The Columbia History of British Poetry (169 page)

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poems published at his own expense. Appointed Professor of Latin at Cambridge (1911), Housman is also known for
The Name and Nature of Poetry
(1933) and
Praefanda
(1931).
Ted Hughes (1930)
Born in Yorkshire and educated at Cambridge, Edward James Hughes married Sylvia Plath (1956) and published
Hawk in the Rain
the same year he visited America (1957). His early works such as
Lupercal
(1960) and
Crow
(1970) emphasize the cunning and savagery of animal life and make use of the dialect of Hughes's native West Riding. Appointed poet laureate (1984), Hughes completed
Remains of Elmet
(1979),
River
(1983), and several plays for children.
Lionel Johnson (18671902)
Born in Kent, Johnson attended Oxford (1886) and joined the Roman Catholic Church (1891). A close friend of Yeats, whose early work he influenced, Johnson edited
The Irish Home Reading Magazine
(1894) and was a member of the Irish Literary Society in London. He wrote
Poems
(1895),
Ireland with Other Poems
(1897), and
Complete Poems
(1953), as well as a study of Thomas Hardy (1894). His alcoholism, confessed in "Mystic and Cavalier," is depicted along with his vivid personality in Yeats's
Autobiographies
(1955).
Samuel Johnson (17091784)
Born in London, Johnson was afflicted with scrofula, which affected his sight. He attended Oxford (17281729) and suffered as under-master at Market Bosworth, before moving to Birmingham, marrying a widow (1735), and starting a school. He wrote for
The Gentleman's Magazine
, began
The Rambler
(17501752), and received the honorary doctorate the same year he published his
Dictionary
(1755). His poetry includes
London
(1738) and
The Vanity of Human Wishes
(1749).
Rasselas
(1759) and
The Lives of the English Poets
(17791781) are among his more popular prose works.
David Jones (18951974)
Born in Brockley, Kent, David Michael Jones attended Westminster Art School (19191921). His engravings for the Chester Cycle play, "The Deluge," and for Coleridge's "The Ancient Mariner" (19241929), were followed by water color paintings displayed in Venice (1934) and the National Gallery (19401942). His writings include
In Parenthesis
(1937), which reflects his experiences as a soldier in World War II;
The Anathemata
(1952), which draws upon his conversion to Catholicism (1921), and
The Tribune's Visitation
(1969).
 
Page 657
Ben Jonson (1572/31637)
Born in Westminster and educated at Westminster School, Jonson worked as a bricklayer and served in the military in Flanders. Imprisoned for contributing to
The Isle of Dogs
(1597), Jonson converted to Roman Catholicism temporarily and killed an actor in a duel upon his release (1598). Jonson tutored Ralegh's son (16121613) and received a pension from James I (1616). A playwright and regarded as the first poet laureate, Jonson wrote nondramatic verse including
Epigrams
(1616),
The Forest
(1616), and
Underwoods
(1640). Jonson suffered a stroke (1628) and was probably bedridden until his death.
John Keats (17951821)
Born in London, Keats entered Guy's Hospital (1815), received his license as an apothecary (1816), and published
Poems
(1817) to harsh reviews. In 18171818 he finished a draft of
Endymion
and met Wordsworth and Hazlitt. Touring the Lake District with Charles Brown, Keats visited Scotland and Northern Ireland; nursed his brother Tom until his death (1818); and moved into Brown's house in Hampstead. There he met Fanny Brawne, whom he loved in illness and despair. During this time he began
Hyperion
, completed "Lamia," and wrote his famous odes (1819). Too ill to continue writing, he traveled to Rome where he died of tuberculosis, nursed by his friend Joseph Severn.
Rudyard Kipling (18651936)
Born in Bombay, Kipling was separated from his parents and sent to Southsea, England (1871), which inspired a short story (1888) and a novel,
The Light That Failed
(1890). Kipling joined the United Services College, Westward Ho! (1878), an experience recorded in
Stalkey and Co.
(1899). In 1882 he returned to India, worked as a journalist, and published stories and poems gathered in such volumes as
Departmental Ditties
(1886). In 1889 he moved to London, married Caroline Balestier, and published
Barrack Room Ballads
(1892). The Kiplings lived in Vermont (18921896) and various parts of England before settling in Sussex (1902). In 1909 he became the first English author to receive the Nobel prize.
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (18021838)
Landon published her first poem, "Rome," in William Jerdan's
Literary Gazette
. Her published verse includes
The Fate of Adelaide
(1821),
The Improvisatrice
(1824),
The Troubadour
(1825),
The Golden Violet
(18261829), and
The Venetian Bracelet
(1828). Motivated by the financial need of her family, she wrote for, and edited, periodicals. Landon's engagement to biographer John Forster was broken off. She secretly married George MacLean, governor of Cape Coast Castle, and sailed with him for Africa. She was found dead in her room, probably from an overdose of prussic acid.
 
