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Often compared to Scottish literary legend Robert Burns, Robert Tannahill was born around 1774 in Paisley in the county of Renfrewshire. He grew up in a weaving shop and would later be given the name of the ‘weaver poet’, turning as he did to an apprenticeship with his father at the early age of 12 years. From childhood, Tannahill was considered ...
Born in 1750 in Edinburgh, Scottish poet Robert Fergusson was one of the most influential writers of his time despite dying at the tender age of 24. He was brought up initially in Edinburgh but then moved to Dundee where he attended high school before being matriculated to the St Andrews University in 1765. After the death of his father and completing ...
Little is known about the life and history of Myra Brooks Welch. She is popularly known for a single, powerful work of poetry, The Touch of the Master’s Hand, which has appeared in numerous anthologies over the years and been quoted by many, particularly those on the pulpit. Born in 1877 she is said to have written 3 collections of ...
Greek literature scholars have generally considered Theocritus to be the original pastoral poet. Many others have adopted this style since but Theocritus is acknowledged as the greatest. His idylls reflected 3rdC BC life in Greece, a land of roaming flocks of sheep and the shepherds that tended them, and the fishermen who made their living in little boats. As with all other ...
Thomas Wentworth Higginson was a man who lived his life forever conscious of the needs and rights of those less fortunate than himself. An occasional poet and author of hard-hitting articles to American publications he dedicated much of his energy to the abolitionist movement that was gathering pace in the 1840s. He and many other like-minded Americans were appalled that some states still ...
Thomas Love Peacock was an English poet and novelist whose work was mostly of a satirical nature. During his younger years he preferred to spend much of his time out of doors, basically communing with nature. For example, at the age of 21, he took a whole year out from his job in the financial district of London to explore Scotland on foot. ...
Thomas Lovell Beddoes was a curious character whose short life spanned the first half of the 19th century, thus causing him to be referred to, in some literary circles, as "the last Elizabethan” who might be distinguished from other writers of the time by the "quality of his expression”. He was a poet and dramatist and some have called him a great ...
If you could pick an “establishment” character to personify all that was great about England and the British Empire during the Victorian and Edwardian eras it would probably be Sir Henry Newbolt. Although his domestic life flew in the face of “normality”, he was the archetypal English gentleman who stood up for traditional values in behaviour and standards. As a poet ...
Patrick MacGill came from County Donegal, a part of Ireland that has, through history, produced a number of poets and artists. Perhaps it is the romantic nature of the landscape that inspires people to write about it or draw what they see. MacGill rose from humble beginnings to become a revered Irish poet. He is commonly known as "The Navvy Poet" due to ...
One of the great figures in the revival of literature in Ireland, Padraic Colum was born in County Longford in 1881. His father worked in a workhouse for the first 9 years of Colum’s life but then lost his job, prompting him to race to America to take part in the much vaunted gold rush at the time. The rest of ...
