alfred Tennyson, Thomas Carlyle and other writers and artists. Working on a scale, Allingham produced much lyrical and descriptive poetry. His verse is clear, fresh, and graceful and his best-known poem remains his early work, The Faeries. Allingham had a influence on W. B. Yeats, while the Ulster poet John Hewitt felt Allinghams impact keenly, and attempted to revive his reputation by editing, Allinghams wide-ranging anthology of poetry, Nightingale Valley was to be the inspiration for the 1923 collection Come Hither by Walter de la Mare. We darent go a-hunting/For fear of little men, several lines of the poem are quoted by Henry Flyte, a character in issue No.65 of the Supergirl comic book, August 2011. This same poem was quoted in Andre Nortons 1990 science fiction novel Dare To Go A-Hunting
14.
William Johnson Cory
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William Johnson Cory, born William Johnson, was an English educator and poet. He was born at Great Torrington, and educated at Eton and he was a brilliant writer of Latin verse. Although best known for the much-anthologised Heraclitus, an adaptation of an elegy by Callimachus, his poetical work is Ionica. Cory became an assistant master at Eton in 1845 just after graduating from Kings College Cambridge, as a pedagogue he insisted on the centrality of personal ties between teacher and student. The historian G. W. Prothero described him as the most brilliant Eton tutor of his day, Arthur Coleridge described him as the wisest master who has ever been at Eton. He was forced to resign from Eton at Easter 1872 after a letter which Johnson had written to a pupil was intercepted by the parents. No one can be sure of the exact circumstances of his resignation, it notes, adding, There is no question, however. Although he probably did not allow his affections to take any physical form and this conduct was brought to the notice of the headmaster, James Hornby, who demanded Johnsons resignation. Lubenow, who posits that Hornby turfed out William Johnson and Oscar Browning because they were liberal reformers in a highly authoritarian institution, attempted to create a community where power and personality, desire and discipline, and love and learning were integrated. They committed the crime of Socrates, they corrupted youth by creating a world of multiple loyalties, Johnson retired to Halsdon and changed his name on 17 October 1872 to Cory before emigrating for health reasons to Madeira in February 1878, where he married and had a son. He returned to England in September 1882, settling in Hampstead and he was buried at Hampstead on 16 June. Cory is well noted for a letter in which he poignantly and succinctly articulates the purpose of education and his words are taken by many as a justification for studying Latin. The full quotation goes thus, At school you are engaged not so much in acquiring knowledge as in making mental efforts under criticism, in 1924, an entire book devoted to Cory was printed, entitled Ionicus. Brett had begun a correspondence with Cory while at Eton, the dedication mentions three Prime Ministers who at Eton learnt the elements of high politics from IONICUS. With biographical introd. and notes by Arthur C. Benson This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Cousin. A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, london, J. M. Dent & Sons
15.
John Abraham Heraud
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John Abraham Heraud was an English journalist and poet. He published two extravagant epic poems, The Descent into Hell, and The Judgment of the Flood and he also wrote plays, and travel books. He was born in the parish of St Andrews, Holborn, John Abraham, the son, was privately educated, and originally destined for business, but in 1818 began writing for the magazines. Heraud had a circle of literary acquaintances, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, William Wordsworth. Southey was a correspondent, who thought Heraud capable of learning anything, except how to check his own exuberance in verse, Heraud wrote for the Quarterly Review and other reviews, and from 1830 to 1833 assisted in editing Frasers Magazine. There he was sub-editor to William Maginn, taking on literary criticism, at this period he was still in partnership with his father, in legal stationery. The partnership was dissolved in 1841, when he went into the trade on his own in the Chancery Lane area, with the Carlyles Heraud was very close. Thomas Carlyle was well aware of Heraud assiduously cultivating favour, and of James Frasers opinion that Heraud was mad as a March hare, a Journal devoted to Polite Literature, in 1838 and 1839, the Monthly Magazine from 1839 to 1842, and subsequently the Christians Monthly Magazine. In 1843 he