We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.
Perhaps one of the most well-known poets of the 20th Century, Sir John Betjeman was born in London in 1906. Popular for such poems as Myfanwy and his humorous verse, Betjeman’s Collected Poems that was released in 1958 was one of the biggest selling volumes of poetry at the time. He was born into a middle class London family and went to ...
George Chapman was an English writer and classical scholar whose greatest works were the first translations into English of the classic works by Homer – Iliad and Odyssey. He wrote a great number of dramatic works, some of which were tragedies and some comedies. These received mixed reactions from Elizabethan theatre-goers. His poetry was not really appreciated in his lifetime ...
Born in 1567 in London, Thomas Campion was a prolific poet, talented musician and composer who was very popular during his lifetime. His poetry and music were closely interlinked and he wrote a number of pieces for songs and masques, playing a small but important part in the history of literature in England. His early life was influenced by the low mortality ...
Born in 1837 in Spain, Rosalia de Castro was a part of the autonomous Galician society in the north west of the country and is now considered one of the most well respected romantic poets of the time. She wrote not only in Spanish but also in the Galician language and is closely linked to literary greats such as Eduardo ...
The name Benjamin Franklin is synonymous with the very beginnings of the United States of America. Indeed, he is known as one of the Founding Fathers of the US. He was a true polymath, in that he had so many strings to his bow that it would take a considerable amount of time to discuss all of his attributes. In short though ...
Hovhannes Shiraz was a popular Armenian writer, loved and revered by his fellow countrymen for his writing and for his stance against the government. He was born into great poverty on the 27th April 1915, in Alexandropol, which was part of the Russian Empire. His mother Astghik had been widowed like so many others in the 1915 extermination and deportation of Armenian ...
American poet Larry Levis, born September 30th 1946 in Fresno California, grew up enjoying a rural life of tractor driving and tending grapevines. These experiences, among the Mexican migrant workers on the family farm and later among the tough steel-workers, would influence much of his semi-surrealist poetry. The California landscape in particular would come to have a deep and lasting effect on ...
Born in 1889 in Narbonne, Pierre Reverdy was the epitome of the French poet, influenced by the cubist and surrealist movements of the early 20th Century, and given to exploring loneliness and fear for the spiritual side of life. He was once hailed as the ‘greatest poet alive’ by ardent surrealists and he remains an important figure in world literature with ...
Francis Scott Key, the man who would go on to write the lyrics to the Star- Spangled Banner, was born into a wealthy family in Maryland on August 1st 1779. His father was Captain John Ross Key and his mother was Ann Phoebe Penn Dagworthy. His paternal grandparents were originally from London, England. The family owned a plantation at Terra Rubra, which ...
Multi-award winning American poet and essayist Howard Nemerov was the product of an art-loving family. His father David and mother Gertrude were connoisseurs of art and photography and his sister Diane became a famous photographer. He was the Poet Laureate to the United States from 1988 to 1990, having in 1963/64 been poetry consultant to the Library of Congress and Chancellor of the ...
