MOORE, THOMAS, a celebrated poet, born in Dublin, May 28th, 1779, and was educated at Trinity College in that city. He studied law but never practised. He published two volumes of poems previous to the production ofLalla Rookh, his masterpiece, which was highly successful and was published in 1817. His works are very numerous and some of them are extremely popular, the best beingLalla RookhandIrish Melodies. As a poet he displays grace, pathos, tenderness and imagination, but is deficient in power and naturalness. He died February 26th, 1852.
POE, EDGAR ALLAN, a distinguished American poet and prose writer, born in Baltimore in 1809. He was an entirely original figure in American literature, his temperament was melancholy, he hated restraint of every kind and he gave way to dissipation, and his life is a wretched record of poverty and suffering. But theBells, The RavenandAnnabel Lee, his principal poetical works, are wonderfully melodious, constructed with great ingenuity, and finished with consummate art. He wrote several weird prose tales and some critical essays. He died at Baltimore, under circumstances of great wretchedness, October 7th, 1849.
POPE, ALEXANDER, a popular English poet and critic, born in London, May 22nd, 1688. During his childhood he displayed great ability and resolved to be a poet. HisPastoralswere written at the age of sixteen. He wrote a large number of poems, the most celebrated being; theEssay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lockand theEssay on Man. He also published translations of Homer'sIliadandOdyssey. His talent for satire is conspicuous in theDuncaid. He possessed little originality or creative imagination, but he had a vivid sense of the beautiful, and an exquisite taste. He owed much of his popularity to the easy harmony of his verse, the keenness of his satire, and the brilliancy of his antithesis. He has, with the exception of Shakespeare, added more phrases to the English language than any other poet. He died on the 30th of May, 1744.
PROCTER, ADELAIDE ANNE, an English poet, born in London, October 30th, 1825. She was a daughter of Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall). She was a contributor toHousehold WordsandAll the Year Round, and published in 1858, a volume of poetry,Legends and Lyrics. A second volume was issued in 1861. She died February 3rd, 1864.
READ, THOMAS BUCHANAN, a distinguished American artist and poet, born in Pennsylvania, March 12th, 1822. He visited England and also spent several years in Florence and Rome. He wrote several good poems, but hisSheridan's Ride, brought him more popularity than any of his previous works. He died May 11th, 1872.
ROGERS, SAMUEL, an eminent English poet, born in London, July 30th, 1763. He was a rich banker and enabled to devote much leisure time to literature, of which he was a magnificent patron. His best works arePleasures of Memory, Human Life, andItaly, the last appeared in a magnificent form, having cost £10,000 in illustrations alone. Died December 18th, 1855.
SAXE, JOHN GODFREY, a humorous American poet, born in Vermont, in 1816. He has been most successful in classical travesties and witty turns of language, and he has won a good place as a sonneteer. A complete edition of his poems (the 42nd) was published in 1881.
SCOTT, SIR WALTER. An illustrious Scotch author, novelist and poet, born in Edinburgh, August 15th, 1771. He was called to the bar in 1792, and being in circumstances favourable for the pursuit of literature, he commenced his poetical career, by translating several poems from the German. In 1805, he published theLay of the Last Minstrel, and became at once one of the most distinguished poets of the age. It was speedily followed byMarmionand theLady of the Lake(1810), and many other poems, all of which added to his fame. In August, 1813, he was offered the position of poet-laureate, which he declined. But he was destined to add to his already great reputation as a poet, by a success equally as great in the realms of prose fiction. In 1814 appearedWaverley, published anonymously, and its success was enormous. It was quickly followed by the other volumes of the "Great Unknown," as Scott was now designated, amounting in all to twenty-seven volumes. In 1820 he was created a baronet and his degree of success had been unparalleled and had raised him to apparent affluence, but, in 1826, by the failure of two publishing houses with which he was connected, he was reduced to bankruptcy. He set himself resolutely to redeem himself from the load of debt (£147,000) but, although successful, his faculties gave way before the enormous mental toil to which they were subjected. He died at Abbotsford, Sept. 21st, 1832. In addition to the poetical works and the Waverley Novels, Scott was the author of many other popular works, too well known to need mentioning here.
SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM.—The greatest poet of England, born at Stratford-on- Avon, Warwickshire, April 23rd, 1564. Unfortunately the materials for a biography of the poet are very meagre, and are principally derived from tradition. He appears to have been well educated, married very early, when about nineteen years of age, his wife, Anne Hathaway, being then twenty- six. Shortly after this he left Stratford for London, where he became an actor and eventually a writer of plays. His first printed drama (Henry VI., part II.) was issued in 1594. In 1597, he purchased the best house in his native town, and about 1604 he retired to Stratford, where he spent the last twelve years of life, and where he is supposed to have written many of his plays, but we have no means of determining the exact order in which they were composed. He died April 23rd, 1616. His works are of world-wide fame, and need not be enumerated here. The name is often spelled SHAKSPEARE.
SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE.—An eminent English poet, born near Horsham, Sussex, August 4th, 1792. He studied at Oxford, from whence he was expelled for publishing aDefence of Atheism. He made an unhappy marriage and soon separated from his wife. He publishedQueen Mab, Alsator, and in 1817 theRevolt of Islam. In 1818 he left England, to which he was destined never to return. In July, 1822, (July 8th), while residing at Leghorn, he went out on the Gulf of Spezzia, in a sail boat, which was upset in a squall, and the poet perished. In addition to the poems already mentioned he wroteThe Cenci,Adonais,Prometheus, and a number of smaller pieces. As a poet he was gifted with genius of a very high order, with richness and fertility of imagination, but of a vague and partly unintelligible character.
SHERIDAN, RICHARD BRINSLEY BUTLER.—A celebrated Irish orator and dramatist, born in Dublin in 1751. He directed his attention to literature, and in 1775 produced the comedy ofThe Rivals, and several other pieces. In 1777, his celebrated comedy ofThe School for Scandal, established his reputation as a dramatic genius of the highest order. He managed Drury Lane Theatre for some time, and also entered Parliament. His speech on the impeachment of Warren Hastings is regarded as one of the most splendid displays of eloquence in ancient or modern times. He died in London, in July, 1816.
SOUTHEY, ROBERT.—An eminent author and poet, born at Bristol, August 12th, 1774. Intended for the church, he studied at Oxford, but abandoned divinity for literature. His first poem wasJoan of Arc, published in 1796. He was a most voluminous writer, being the author of more than 100 volumes of poetry, history, travels, etc., and also of 126 papers, upon history, biography, politics and general literature. His principal works areMadoc, Thalaba the Destroyer, The Curse of Kehama, lives ofNelson, Bunyan, John Wesley, etc., etc. He was appointed poet laureate in 1813. He died at Keswick, Cumberland, March 21st, 1843.
TENNYSON, ALFRED (Lord Tennyson), a distinguished and the most popular English poet, born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, August 5th, 1809. He early displayed poetic genius, his first volume (written in conjunction with his brother Charles) entitled,Poems by Two Brothers, having been issued in 1827. In 1842, a volume of his poems was published and was most enthusiastically received, since which period his well-known productions have been issued at intervals. We need only mentionThe Princess, In Memoriam, (a record of the poet's love for Arthur Hallam),Maud, Idyls of the King, Enoch Arden, and the dramas ofQueen Mary, Harold, etc. In 1833 he was appointed poet-laureate. Refined taste and exquisite workmanship are the characteristics of all he has written. His range of poetic power is very wide, and as a describer of natural scenery he is unequalled, while his rich gift of imagination, his pure and elevated diction, and his freedom from faults of taste and manner, give him a high place amongst those who are the great masters of song. He was elevated to the peerage in January, 1884, as Baron Tennyson.
THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE.—A distinguished English novelist and humourist, was born in Calcutta, July 18th, 1811. He I was educated at Cambridge, and at first inclined to be an artist, but after a few years, devoted himself to literature. He gained popularity as a contributor toPunch, but his progress in popular favour was not rapid, until in 1846, when he published hisVanity Fair, one of his best works, which raised him into the first rank of English novelists. His subsequent works all tended to enhance his popularity. We need only mentionPendennis, the Newcomes, History of Henry Esmond, theVirginians, etc. He was also a popular lecturer, and his lectures on theFour Georges, andThe English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century, were very successful. He edited theCornhill Magazinefrom 1860 until April, 1862, when he relinquished it, continuing however to write for the Magazine. He died somewhat suddenly on December 24th, 1863, leaving a novel,Denis Duval, unfinished. His inimitably graceful style, in which he has been excelled by no novelist, may be in part due to his familiarity with Addison, Steele, Swift and their contemporaries. His pathos is as touching and sincere as his humour is subtle and delicate. His fame as a novelist has caused his poems to be somewhat neglected, but his admirable ballads and society verses attain a degree of excellence rarely reached by such performances.