became a contributor to The Athenæum, and later served as its dramatic critic until his retirement in 1868, from 1849 to 1879 he was also the dramatic critic of the Illustrated London News. On 21 July 1873, on the nomination of William Gladstone, he was appointed a brother of the London Charterhouse, Heraud was identified as a leading figure in the Syncretics, a proto-aesthetic group mocked in Punch and prominent around 1840. After a few years the excitement around their eclectic approach subsided, a biographer of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who initially took a great interest, has called Heraud in particular a general failure. Other Syncretics were Francis Foster Barham, Richard Henry Horne, Barham and Heraud founded the Syncretic Society, or Syncretic Association. Heraud and Barham took over the Monthly Magazine, and it functioned as the organ of the group in the period 1839 to 1841. Camilla Toulmin gained the impression in 1841, visiting Horne, that there was a group of younger and ambitious men in the Syncretics, for example, the Syncretics took up the Festus of Philip James Bailey. The group also found kinship with, and encouragement from, the New England transcendentalists and he also sent books to Greaves and Heraud, Greaves sent back books including Herauds Lecture on Poetic Genius. Approval of the Monthly Magazine was strong from Alcott, Convers Francis, Heraud published one piece from New England in 1839, an oration by Robert Bartlett. It proved a false start, though, later in the year the transcendentalists founded their own periodical, The Dial, along the same lines. Heraud took Emerson to be a disciple of Carlyle, and was contradicted in The Present, a few years later he was explaining that Swedenborg was to be taken only as an example and inspiration, since the transcendentalist approach was at odds with an established church
16.
Edward Lear
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Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, and is known now mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. As an author, he is principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennysons poetry, Lear was born into a middle-class family at Holloway, North London, the penultimate of twenty-one children of Ann Clark Skerrett and Jeremiah Lear. He was raised by his eldest sister, also named Ann,21 years his senior, owing to the familys limited finances, Lear and his sister were required to leave the family home and live together when he was aged four. Ann doted on Edward and continued to act as a mother for him until her death, Lear suffered from lifelong health afflictions. From the age of six he suffered frequent grand mal seizures, and bronchitis, asthma. Lear experienced his first seizure at a fair near Highgate with his father, the event scared and embarrassed him. Lear felt lifelong guilt and shame for his epileptic condition and his adult diaries indicate that he always sensed the onset of a seizure in time to remove himself from public view. When Lear was about seven years old he began to show signs of depression and he suffered from periods of severe melancholia which he referred to as the Morbids. He was the first major bird artist to draw birds from real live birds, Lears first publication, published when he was 19 years old, was Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots in 1830. One of the greatest ornithological artists of his era, he contributed to John Goulds works and was compared favourably with the naturalist John James Audubon. Unfortunately his eyesight deteriorated too much to work with precision on the fine drawings and etchings of plates used in lithography, thus he turned to landscape painting. Among other travels, he visited Greece and Egypt during 1848–49 and his landscape style often shows views with strong sunlight, with intense contrasts of colour. Between 1878 and 1883 Lear spent his summers on Monte Generoso and his oil painting The Plains of Lombardy from Monte Generoso is in the Ashmolean Museum in the English city of Oxford. Throughout his life he continued to paint seriously and he had a lifelong ambition to illustrate Tennysons poems, near the end of his life a volume with a small number of illustrations was published. In 1842 Lear began a journey into the Italian peninsula, travelling through the Lazio, Rome, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily. In personal notes, together with drawings, Lear gathered his impressions on the Italian way of life, folk traditions, and the beauty of the ancient monuments. Of particular interest to Lear was the Abruzzo, which he visited in 1843, through the Marsica, at Castel di Sangro, Lear described the winter stillness of the mountains and the beautiful basilica
17.
