The Columbia History of British Poetry (170 page)

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John Milton (16081674)
Born in London, Milton graduated from Cambridge (M.A., 1632), and studied privately at his father's house. He moved to Buckinghamshire (1635), composed
Lycidas
(1638), and met Grotius in Paris and Galileo in Italy (1638). Returning to London (1639), he became tutor to his nephews. During the second Bishops' War (1641) he wrote five pamphlets against episcopacy. He married Mary Powell (1642), whose desertion inspired Milton's four pamphlets arguing for the legitimacy of divorce (16431645).
Areopagitica
(1644) and "L'Allegro" and "Il Pensoroso" (1645) were also composed during this period. Reconciled with his wife (1645), who was to die after the birth of their third daughter (1652), Milton became totally blind (1652), later marrying Katherine Woodcock (1656) and then Elizabeth Minshull (1663). He completed
Paradise Lost
(1663),
Paradise Regained
(1671), and
Samson Agonistes
(1671).
Alexander Montgomerie (1550?1598)
Born near Beith, Montgomerie held office under the Scottish regent Morton and then under James VI, and was awarded a pension (1583). He traveled on the Continent (1586) and was implicated in a pro-Catholic plot (1597). His principal work is
The Cherrie and the Slae
(1597), an allegorical poem; he also wrote
Flyting betwixt Montgomery and Polwart
, sonnets, psalms, and songs and is considered one of the last of the makars.
Thomas Sturge Moore (18701944)
Born in Sussex and brother of G. E. Moore, Thomas produced four studies of artists, including
Correggio
(1906), and designed the covers for several volumes by Yeats. His published poetry includes, besides several verse dramas,
The Vinedresser
(1899) and
Judas
(1923).
William Morris (18341896)
Born in Essex, Morris attended Oxford and worked for the architect G. E. Street. He translated Greek and Icelandic sagas (18681875), moved to Oxfordshire, and wrote several tales in prose. Morris conducted a manufacturing and decorating firm (Morris & Co.) and founded the Socialist League (1884). He wrote collections of verse,
The Defense of Guenevere
(1858) and
Poems by the Way
(1891), and longer poems such as
The Earthly Paradise
(18681870). Morris founded the Kelmscott Press (1890), which published much of his later work.
Edwin Muir (18871959)
Born in Orkney, Scotland, Muir moved to Glasgow, married Willa Anderson (1919), and contributed to Orage's
New Age
. In 1921 the Muirs went to Prague, where they collaborated on the translations of Kafka (19301949) that
 
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established Kafka's reputation in England and inspired Muir's poetry, including
Chorus of the Newly Dead
(1926). His other verse includes
The Labyrinth
(1949), and
Collected Poems
(1952, 1960).
Wilfred Owen (18931918)
Born in Oswestry and educated at Shrewsbury Technical College, Owen taught English in Bordeaux (1913), and joined the army (1915). After trench fever on the Somme (1917), Owen entered Craiglockhurt Hospital, Edinburgh, where he edited
Hydra
(May 1917), met Siegfried Sassoon (August 1917), and was discharged (October 1917). He won the Military Cross (October 1918), and was killed near the Sambre Canal in France. "Dulce et Decorum Est" is his best-known poem.
Katherine Philips (16311664)
Known as the "Matchless Orinda," Katherine Fowler was born in London. She organized a circle which included Vaughan, Cowley, and Jeremy Taylor. In 1648 she married James Philips and published her first poetry in a prefix to Henry Vaughan's
Poems
(1651). She translated Corneille's
Pompée
(1663), Horace (1668), and wrote
Collected Poems
(1667).
Alexander Pope (16881744)
Born in London, Pope was largely self-educated and could not attend university because he was Catholic; his posture and health were adversely affected by tuberculosis (1700). By 1713 he abandoned Addison's anti-Catholic Whigs for the Tories headed by Swift, and joined the Scriblerus Club. His attachment to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu ended in frustration (1717), but he developed a lifelong friendship with Martha Blount. In 1719 he moved to Twickenham and became fascinated by landscape gardening. His verse includes his
Essay on Criticism
(1711),
The Rape of the Lock
(1712, revised 1714),
Windsor Forest
(1713),
An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot
(1727, revised 1735),
The Dunciad
(17281743), and
An Essay on Man
(17331734). Pope's translations of Homer's
Iliad
(17151720) and
Odyssey
(17251726) rendered him financially independent. His later years were spent editing and amending his "Literary Correspondence" (1735).
Sir Walter Ralegh (1554?1618)
Born in South Devon, Ralegh attended Oxford (15661569), joined the Huguenot forces in France, and participated in battles at Montcontour (1569), Smerwick, and Cadiz Harbor (1596). Imprisoned for marrying Elizabeth Throckmorton (1592), he then journeyed to Guiana (1595) and the Orinoco (1617) in search of gold. Tried for treason upon his return, he was imprisoned in the Tower (16031616) and, eventually, executed. Ralegh's poetry includes his "Epitaph of Sir Philip Sidney," and a prefatory sonnet to
The Faerie Queene
. The authorship of other poems often attributed to him is
 