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William Langland (1330?1386?)
Author of
Piers Plowman
, a religious allegory in alliterative verse, Langland has been the subject of much speculative biography. He may have lived in Malvern Hills and attended Trinity College, Dublin. Scholars assume he was a cleric in minor orders who was influenced by the asceticism of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Philip Larkin (19221985)
Born in Coventry and educated at Oxford (1943), Larkin worked as a librarian at Wellington in Shropshire, as well as at universities in Leicester, Belfast, and Hull (1955). He wrote a column on jazz records for
The Daily Telegraph
(19611971), and two novels,
Jill
(1946), and
A Girl in Winter
(1947).
The Less Deceived
(1955) established his reputation as a poet and was followed by
Whitsun Weddings
(1964) and
High Windows
(1974). His prose is collected in
Required Writing
(1983).
D. H. Lawrence (18851930)
David Herbert Lawrence was born in Nottinghamshire and attended University College, Nottingham, before working as a junior clerk in a surgical appliance factory (1904), and as a pupil-teacher (1907). He married Frieda Weekley, a German aristocrat (1914), and traveled with her to Ceylon, Australia, New Mexico, and Mexico (1922), before dying of tuberculosis in France. He published numerous short stories, novels, travel books, and collections of verse, including
Love Poems
(1913),
Look! We have Come Through!
(1917) and
Pansies
(1929).
Mary Leapor (17221746)
Born in Northamptonshire, Leapor worked as a kitchen maid in a gentleman's family. As a child, she read Dryden and Pope, whose verse she imitated in an "Essay on Friendship" and "An Essay on Hope." Her "Poems On Several Occasions," edited by Isaac Hawkins Browne, appeared in two separately published volumes (1748, 1751). Admired by Cowper, she wrote an ''Essay on Women" and a blank verse tragedy, "The Unhappy Father." She satirized the patronage system and upper-class marriage, and commented upon the moral dangers of enforced obedience for young girls.
Matthew Gregory Lewis (17751818)
Born in London and educated at Oxford and Weimar, Lewis entered the diplomatic service and held a seat in the House of Commons (17961802). After his father's death (1812), he twice visited the sugar plantations in Jamaica that were the source of his wealth. His best-known work,
The Monk
(1796), includes poems that captivated Walter Scott, among others. Coleridge
 
