Born in Middlesex in 1664, Matthew Prior was a poet and experienced diplomat and is noted for the range of work that he produced from humorous poems to more ambitious epic works. Although he was largely successful as a poet, he often treated it as a pleasurable pastime rather than a true calling. His father was a joiner and moved to London ...
Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto was born in Reggio Emilia in 1474. His father was the commander of the city and Ariosto was the eldest of ten children. Although he was to study law in his youth, as was the practice of the day, the young man quickly developed an enduring love of poetry and learned about the classics for a while ...
Born in Petrograd in 1915, Konstantin Simonov was known largely for his moral boosting poetry written during the Second World War. His father was a member of the Tzar's army but left for Poland after the 1917 revolution, dying there a few years later. Simonov spent much of his childhood near Moscow in the town of Ryazan where his stepfather worked ...
Born in London in 1802, Letitia Elizabeth Landon went on to become a writer and poet who published under the initials L.E.L. for much of her short life. She was hailed by the likes of Elizabeth Barrett Browning as one of the leading lights of women’s poetry in the 19th century. As a child she exhibited a voracious appetite for ...
Born in London in 1920, Leo Marks gained fame as a cryptographer during World War II but was also a poet and a screenwriter of some repute later in life. Marks was educated at St Paul’s School in London but did not go to University as many of his peers did. He was the son of a bookseller and became interested in ...
Understandably there is very little recorded about the life of the Roman philosopher and poet Lucretius because he was born before the birth of Christ. One thing that is fairly certain though is that he wrote one poem of great length which he called De rerum natura. This was based on the teachings and beliefs of a Greek philosopher called Epicurus who ...
Margaret Postgate Cole was a significant figure in the Socialist movement in Britain during the early decades of the 20th century. Besides writing many pamphlets and publishing books on socialism she actively engaged in political activities, notably during the First World War. She joined the peace movement, supporting those men who refused to fight. A member of the No-Conscription Fellowship, along with ...
Léonie Adams was a multi-award winning American poet whose life spanned most of the 20th century. In 1948 she was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She was the seventh holder of this honour and held the post for two years. Additionally she was a teacher of English at a number of different American colleges and she ...
Katharine Lee Bates was a popular American poet and songwriter who will forever have a place in the hearts of all Americans. She wrote a poem which was set to music and it became one of her country’s favourite anthems – America The Beautiful. Perhaps her second most famous piece of work added to the legend of Santa Claus by giving the fabled ...
The English-born writer James Henry Leigh Hunt was a controversial figure who attracted the patronage of more successful writers than himself while, on occasions, appearing to openly criticise his benefactors in print. Hunt wrote and had published a great deal of poetry but he also turned his hand to plays, some of which were staged in the London theatres. Besides this he ...
