Born in Lancashire in 1859, Francis Thompson was a colorful character best known for his poem The Hound of Heaven. He spent a period of time as a vagrant and opium addict and even attempted to commit suicide before getting his life back together at a priory in Storrington. Even though he discovered some success with his poetry in later years, ...
Although he was born in Leicestershire in England in 1642, when the monarchy was restored after the Civil War Edward Taylor sailed to America where he became one of its foremost colonial poets. He was a puritan at heart and served as a minister in Massachusetts for nearly fifty years. He grew up during the upheaval of the Civil War in England ...
Keith Douglas, like many others of his generation, was unfortunate to be born at the time that he was. The Second World War was breaking out when he was only 19 years old so it was inevitable that he would follow his father’s former path into the Army and then, of course, take his chances with whatever dangers came his way. In ...
American Vachel Lindsay was most well-known for writing poetry that could be sung and was involved most of his in trying to revive the musical quality of verse. He was born in 1879 in Illinois and went on to become one of the most well-known poets of the early part of the 20th Century. Raised in Springfield in a well to do ...
In 8th Century China, Wang Wei was one of the most renowned poets and artists of the age and around 400 of his works survive to this day. He was born into aristocracy in 699 in Jinzhong and spent much of his life as a government official, as well as rising to the high status of a poet. Wang Wei was a ...