George Moore (novelist)
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George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra and he originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s. There, he befriended many of the leading French artists and writers of the day, as a naturalistic writer, he was amongst the first English-language authors to absorb the lessons of the French realists, and was particularly influenced by the works of Émile Zola. George Moores family had lived in Moore Hall, near Lough Carra, the house was built by his paternal great-grandfather—also called George Moore—who had made his fortune as a wine merchant in Alicante. The novelists grandfather was a friend of Maria Edgeworth, and author of An Historical Memoir of the French Revolution and his great-uncle, John Moore, was president of the Province of Connacht in the short-lived Irish Republic of 1798 during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. George Henry was renowned as a landlord, fought to uphold the rights of tenants. His estate consisted of 5000 ha in Mayo, with a further 40 ha in County Roscommon, George Moore was born in Moore Hall in 1852. As a child, Moore enjoyed the novels of Walter Scott and he spent a good deal of time outdoors with his brother, Maurice George Moore, and also became friendly with the young Willie and Oscar Wilde, who spent their summer holidays at nearby Moytura. Oscar was to later quip of Moore, He conducts his education in public, for a while George was left at Cliffs stables until his father decided to send George to his alma mater facilitated by his winnings. Moores formal education started at St. Marys College, Oscott and he spent all of 1864 at home, having contracted a lung infection brought about by a breakdown in his health. His academic performance was poor while he was hungry and unhappy, in January 1865, he returned to St. Marys College with his brother Maurice, where he refused to study as instructed and spent time reading novels and poems. That December the principal, Spencer Northcote, wrote a report that, by the summer of 1867 he was expelled, for idleness and general worthlessness, and returned to Mayo. His father once remarked, about George and his brother Maurice, in 1868, Moores father was again elected MP for Mayo and the family moved to London the following year. He was freed from any burden of education when his father died in 1870, Moore, though still a minor, inherited the family estate that was valued at £3,596. He handed it over to his brother Maurice to manage and in 1873, on attaining his majority and it took him several attempts to find an artist who would accept him as a pupil. Monsieur Jullian, who had previously been a shepherd and circus masked man, at Académie Jullian he met Lewis Weldon Hawkins who became Moores flat-mate and whose trait, as a failed artist, show up in Moores own characters. While still in Paris his first book, a collection of poems called The Flowers of Passion, was self-published in 1877. The poems were derivative, maliciously reviewed by the critics who were offended by some of the depravities in store for moralistic readers and was withdrawn by Moore
18.
William Morris
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William Morris was an English textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist. Associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement, he was a contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts. His literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, while he played a significant role in propagating the early socialist movement in Britain. Born in Walthamstow, Essex, to a wealthy family, Morris came under the strong influence of medievalism while studying Classics at Oxford University. Webb and Morris designed a home, Red House, then in Kent. In 1861, Morris founded a decorative arts firm with Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Webb, and others, in 1875, Morris assumed total control of the company, which was renamed Morris & Co. Although retaining a main home in London, from 1871 Morris rented the rural retreat of Kelmscott Manor, greatly influenced by visits to Iceland, with Eiríkr Magnússon he produced a series of English-language translations of Icelandic Sagas. In 1877 he founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings to campaign against the damage caused by architectural restoration, in 1891 he founded the Kelmscott Press to publish limited-edition, illuminated-style print books, a cause to which he devoted his final years. Morris is recognised as one of the most significant cultural figures of Victorian Britain, though best known in his lifetime as a poet, founded in 1955, the William Morris Society is devoted to his legacy, while multiple biographies and studies of his work have seen publication. Many of the associated with his life are open to visitors, much of his work can be found in art galleries and museums. Morris was born at Elm House in Walthamstow, Essex, on 24 March 1834. Raised into a wealthy family, he was named after his father. His mother was Emma Morris, who came from Woodford Hall in Woodford, Essex and he also took rides through the Essex countryside on his pony, and visited the various churches and cathedrals throughout the country, marveling at their architecture. His father took him on visits outside of the county, for instance to Canterbury Cathedral, the Chiswick Horticultural Gardens, and to the Isle of Wight, where he adored Blackgang Chine. In February 1848 Morris began his studies at Marlborough College in Marlborough, Wiltshire and he despised his time there, being bullied, bored, and homesick. He did use the opportunity to many of the prehistoric sites of Wiltshire, such as Avebury and Silbury Hill. At Christmas 1851, Morris was removed from the school and returned to Water House, guy, Assistant Master at the nearby Forest School. In June 1852 Morris entered Oxford Universitys Exeter College, although since the college was full and he disliked the college and was bored by the manner in which they taught him Classics
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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
