Looking at the picture of Spike Milligan (1918-2002) one can hardly deny the presence of a laugh behind the eyes and smile. Completely severed from the classical poets such as Milton and Donne, and estranged from modern poets, Milligan has been mostly viewed as a poetic comic rather than a serious poet. This conclusion is not without some merit. His works, apart ...
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) started writing poetry at a young age. From the repetition in the art of poetry her work is vast and well known. As an African American poet who grew up in Chicago, Illinois, during a time of strong racial contrasts, her work has become inspirational to a great many people. Her talents in poetry marked her as the first ...
American writer, poet and clergyman Henry Van Dyke was born in 1852 in Germantown, in the State of Pennsylvania. His father was a member of the Presbyterian church and, as a minister, was the main influence on the young Van Dyke in his formative years. As well as two nationally known stories for Christmas, The Other Wise Man and The ...
Irish novelist and poet James Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882, the oldest of ten children, and became one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Probably best known for his novels Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegan’s Wake, he was also an accomplished poet. Joyce was considered a highly intelligent child although ...
Margaret Atwood is a poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist and environmental activist. The daughter of Carl Edmund, a forest entomologist and Margaret Dorothy, a nutritionist and dietician, she was born on the 18th of November, 1939 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The family moved to Toronto when she was seven years old. Her childhood was divided between English-speaking Ottawa and French-speaking Quebec. ...
