Jonathan Swift Poems

 

Irishman Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667 and is probably best known today for the fantasy work Gulliver’s Travels. As a satirist, cleric and poet he has influenced writers and artists down the ages, including John Ruskin and George Orwell. Although known for his writing, he also went on to become Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral in ...

Sir Walter Scott Poems

 

Known for popular historical novels such as Ivanhoe and The Pirate, writer and poet Sir Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1771. He is notable in that he was popular throughout his lifetime and earned an international reputation that was highly unusual for the time. Many of his works are still seen as classics today and they have been ...

Czeslaw Milosz Poems

 

Considered one of the greatest Polish literary figures Czeslaw Milosz was born the 30th June 1911 to a Catholic family in the small village of Szetejnie, which was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His father Aleksander was a qualified civil engineer, whilst his mother Weronika was of noble descent.  Fluent in Polish, Lithuanian, Russian and French, he saw himself as ...

Lisel Mueller Poems

 

Lisel Mueller was born in Germany in 1924 but when the Nazi’s came into power her family immigrated to America where she became a much loved poet and translator. Her work explores the difference between what we present publicly and our private, individual selves that people rarely get to see. Over the years she has collected many literary awards including the ...

Geoffrey Chaucer Poems

 

Son of a wine merchant and born in London around 1340, Geoffrey Chaucer is often considered as the first truly great English writer and is most well-known for his work The Canterbury Tales. Familiar to literary students across the world, this series of poems recounts the stories of various people whilst on a pilgrimage to Canterbury and is written in Middle ...