ROBERT BROWNING

Born: 7 May 1812

Camberwell, London, England
Died: 12 December
1889 (aged 77)
Venice, Kingdom of Italy
Resting Place: Westminster
Abbey
Occupation: Poet
Alma Matter: University College
London
Literary movement: Victorian
Notable works: "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", Men and Women, The
Ring and the Book, Dramatis Personae, Dramatic Lyrics, Dramatic
Romances and Lyrics, Asolando
Spouse: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (m. 1846; died 1861)
Children: Robert Wiedeman Barrett "Pen" Browning[1]

Relatives: Robert Browning (Father); Sarah Anna Wiedemann (Mother)

Signature:

William Shakespeare
 William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely
regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's
greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of
Avon".
Born: April 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom
Died: 23 April 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom
Spouse: Anne Hathaway (m. 1582–1616)
Education: King Edward VI School
Children: Hamnet Shakespeare, Susanna Hall, Judith Quiney

William Shakespeare's Important Works

 Romeo and Juliet (c. 1594–96) scene from Romeo and Juliet. ...
 Much Ado About Nothing (c. 1598–99) ...
 Julius Caesar (c. 1599–1600) ...
 Hamlet (c. 1599–1601) ...
 King Lear (1605–06) King Lear. ...
 Macbeth (c. 1606–07) ...
 The Tempest (1611) scene from The Tempest.

Alfred Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson FRS was a British poet. He was the Poet
Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most
popular British poets. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold
Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, "Timbuktu". Alfred, Lord
Tennyson was the most renowned poet of the Victorian era. His work includes
'In Memoriam,' 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and 'Idylls of the King.'
Born: 6 August 1809, Somersby, United Kingdom
Died: 6 October 1892, Lurgashall, United Kingdom
Spouse: Emily, Lady Tennyson (m. 1850–1892)
Nationality: British, English

Early Years and Family

Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England on August 6, 1809.

He would be one of his family's 11 surviving children (his parents' firstborn
died in infancy). Tennyson grew up with two older brothers, four younger
brothers and four younger sisters.

Tennyson's father was a church rector who earned a decent income, but the
size of the family meant expenses had to be closely watched.
Therefore, Tennyson only attended Louth Grammar School (where he was
bullied) for a few years. The rest of his pre-university education was overseen
by his well-read father. Tennyson and his siblings were raised with a love of
books and writing; by the age of 8, Tennyson was penning his first poems.

However, Tennyson's home wasn't a happy one. His father was an elder son
who had been disinherited in favor of a younger brother, which engendered
resentment. Even worse, his father was an alcoholic and drug user who at
times physically threatened members of the family.

In 1827, Tennyson had his first poetry published in Poems by Two

Brothers (though actually three Tennyson brothers contributed to the
volume). That same year, Tennyson began to study at Trinity College at
Cambridge, where his two older brothers were also students.

It was at university that Tennyson met Arthur Hallam, who became a close
friend, and joined a group of students who called themselves the Apostles.
Tennyson also continued to write poetry, and in 1829, he won the
Chancellor's Gold Medal for the poem "Timbuctoo." In 1830, Tennyson
published his first solo collection: Poems, Chiefly Lyrical.

Tennyson's father died in 1831. His death meant straitened circumstances for
the family, and Tennyson did not complete his degree. As a younger son,
Tennyson was encouraged to find a profession, such as entering the church
like his father. However, the young man was determined to focus on poetry.

Struggles of a Poet

At the end of 1832 (though it was dated 1833), he published another volume
of poetry: Poems by Alfred Tennyson. It contained work that would become
well known, such as "The Lady of Shalott," but received unfavorable reviews.
These greatly affected Tennyson, and he subsequently shied away from
publication for a decade, though he continued to write during that time.

After leaving Cambridge, Tennyson had remained close to Arthur Hallam,

who had fallen in love with Tennyson's sister Emily. When Hallam died
suddenly in 1833, likely from a stroke, it was a devastating loss for the poet
and his family.

Tennyson developed feelings for Rosa Baring in the 1830s, but her wealth put
her out of his league (the poem "Locksley Hall" shared his take on the
situation: "Every door is barr’d with gold, and opens but to golden keys"). In
1836, Tennyson fell in love with Emily Sellwood, sister to his brother
Charles's wife; the two were soon engaged. However, due in part to concerns
about his finances and his health — there was a history of epilepsy in the
Tennyson family, and the poet worried he had the disease — Tennyson ended
the engagement in 1840.

Tennyson finally published more poetry in the two-volume Poems (1842).

Highlights included a revised "The Lady of Shalott," and also "Locksley Hall,"
"Morte d'Arthur" and "Ulysses" (which ends with the well-known line, "To
strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield"). This work was positively reviewed.
Unfortunately, in 1842, Tennyson lost most of his money after investing in an
unsuccessful wood-carving venture. (Tennyson would recover some of the
funds in 1845, thanks to an insurance policy a friend had taken out for him.)

Poetic Success

"The Princess" (1847), a long narrative poem, was Tennyson's next notable
work. But he hit a career high note with "In Memoriam" (1850). The elegiac
creation, which contains the famous lines, "’Tis better to have loved and lost /
Than never to have loved at all," incorporated Tennyson's sorrow about his
friend Arthur Hallam's death. It greatly impressed readers and won Tennyson
many admirers.