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in dispute. He wrote numerous prose works, including
The History of the World
(1614).
Allan Ramsay (16861758)
Born in Lanarkshire, Ramsay was an apprentice wigmaker (1701) who helped found a Jacobite literary society (The Easy Club), a circulating library (1728), and a playhouse (1736). He became a bookseller (1718), editing and often altering works in
Christis Kirk on the Green
(1718),
The Tea Table Miscellany
(17241737),
The Ever Green
(1724), and
A Collection of Scots Proverbs
(1736). His pastoral comedy,
The Gentle Shepherd
(1725), includes Scots songs. He introduced Henryson and Dunbar to the public and helped revive Scottish verse.
Peter Reading (1946)
Born in Liverpool, Reading attended Liverpool College of Art (1967), where he lectured in art history (19681970). He worked at an animal feed compounding mill in Shropshire, England (19701981), and taught writing at Sunderland Polytechnic (19811982). His verse includes
Water and Waste
(1970),
Diplopic
(1983), and
C
(1984).
Christina Rossetti (18301894)
Born in London and self-educated, Christina Rossetti was a devout High Anglican, who ended her engagement with the Pre-Raphaelite painter, James Collinson, when he rejoined the Roman Catholic Church (1850). Rossetti contributed poems to
The Germ
(1850) and to
Macmillan's Magazine
(1861); her published collections include
Goblin Market
(1862),
A Pageant
(1881), and
Time Flies, A Reading Diary
(1885). Marked by technical virtuosity, her poems include lyrics, sonnets, and ballads and treat the themes of frustrated love and premature resignation.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (18281882)
Born in London, Rossetti was educated at King's College School, London and helped found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848). The suicide of Rossetti's wife two years after their marriage led him to enclose the manuscripts of his poems in her coffin; they were later retrieved and published as
Poems
(1870). Criticized as a member of "the fleshly school of poetry" (1871), Rossetti is perhaps best known for "The Blessed Damozel," the ballad "Sister Helen,'' and "The House of Life," although his translations from Villon and from early Italian poets (1861) were also influential.
Alexander Scott (1525?1585?)
Scott is believed to have lived near Edinburgh and Dalkeith, Midlothian. His love lyrics, burlesques ("The Justing and Debait up at the Drum"), and a cere-
 
