We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.
More commonly known as Jim Morrison, this was one of the iconic figures of American rock music of the late 1960s. Morrison was singer and songwriter with The Doors and his cutting, powerful lyrics captivated his audiences. This was, as far as pop culture was concerned, a revolutionary time in America and Morrison tapped into that with a fervour and, sometimes, anger ...
Born in 1863 and largely raised in the United States, George Santayana was a philosopher, poet and writer of Spanish descent, a philosopher at heart who found great meaning in the literary world around him. Born in Madrid, Santayana spent his early days in the city before relocating to Boston to stay with his mother when he was nearly ten years ...
Born in 1914, Henry Reed was a prolific poet and writer, known mainly for his work Naming of Parts written during World War II when he served for a time at the cypher school at Bletchley Park. Reed was born and raised in Birmingham, initially attending King Edward VI School before attending the university and graduating with an MA. He would, ...
Idris Davies was a Welsh poet and teacher who originally wrote in the Welsh language but eventually switched to English. He wrote from a Socialist point of view and had struggled as a working man in the Welsh coalfields during the early 20th century, thus enabling him to write from personal, and sometimes bitter, experience. His work was much admired by another ...
Humbert Wolfe was Italian-born but spent most of his life in England. When his parents emigrated in 1891 the family adopted British nationality and Humbert grew up to become a distinguished poetry writing civil servant, He made such a mark in his government career that he was awarded first the CBE, and later a CB. Although dedicated to his job he found ...
George Crabbe was an English poet, clergyman, surgeon and entomologist who, with the help of some influential friends, established himself as a writer of substance. His work was not, at first, popular but with subsequent revisions, and the patronage of well-known literary figures such as Edmund Burke, Samuel Johnson and William Wordsworth (and many others), Crabbe made his mark as ...
Gaspara Stampa was an Italian poet of the 16th century whose life was tragically cut short through illness. Some would suggest though that she might have died of a broken heart, having been rebuffed by the Count Collaltino di Collalto. This was, after all, the man to whom she dedicated her entire output of poetry, amounting to some 311 poems. Besides being ...
Eliza Cook was a 19th century English writer who grew up in London at a time of great unrest amongst the working classes. Many were angry at the failure of the Reform Act of 1832 to grant free voting to those who did not own property and the famous Chartist Movement was a result. Many writers joined the cause, writing articles in ...
Noted for helping to create and establish the Symbolist Movement at the turn of the 20th Century, Emile Verhaeren was born in 1855 in the Belgian town of Sint-Amands. His parents were reasonably wealthy and he grew up speaking French despite their Flemish roots. When he was ready for school, his father sent the young Emile to a very strict Jesuit ...
Born in Massachusetts in 1863, Ernest Lawrence Thayer was an American poet and writer who is solely remembered for one famous comic verse and the habit he had of signing his poems ‘Phin’. Thayer was born into a fairly wealthy family and had a good education that led him to attend Harvard University in 1885 where he was responsible for editing ...
