William Roscoe was an English poet whose most famous piece of work was a children’s poem called The Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast. He had strong religious beliefs, as a Unitarian and Presbyterian, and he was a leading campaigner for the abolition of slavery. He spoke out vehemently against this trade even though his home town prospered on it. At different times ...
William Shenstone was an 18th century British poet and landscape gardener. He can be recalled alongside the famous Capability Brown as one of the first landscape gardeners, with Shenstone being responsible for significant work that was carried out at his estate near Halesowen, The Leasowes, which lies in England’s West Midlands. He was born on the 18th November 1714 at Leasowes into very comfortable ...
William Sharp was a Scottish poet, novelist and biographer of other literary figures such as Walter Scott and Charles Swinburne. He edited their poetry, along with the likes of Ossian, Eugene Lee-Hamilton and Matthew Arnold. While he wrote using his own name, much of his work was written using the pseudonym Fiona Macleod. He was born on the 12th September 1855 in Paisley, ...
The slightly exotically named William Shakespeare Hays was an American poet and also a prolific song writer, credited with over 350 songs which sold in their millions. One of the most famous songs that he may, or may not, have written was the classic Dixie and Hays certainly laid strong claims to it (mostly unsubstantiated). The controversy over ownership of it rumbled ...
Colonel William Stewart Hawkins was an American Confederate soldier poet of the Civil War era whose life was tragically cut short soon after being released from captivity. While he was incarcerated he wrote about the suffering of the men in his charge, for they had elected him their leader and representative. He wrote at least two poems of great poignancy at this ...