Page 664
monial poem ("Ane New Year Gift to Quene Mary, quhen scho come first Hume, 1562") reflect the culture of early Reformation Scotland.
Sir Walter Scott (17711832)
Born in Edinburgh and educated at Edinburgh University, Scott became a lawyer (1792), married (1797), and was deputy sheriff of Selkirk (1799). He edited
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
(18021803), and wrote
The Lay of the Last Minstrel
(1805). A partner in J. Ballantyne's printing firm, he was twice rescued from bankruptcy (1811, 1826) by his prolific pen. His long poems include
Marmion
(1808),
The Lady of the Lake
(1810), and
Rokeby
(1813), while
Waverley
(1814),
Rob Roy
(1817), and
The Heart of Midlothian
(1818) are among his numerous novels. Scott was an especially popular narrative poet until Byron's
Childe Harold
captured his readers.
William Shakespeare (15641616)
Born in Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway (1582), by whom he had three children. His narrative poems,
Venus and Adonis
(1593) and
The Rape of Lucrece
(1594), were followed by his sonnets (15931598), published in 1609. Actor, shareholder, and playwright in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (1594), which grew prosperous, occupying the Globe Theatre (1599), becoming the King's Men on James I's accession (1603), and taking over Blackfriars (1608). The First Folio of his
Works
was published in 1623.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (17921822)
Born in Sussex and expelled from Oxford (March 1811), Shelley married Harriet Westbrook (1811), before eloping with (1814), and then marrying, Mary Godwin (December 1816). In early 1816 he and Mary Godwin joined Byron on Lake Geneva. Denied custody of his first two children, Shelley emigrated to Italy (1818), where his other children, Clara and William, died (1819); he registered an adopted or illegitimate child in Naples, and in 1820 his youngest son was born. Shelley had a platonic love affair with Emilia Viviani (1821); he drowned during a storm in the Bay of Spezia. His verse includes
Queen Mab
(1813),
Alastor
(1816),
Prometheus Unbound
(1820),
Adonais
(1821),
Epipsychidion
(1821), and
Hellas
(1822). He wrote many prose works (
Defence of Poetry
, 1821), a verse drama (
The Cenci
, 1819), and numerous translations.
Sir Philip Sidney (15541586)
Born in Kent and educated at Oxford, Sidney traveled on the Continent (15721575) and witnessed the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Knighted (1582) and appointed governor of Flushing (1585), he married Frances Walsingham (1583). The "Stella" named in his sonnet sequence is Penelope Devereux, whose father had wished her to marry Sidney. Sidney's greatest military
 
Page 665
success was a surprise attack on the town of Axel (1586). That same year, he attacked a Spanish convoy, was wounded in the thigh, and died of an infection. Remembered as the perfect Renaissance courtier, he wrote
Arcadia
(1590), and
Defence of Poesie
.
Edith Sitwell (18871964)
Born in Scarborough, Sitwell was largely self-educated and published poems in
The Mother
(1915) and later volumes. She is best known for editing
Wheels
(19161921), which repudiated Georgian verse, and
Façade
(1922), which was accompanied by William Walton's music. The first poet to be made Dame of the British Empire (1954), Sitwell wrote
The Sleeping Beauty
(1924),
Gold Coast Customs
(1929), and verse inspired by World War II; she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1955.
John Skelton (1460?1529)
Educated at Cambridge, Skelton was court poet to Henry VII (1489) and tutor (14961501) to Prince Henry (Henry VIII). Ordained (1498), he became rector of Diss in Norfolk (1503) and Orator Regius (1512). Skelton satirized Henry VII's court in
The Bowge of Courte
, and wrote
The Garland of Laurel
and
Philip Sparrow
(1505).
Magnificence
(1516), the first secular morality play in English, was followed by three satirical attacks on Cardinal Wolsey (15211522), including
Speak Parrot
and
Colin Clout
.
Charlotte Smith (17491806)
Born in Sussex, Charlotte Turner attended boarding schools, married Benjamin Smith, a young merchant (1765), and lived on the Hunts-Sussex border (17741783). After the collapse of her husband's business (1782), she went to debtor's prison with her husband (1784) and published
Elegiac Sonnets and Other Essays
(1784, 1797). Smith's novels include
Emmeline
(1788) and
The Old Manor House
(1793).
Robert Southey (17741843)
Southey was born at Bristol and educated at Oxford. He collaborated with Coleridge, and they married sisters. Byron made notorious Southey's shift from radical to Tory. Southey's verse includes
The Curse of Kehama
(1810),
Roderick: The Last of the Goths
(1814), and
A Vision of Judgment
(1821), which produced Byron's famous rejoinder. Appointed poet laureate (1813), he wrote lives of
Nelson
(1813) and
Wesley
(1820) and several histories.
Edmund Spenser (15521599)
Born in London, Spenser graduated from Cambridge (M.A., 1576). Secretary to the bishop of Rochester (1578), he entered Leicester's service (1579), where

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