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Thomas Percy was a clergyman and poet who made a significant contribution to the great Romantic movement when he published Reliques of Ancient English Poetry in 1765. This book has been generally recognised as being the first of many great collections of ballads and inspired countless other poets to follow Percy in this style of writing. He was born on the 13th April ...
Thomas Randolph was a popular 17th century English poet and playwright whose humorous work was much admired by the famous writer and literary critic Ben Jonson. He was born on the 15th June 1605 in the Northamptonshire village of Newnham, close to Daventry. He lost his mother at the age of eight having just given birth to Thomas’s sister. By the time his ...
Thomas Shadwell was a 17th century English poet and playwright. His efforts as a writer earned him the coveted title of Poet Laureate in 1689 and he was also appointed historiographer royal. He was born some time during the year 1642 into comfortable family circumstances. His home was Stanton Hall in Norfolk and his family sent him to be educated at Bury St ...
Thomas Sturge Moore was an English writer whose poetry output was considerable but he also wrote a number of plays, the first of which was staged in 1901 and was described as "powerful with a beautiful constrained passion" by the famous Irish writer W B Yeats. Moore was also an accomplished artist and wood-engraver and his artistic designs can be found on the ...
Thomas Tickell was an English poet, politician and man of letters. He was closely associated with the Whig parliamentary party and filled government posts including Under Secretary positions to prominent figures in Ireland. Amusingly some gave him the nickname ‘Whigissimus’ because of his political allegiance. He was born on the 17th December 1685 in the small parish of Bridekirk which is close to the ...
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin, whose name is more often spelled as Esenin, was a well-known and popular Russian lyric poet of the 20th century whose life was tragically cut short at the age of only 30. He was born on the 3rd October 1895 in the small village of Konstantinovo which lies in the Ryazan Governorate of Russia. His family were poor peasants and Sergei ...
Seumas MacManus was an Irish poet and playwright who had a special talent for the ancient art of storytelling. He thrilled audiences everywhere with his verbal interpretation of old Irish folk tales. The Irish word for a natural story teller was seanchaí, and MacManus was considered to be the last exponent of this ancient art. He always claimed that he had learned this ...
The middle-eastern medieval poet Shams al-Din Hafiz, also known as Hafiz of Shiraz, was famous as a “reciter”. He claimed that he had the ability to recite the Qur'an in at least fourteen different forms although his biographer and friend, Muhammad Gulandam, stated that this number should be no higher than seven. He was born Khwajah Shams al-Din Muhammad Ibn-i Muhammad some time during ...
Toson Shimazaki is the pen-name used by a Japanese poet and fiction writer whose work varied from a romantic style initially, progressing towards one known as “naturalism”. He was able to show people and events exactly how they were with no embellishment or distortion of the facts. Toson produced his work during the Meiji, Taisho and early Showa periods of Japanese history. Toson was born Shimazaki Haruki on ...
Shlomo ibn Gabirol was a Jewish poet and philosopher from the 11th century who is also known by the names Solomon ibn Gabirol and Solomon ben Judah. It is believed that he had over a hundred poems published and much of his work was of a biblical and philosophical nature. There must have been a mystical side to his character because it was ...
