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Sir Francis Bacon is remembered by historians as a great philosopher, scientist and politician. His life seemed to be a constant series of peaks and troughs where he was, at one time, the Lord Chancellor of England and therefore the most powerful man in the land. But then there were times when he was mired in debt and, in fact, he had ...
Sir John Suckling lived a very short life in the first half of the 17th century and has been described, by many historians, in terms such as “cavalier playboy” or “fop”. He was much more than that though and, at the tender age of 18, was sent abroad in an ambassadorial role by King Charles I. He also carried out military service ...
Born in 1802 in Keswick, Sara Coleridge was the daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and an accomplished writer in her own right. She was brought up under the literary security of Greta Hall, brushing shoulders with the Wordsworths and their son William who lived nearby, and this environment seems to have been the prime source of her education. Coleridge was largely ...
Born in 1897 in the Essex town of Ilford, Ruth Pitter was an English poet who for most of the 20th Century contributed to the literary landscape of the United Kingdom. Her life brought her into contact with such literary greats as C. S. Lewis, George Orwell and even Hilaire Belloc, who helped her to publish her first ...
Born around 1558 in the West Ham area of London, Thomas Lodge was an Elizabethan writer who is often considered one of England’s earliest satirists with works such as A Fig for Momus. Lodge was raised in an educated family – his father was Lord Mayor of London – and he went to Merchant Taylor’s School before progressing to Oxford University. There ...
Thomas Nashe was an Elizabethan pamphleteer who courted controversy but, during his short life, was also one of the most prolific and influential satirists and poets of the time. He was born in Lowestoft in 1567, his father a curate who later gained a post at West Harling where the family moved when Nashe was just six years old. At the age ...
Born in 1778, in Zakynthos, Italian poet, soldier and revolutionary Ugo Foscolo was an atheist who believed in the ‘eternal void’ and was an illuminist and pre-Romantic known for various translations and his poem Dei Sepolcri. His father worked as a doctor in Croatia but died when Foscolo was just ten years old, an event that then led the family to ...
Phoebe and her sister Alice were 19th century American poets who grew up writing together, Alice being the older by four years. They initially published their poetry jointly before eventually producing separate bodies of work once both names were established amongst the American literati. It has been suggested by many critics that Phoebe was a more able poet than her sister although ...
Rabiʿah al-Basri was also known as Rabiʻa al-ʻAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya and it is believed that she lived in Basra, in Iraq, in the first century AD. Her name “al-Basri” certainly suggests that she was a native of Basra but, as with all historical records from so long ago, much of what has been written down relies on speculation and legends passed down. It ...
Now here is what can best be described as a somewhat understated American poet. Robert Francis lived a long life spanning most of the 20th century and wrote mostly gentle, lyrical poetry. There were no strident, political statements from him; no revolutionary ranting. He just wrote as clearly and concisely as he could and many have compared his style to that of ...
