We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.
Born in 1769 in Norwich, writer Ameila Opie was perhaps best known for her prose work but also published a number of individual poems and collections during her lifetime. She was brought up in a reasonably affluent family, her father was a physician and her cousin a prominent judge in the region. She was a fervently political individual at a time ...
Born in 1907 in the Snowy Mountain region of New South Wales, Alec Derwent Hope was a prolific Australian poet and satirical writer. His father was a minister and the young Hope spent his education at Fort Street School for Boys in Sydney and then moved on to take a BA at the nearby university. After winning a scholarship, Hope found ...
Vitezslav Nezval was a Czech born writer of the 20th century who became known as one of the leading surrealist poets of his time. During the 1920s and 1930s his writing output was considerable and he made a point of travelling to Paris as often as possible so that he could exchange his ideas with French surrealist poets. In 1934 he set ...
William Brighty Rands was an English writer of the 19th century who specialised in writing for children. For some time he was a chapel preacher and wrote a number of inspirational, original hymns that have been included in Congregational hymn books. He was a shy, sometimes eccentric, man who clearly didn’t actively seek fame and fortune as a poet and novelist, as ...
Witter Bynner lived the Bohemian lifestyle as a poet in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. He alternated his time between east and west coasts, writing and seeking out the company of well-known literary figures and movie stars of the day. He also travelled extensively in Europe and Asia, becoming an avid student and translator of ancient ...
The 18th century English romantic poet Ann Yearsley was remarkable in that she had no education to speak of, having grown up in a fairly rustic environment, and yet she was one of the most accomplished, working class female poets of her day. She married a yeoman farmer and worked as a milkmaid on the farm but, despite these humble beginnings, she ...
Allan Ramsay was a great Scottish pastoral poet whose six children included his eldest son (of the same name) who became an accomplished artist, with many examples of his portrait painting hanging in the National Galleries of England and Scotland. Allan Ramsay Snr though was a wig maker by profession, and very successful at it, who also had a number of collections ...
Living most of his life in the agricultural district of Dehu in India, Bhakti poet and visionary Sant Tukaram was born in 1606 and initially lived a normal childhood that was quite unremarkable. Although he was believed to be from what is called a ‘lower caste’ family, they were reasonably well off and afforded a comfortable status within the local community. ...
Greek poet Theognis lived around the sixth century BC and is generally thought of in the same vein as Homer and Hesiod as one of the earliest writers to whom we can ascribe specific works. Indeed, Theognis can be considered one of the first lyric writers who were actually concerned how their works would last in the years to come. As with ...
Born in 1805 in Old Harlow, a well to do part of Essex, poet and writer Sarah Flower Adams was perhaps best known for her epic dramatic poem Vivia Perpetua which was written shortly before her untimely death from tuberculosis and the hymn Nearer, My God, To Thee. She was born into a talented family. Her sister went on to become ...