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accurately described "The Isle of Devils: A Metrical Tale," published with Lewis's
Journal of a West Indian Proprietor
(1834), as "a fever dream, horrible."
Sir David Lindsay (1486?1555)
Lindsay was Lyon King of Arms, equerry in the royal service, and attendant to the future James V (15121522). Dismissed from court when James V was influenced by the Douglas faction, he returned (1528) to represent the king on diplomatic missions to Charles V (1531), Henry VIII (1544), and other European monarchs. His works include a morality play (
Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis
, 1540), a verse allegory (
The Dreme
, 1528), and a celebration of the king's escape from the Douglas faction (
The Testament and Complaynt of Our Soverane Lordis Papyngo
, 1530). He also wrote a work of poetic abuse ("flyting") (1536) and a satire of court life from the perspective of a dog (1536?).
Michael Longley (1939-)
Born in Belfast and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Longley was a schoolteacher and then Combined Arts Director of the Northern Ireland Arts Council. Praised for his lyric poetry, Longley wrote
No Continuing City
(1969),
Selected Poems
(1981), and
Poems, 19631983
(1985).
Richard Lovelace (16181657/8)
Heir to estates in Kent, Lovelace received his M.A. from Oxford (1636), and fought for Charles I during the Bishops' Wars (16391640). Imprisoned for presenting a royalist petition to a hostile House of Commons (1642), Lovelace wrote "To Althea, from Prison" and passed much of the next four years abroad. He was wounded fighting for the French against the Spaniards at Dunkerque (1646). Imprisoned again (1648) for ten months upon his return to England, he prepared
Lucasta
(1649) for publication.
John Lydgate (1370?1449)
Born in Suffolk, Lydgate was ordained a priest (1377), joined the monastery of Bury, St. Edmunds (1385), and visited Paris (1426). He served as abbot of Hatfield Broadoak in Essex (14211432). In the century following his death he was considered the equal of Chaucer and Gower. His early verse includes
The Complaint of the Black Knight, The Temple of Glas, The Floure of Curtesy
, and the allegorical
Reason and Sensuality
(1408). He translated works such as
The Troy Book
(14121421) from French and Latin, as well as Boccaccio's
The Fall of Princes
(14311438).
Louis MacNeice (19071963)
Born in Carrickfergus and educated at Oxford (1930), MacNeice lectured at the University of Birmingham (19301936) and the Bedford College for
 
Page 660
Women, London (19361940). From 1941 he wrote and produced radio plays for the BBC, including
The Dark Tower
(1947), and translated Goethe's
Faust
. His first book of poetry,
Blind Fireworks
(1929), was followed by several volumes, including
Letters from Iceland
with Auden (1937), and
Collected Poems, 192548
(1949).
Christopher Marlowe (15641593)
Born in Kent, Marlowe received his M.A. from Cambridge (1587) and may have served in Elizabeth I's secret service. Marlowe was killed in a tavern brawl in 1593. Known for his atheism, Marlowe translated Ovid and Lucan and wrote several plays, including
Tamburlaine, Dr. Faustus
, and
The Jew of Malta
. Marlowe's narrative poem,
Hero and Leander
, was "completed" by George Chapman.
Andrew Marvell (16211678)
Born in Yorkshire and educated at Cambridge (1639), Marvell visited the Continent (16431647), possibly to avoid the civil war. He wrote verses for Lovelace's
Lucasta
(1649), an elegy on Lord Hastings (1649), and "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" (1650). Marvell composed "Upon Appleton House" while serving as tutor to Lord Fairfax's daughter (1650); he was also tutor to William Dutton, a ward of Cromwell's (16531656), and a Latin Secretary to the Council of State (16571661). Elected M.P. for Hull (16591661), Marvell traveled to Holland (16621663) and, as secretary to the earl of Carlisle, visited Russia, Sweden, and Denmark (16631665). His satires include "The Last Instructions to a Painter'' (1667) and
The Rehearsal Transpros'd
(16721673).
John Masefield (18781967)
John Edward Masefield was born at Ledbury and educated at King's School, Warwick; he trained for the merchant navy. After voyages to Chile, and across the Atlantic (1895), he deserted ship and lived in New York (18951897). In England again, he joined
The Manchester Guardian
(1907). Appointed poet laureate (1930), Masefield wrote
Salt-Water Ballads
(1902), long narrative poems such as
The Everlasting Mercy
(1911), as well as novels, plays, and numerous volumes of verse.
George Meredith (18281909)
Born in Portsmouth, Meredith worked for a London solicitor (1845). At Chapman and Hall publishers, he encouraged Thomas Hardy and George Gissing. Meredith's poetic works include
Poems
(1851),
Modern Love
(1862), and
Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth
(1883). Described by Wilde as "a prose Browning," Meredith wrote over ten novels including
The Egoist
(1879).

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