We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.
An influence on such movements as the Harlem Renaissance, Fenton Johnson was a poet and short story writer who was born in Chicago in 1888. His father was a porter for the railways and the Johnsons were considered well-off for an African American family at the time and even owned their house on State Street. Fenton Johnson had no real pretensions ...
Poet Friedrich von Schiller was born in Marbach, Württemberg, Germany, in 1759, and is most notable for his involvement in the later years of his life with the Weimarer Klassic cultural movement along with his friend Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Whilst he was brought up with his mother and four sisters, the family moved to Lorch when Schiller’s father returned from military ...
Often considered as the forefather of the heroic couplet, Edmund Waller was a politician and poet who was born in Buckinghamshire in 1606. After living for a while in Amersham, the Waller family moved to Beaconsfield where the young Edmund was educated by a series of, what he would later describe as, dull tutors. When he was 10 years old, his ...
Daniel Defoe was an influential man whose life spanned the 17th and 18th centuries. He was responsible for a huge output of written work. He wrote poetry, novels and, in his famous travelogue covering the whole of Great Britain, he wrote a masterpiece that captured the essence of the British Isles in great detail. He was also a journalist when such an ...
Boris Vian’s life in 20th century France was short and yet he managed to cram a great deal into his short life. Apart from being a writer of many plays, novels, poems, songs and opera librettos he was a qualified civil engineer and jazz musician. Music was probably his first love as, in truth, his writing did not meet with as much ...
During the 18th century the Wesley family were at the forefront of the new Methodist movement which was effectively an offshoot of the Anglican church. Charles Wesley’s own father was an Anglican clergyman. Many attribute the rise of the Methodist church to his brother, John Wesley, but it is likely that they could claim equal responsibility for it. It is interesting ...
The exotically named Adelaide Crapsey was a New York-born poet and English literature teacher whose short life was tragically cut short by tuberculosis. Her poetry output was fairly substantial but she will best be remembered by students of 19th and 20th century poets as the inventor of a writing technique called “the cinquain”. This was probably born out of her love of ...
Arthur Hugh Clough was an English 19th century poet who managed to pack an awful lot into the short time that he had. His output was relatively small but he added to his CV terms as Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge and University Hall at University College, London. He travelled extensively around Europe and spent time in the United States of America. ...
Born in 1782 in London, Ann Taylor was a much loved poet and critic who came from one of the most literary gifted families of the time. Ann’s poetic career started early when she began to write verses for children which gained her a long term popularity but she is most widely known for her collaborations with older sister Jane. Her father ...
Co-founder of the Poetry Society of America, Arthur Guiterman was born in Vienna in 1871 to American parents who lived in Austria before returning to New York when their son was three years old. In his teens, Guiterman attended public school before graduating and heading for New York City College. He was more interested in athletic and dramatic pursuits than academic ...