THOMSON, JAMES.—A celebrated poet, born in Roxburghshire, Scotland, September 11th, 1700. He went to London to seek his fortune in 1725, and his poem ofThe Seasons, published in 1726-30, was an important era in the history of English poetry, as it marked the revival of the taste for the poetry of nature. Besides theSeasons, Thomson wrote some tragedies, which were failures, also what some critics consider his best work,The Castle of Indolence, published in 1748. He is often careless and dull, his poetry disfigured by classic allusions to Ceres, Pomona, Boreas, etc., but he had a genuine love of nature, and his descriptions, despite their artificial dress, bear the stamp of reality. He was successful in obtaining a comfortable competence by his literary exertions, and died August 27th, 1748.
TWAIN, MARK (Samuel Langhorne Clemens.) An American humourist, who has achieved great popularity, was born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835, and after an apprenticeship on the "Press," sprang into notice on the publication of hisInnocents Abroad, published in 1869, a semi- burlesque account of the adventures of a party of American tourists in Europe and the East.Roughing It, and other works of his published subsequently, have been equally successful. The qualities of his style are peculiar, slyness and cleverness in jesting being his predominant qualities.
WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF.—The Quaker Poet of America, born December 17th, 1807, near Haverhill, Mass. He passed his early years on his father's farm, but in 1829 he began to be connected with the "Press" and edited newspapers until 1839. He early identified himself with the Anti-Slavery movement and rendered it noble service by his pen and influence. His first work,Legends of New England, was published in 1831. His works are very numerous,Maud Müllerbeing the best known of his poems, andBarbara Frietchieof his poems connected with the Civil War. As a writer of prose he unites strength and grace in an unusual degree, and his poetic effusions are characterized by intense feeling and by all the spirit of the true lyric poet.
WILLIS, NATHANIEL PARKER.—A distinguished American poet and writer, born at Portland, Maine, January 20th, 1806. He graduated from Yale in 1827 and devoted himself to literature, publishing a volume in that year which was well received. He wrote between thirty and forty separate publications, in addition to editing theEvening Mirrorand other periodicals including theHome Journal. Though marred by occasional affectation, the sketches of Willis are light, graceful compositions, but the artificiality of his poems have caused them to be neglected. He died at Idlewild, New York, January 20th, 1867.
WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM.—An illustrious English poet, born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, April 7th, 1770. He studied at Cambridge and took his B. A. degree in 1791. In 1793 (after a residence for a short time in France) he produced his first verses, entitled An Evening Walk. In 1798, a small volume entitledLyrical Ballads, was published in conjunction with ST. Coleridge, but was not a success. In 1800, he settled in Grasmere, Westmoreland, where also resided Southey, Coleridge, de Quincy, and Wilson, to whom the critics applied the term "Lake School." In 1813 he removed to Rydal Mount, where he publishedThe Excursionin 1814,The White Doe of Rylston, Peter Bell, The Waggoner, The Prelude, etc. In 1843 he was appointed to succeed Southey as poet-laureate. He is undoubtedly a poet of the first rank. Regarding Nature as a living and mysterious whole, constantly acting on humanity, the visible universe and its inhabitants were alike to him full of wonder, awe and mystery. His influence on the literature and poetry of Britain and America has been immense, and is yet far from being exhausted. He died April 23rd, 1850.
YOUNG, EDWARD, An English divine and poet, born at Upham, Hampshire, in 1684. He was educated at Oxford, and in 1727 was ordained and appointed to the living of Welwyn, Hertfordshire. As a poet he excels most in hisNight Thoughts, which abound with ornate images, but are often very obscure. He wrote several other works. Died in 1765.