Poetry blog

We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.

Recent posts

Sydney Thompson Dobell Poems

 

Sydney Thompson Dobell was a 19th century English poet and literary critic who belonged to a group called the “Spasmodic School” of writers whose numbers included George Gilfillan and Richard Henry Horne. He was born on the 5th April 1824 in the small town of Cranbrook in Kent into reasonably comfortable circumstances. His father, John Dobell, ran a successful wine business and his mother ...

Sydney Wheeler Jephcott Poems

 

Sydney Jephcott was an Australian poet and cattle farmer, the son of 19th century English immigrants. Apart from his literary achievements he was a journalist and also a remarkably successful exotic tree grower. From seeds introduced in 1874 he helped to create a spectacular arboretum at the family farm and he took great pains to ensure that this important plantation survived throughout ...

Thomas Augustine Daly Poems

 

Thomas Augustine Daly was an Irish-American poet who is more commonly referred to as T A Daly. He was a very popular writer, mainly poetry, but he had many articles published in newspapers and magazines. He also made a good living on the lecturing and after-dinner speaking circuit where he would often recite his own poetry to appreciative audiences. His style was ...

Takuboku Ishikawa Poems

 

Takuboku Ishikawa was a Japanese poet of the early 20th century whose life was tragically cut short by tuberculosis. His writing mostly followed the classical tanka style, although sometimes he used a “modern” or “free-style” method. His early work showed that he favoured naturalist subjects as favoured by the Myojo group but, later, he renounced this style in favour of the “socialist” method of writing. He ...

Tan Da Poems

 

Tan Da was a Vietnamese writer whose work consisted of poetry, essays and plays. He also translated a great deal of literature that had originated from the Chinese Tang Dynasty. He was born Nguyễn Khắc Hiếu sometime during the year 1888. His place of birth was Khe Thuong, close to Hanoi in the Sơn Tây Province of Vietnam. His father was Mandarin Chinese and Tan had ...

Daniel Varoujan Poems

 

Daniel Varoujan was one of the great Armenian poets whose grave misfortune was to be born at the end of the 19th century. Like so many other Armenian men, women and children he was a victim of genocide, perpetrated by the so-called “Young Turk Government” of the powerful Ottoman empire. He was only 31 when he was forcibly marched out of his village, along with ...

Stesichorus Poems

 

The Ancient Greek poet known as Stesichorus is generally accepted as being one of the first lyric poets of the Western World. He takes his place in a group known as the ”Nine Lyric Poets”, in the company of others such as Pindar of Thebes, Sappho of Lesbos and Simonides of Ceos, who were all around during the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries BC. The work ...

Thomas Warton Poems

 

Thomas Warton was one of the so-called “Graveyard Poets” of the English 18th century. His often mournful style, as evidenced in his poem The Pleasures of Melancholy, confirms this assertion. Additionally he was a literary critic, historian and rector of a small parish in Oxfordshire called Kiddington. He is often referred to as the younger, thus distinguishing him from Thomas Warton elder who ...

Thomas Weelkes Poems

 

Thomas Weelkes was an English musician, poet and composer of mostly religious themed pieces, including madrigals and anthems. His skill as an organist was recognised first at Winchester College and then at the prestigious Chichester Cathedral. His date of birth is unclear but it is known that he was baptised on the 25th October 1576 in his home village of Elsted which lies close ...

Thomas William Heney Poems

 

Thomas William Heney was an Australian poet and novelist who also worked as a journalist for different newspapers around the country from the age of sixteen onwards. He was also an occasionally acerbic literary critic and yet he was a gentle, modest man who took his responsibilities as a newspaper editor seriously. He was born on the 3rd November 1862 in Sydney, the ...