We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.
A lyric poet and cleric who lived through the turmoil of the English Civil War, Robert Herrick was born in Cheapside in London in 1591. When he was just one year old, his father died after a fall from a window. The young Herrick was educated at the Merchant Taylor's School before, at the age of 16, going to work as ...
French poet Arthur Rimbaud was born in 1854 in the Ardennes and went on to influence many writers and singers of the 20th century including Dylan Thomas, Nabokov and even Bob Dylan. Reputed to have little moral sense and a deep restlessness, he began writing poems at a very early age but stopped suddenly when he was just 21 years ...
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930, Derek Walcott was born in the West Indies in 1930. Perhaps best known for his epic work Omeros, a re-imagining of the Trojan War in modern times, Walcott first started out as a painter but developed a love of writing and published his first poem at the age of 14. Brought up in ...
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a painter and poet born in London in 1828 and was co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which attracted many of the most notable artists and writers of the day. His parents were Italian immigrants who home educated the young Rossetti, allowing him access to classic works by the likes of Shakespeare and Byron. He wanted to ...
Patrick Kavanagh came into this world on the 21st October 1904 in Mucker townland, Iniskeen parish, County Monaghan. He had 9 siblings, and his parents were James Kavanagh and Bridget Quinn. James Kavanagh made shoes and also farmed a few acres of land. Following Patrick’s schooling in Kednaminsha National School he left, at thirteen years old to work on the family farm. ...
A Hindi poet, author and specialist in comedy and satire, Ashok Chakradhar was born in February 1951 and has developed his craft to a high standard. Little exists in English on the Internet about his background but it is believed that he is related to Kaka Hathrasi, a noted Hindi poet. He is married to Kaka’s niece. Educated well, he has pursued a ...
Synonymous with the Great War, poet Siegfried Sassoon was born in 1886 in Kent, England, and went on to epitomize the essence of the anti-war poet. Sassoon came from a well-to-do family, a father who came from a Jewish merchant family and a mother who was Catholic and part of an artistic family, the Thorneycrofts. Theirs was not a happy relationship, ...
Octavio Paz, renowned poet, writer and essayist, was born in Mixcoac – now Mexico City – on 31st March 1914. His mother was Josefina Lozano and his father was Octavio Paz Solorzano, also a writer and an active supporter of the Mexican Revolution. His grandfather was a novelist and publisher and young Octavio, by virtue of access to his grandfather’s extensive library, ...
Born in New Mexico in 1952, Jimmy Santiago Baca was brought up by his own grandmother after his abandonment by his parents but was then taken to an orphanage from where he ran away at the age of thirteen. He lived rough on the street for a while then in 1973 he was arrested and convicted of ...
Born in Southampton in 1674, Isaac Watts was famous for writing many of the hymns we know and love today. To some, he is considered the father of hymnody in England, a theologian and logician but also a non-conformist whose hymns are still sung today and have been translated into many languages across the world. He was reputedly nursed on the steps ...
