We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.
Nicknamed ‘Bosie’, English poet and author Lord Alfred Douglas was born in 1870 in Worcestershire and is most notable for his relationship with literary giant Oscar Wilde that led to the Irish writer’s imprisonment. Brought up in a well-to-do family, Douglas attended school in Wokingham, went on to Winchester College and then entered Oxford but failed to graduate with ...
Poet and playwright James Elroy Flecker was born in 1884 in Lewisham, London, and went to school in Cheltenham where his father worked as a headmaster. His verses were greatly influenced by the French style Parnassism which grew out of the positivist movement of the early 19th century and, despite his short life, he wrote a number of collections the ...
American poet and novelist Laura Riding was born in New York at the beginning of 1901. She reached poetic maturity earlier than many of her compatriots, publishing a lengthy 500 page work of collected poems when she was still in her 30s but would renounce poetry altogether some ten years later. Riding was brought up by Jewish parents who originally came to ...
Imagine setting a simple challenge to almost anyone in the English speaking world regarding fondly remembered poems and songs from their childhood. Ask them to recite the opening lines of the first poem or song that comes to mind and there is a good chance that the majority would say: “Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are”. It’s one ...
Joaquin Miller (his adopted pen name) was a “frontiersman poet” who lived at the time of great exploration across the American West, moving between mining towns and agricultural areas, spending time in California during the great Gold Rush period. He lived amongst the Modoc Indians for a year and, reputedly, took a Native American woman as his first wife, producing two children. ...
Joanna Baillie was a Scottish poet and playwright at a time when women were not generally known for writing plays and having them performed on stage. Miss Baillie was determined that her plays should be brought to the attention of live audiences rather than just being creations to be read in the same way that her poetry was. In fact she had ...
Ivan Vazov was one of Bulgaria’s famous sons whose name lives on with a theatre in the capital, Sofia, being named after him, along with the national library. He lived through a highly volatile period in his country’s history where Bulgaria struggled constantly to be released from the yoke of Ottoman tyranny. He could probably be accurately described as a revolutionary poet ...
The famous 19th century American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe was best known for her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin which was published in 1852. This gripping story about the terrible conditions that African-Americans were subjected to at that time was a great motivator for other abolitionists like her, especially in the northern states of America. Those in the southern states often took ...
Bulgarian poet and writer, Hristo Smirnenski was born in the small town of Kukush in Macedonia, then a region of the Ottoman Empire before later becoming part of Greece. His poor upbringing in an area that was often prone to militancy led to the growth of his socialist ideals and would color his poetry through his teens and early years. Despite ...
Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli was born at a commune in the province of Forli-Cesena in 1855. He was brought up in a large but wealthy family and his father helped to administer an estate of farm land for the Princes Torlonia. Tragedy struck while Pascoli was just twelve years old when his father was shot and killed by an unknown assassin. The ...
