Born in New South Wales in 1813, Australian poet and writer Charles Harpur was the son of freed convicts who greatly encouraged his education. His father had become a school teacher in the small town of Windsor and exposed his son to the likes of Shakespeare and Milton from an early age. Although not one of Australia’s major poets, Harpur produced ...
Puritan minister Cotton Mather was born in Boston in 1663 and was one of the most influential religious voices, producing a wide range of sermons and writings during colonial days in the Americas. He was born into a family of well-known ministers including his father Increase Mather. He went to the Latin School in Boston before heading to Harvard where he ...
Often remembered more for his political opposition to the Corn Laws rather than as a poet, Ebenezer Elliott was born in Yorkshire in 1781. He would grow up to own a factory at the start of the industrial revolution would be declared bankrupt and register his discontent with the lot of the common man through his poetry. His father was intensely religious, ...
Paruyr Sevag led a relatively short life, cut short by a suspicious car crash, but his work had such an impact that he was considered to be one of the outstanding Armenian poets of the 20th century. From humble beginnings he became a well-educated man who filled university posts at different times as a translating professor and a scientific researcher. He also ...
Aristophanes was one of the greatest Greek playwrights and poets of his time. His most notable skill was probably to be found in some of his comic plays which contained often satirical, and sometimes cruel, barbed comments about Greek society in general and some of the most well-known figures within it. A startling example was found in a play called The ...