In addition to addressing his feelings about losing Hallam, "In Memoriam"

also speaks to the uncertainty that many of Tennyson's contemporaries were
grappling with at the time. Geologists had shown that the planet was much
older than stated in the Bible; the existence of fossils also contradicted the
story of creation. Having read books such as Charles Lyell's Principles of
Geology (1830-33), Tennyson was well aware of these developments.

Tennyson, who had learned he did not have epilepsy and was feeling more
financially secure, had reconnected with Emily Sellwood (it was she who
suggested the title "In Memoriam"). The two were married in June 1850.
Later that year, Queen Victoria selected Tennyson to succeed William
Wordsworth as England's new poet laureate.
Fame and Fortune

Tennyson's poetry became more and more widely read, which gave him both
an impressive income and an ever-increasing level of fame. The poet sported
a long beard and often dressed in a cloak and broad-brimmed hat, which
made it easy for fans to spot him. A move to the Isle of Wight in 1853 offered
Tennyson an escape from his growing crowds of admirers, but Tennyson
wasn't cut off from society there — he would welcome visitors such as Prince
Albert, fellow poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Hawaii's Queen Emma.

An episode in the Crimean War led to Tennyson penning "The Charge of the
Light Brigade" in 1854; the work was also included in Maud, and Other
Poems (1855). The first four books of Tennyson's Idylls of the King, an epic
take on the Arthurian legend, appeared in 1859. In 1864, Enoch Arden and
Other Poems sold 17,000 copies on its first day of publication. Tennyson
became friendly with Queen Victoria, who found comfort in reading "In
Memoriam" following the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861. He also
continued to experience the downside of fame: As the Isle of Wight became a
more popular destination, people would sometimes peer through the
windows of his home. In 1867, he bought land in Surrey, where he would
build another home, Aldworth, that offered more privacy.

Later Years

In 1874, Tennyson branched out to poetic dramas, starting with Queen

Mary (1875). Some of his dramas would be successfully performed, but they
never matched the impact of his poems.

Though he had turned down earlier offers of a baronetcy, in 1883 Tennyson

accepted the offer of a peerage (a higher rank than baronet). He thus became
Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater, better known as Alfred, Lord
Tennyson.

Tennyson and his wife had had two sons, Hallam (b. 1852) and Lionel (b.
1854). Lionel predeceased his parents; he became ill on a visit to India, and
died in 1886 onboard a ship heading back to England. Tennyson's Demeter
and Other Poems (1889) contained work that addressed this devastating loss.

Death and Legacy

The poet suffered from gout, and experienced a recurrence that grew worse in
the late summer of 1892. Later that year, on October 6, at the age of 83,
Tennyson passed away at his Aldworth home in Surrey. He was buried in
Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.
Tennyson was the leading poet of the Victorian age; as that era ended, his
reputation began to fade. Though he will likely never again be as acclaimed as
he was during his lifetime, today Tennyson is once more recognized as a
gifted poet who delved into eternal human questions, and who offered both
solace and inspiration to his audience.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.
He was born in India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include
The Jungle Book, Kim, and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be
King". Wikipedia
Born: 30 December 1865, Mumbai, India
Died: 18 January 1936, London, United Kingdom
Short stories: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, The Man Who Would Be King, MORE
Children: John Kipling, Josephine Kipling, Elsie Bambridge
Rudyard Kipling, in full Joseph Rudyard Kipling, (born
December 30, 1865, Bombay [now Mumbai], India—died
January 18, 1936, London, England), English short-story
writer, poet, and novelist chiefly remembered for his
celebration of British imperialism, his tales and poems of
British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. He
received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.
Life
Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling, was an artist and
scholar who had considerable influence on his son’s work,
became curator of the Lahore Museum, and is described
presiding over this “wonder house” in the first chapter of Kim,
Rudyard’s most famous novel. His mother was Alice
Macdonald, two of whose sisters married the highly successful
19th-century painters Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir
Edward Poynter, while a third married Alfred Baldwin and
became the mother of Stanley Baldwin, later prime minister.
These connections were of lifelong importance to Kipling.

Much of his childhood was unhappy. Kipling was taken

to England by his parents at the age of six and was left for five
years at a foster home at Southsea, the horrors of which he
described in the story “Baa Baa, Black Sheep” (1888). He then
went on to the United Services College at Westward Ho, north
Devon, a new, inexpensive, and inferior boarding school. It
haunted Kipling for the rest of his life—but always as the
glorious place celebrated in Stalky & Co. (1899) and related
stories: an unruly paradise in which the highest goals of
English education are met amid a tumult of teasing, bullying,
and beating. The Stalky saga is one of Kipling’s great
imaginative achievements. Readers repelled by a strain of
brutality—even of cruelty—in his writings should remember
the sensitive and shortsighted boy who was brought to terms
with the ethos of this deplorable establishment through the
demands of self-preservation.

Kipling returned to India in 1882 and worked for seven years

as a journalist. His parents, although not officially important,
belonged to the highest Anglo-Indian society, and Rudyard
thus had opportunities for exploring the whole range of that
life. All the while he had remained keenly observant of the
thronging spectacle of native India, which had engaged his
interest and affection from earliest childhood. He was quickly
filling the journals he worked for with prose sketches and light
verse. He published the verse collection Departmental
Ditties in 1886, the short-story collection Plain Tales from the
Hills in 1888, and between 1887 and 1889 he brought out six
paper-covered volumes of short stories. Among the latter
were Soldiers Three, The Phantom Rickshaw (containing the
story “The Man Who Would Be King”), and Wee Willie
Winkie (containing “Baa Baa, Black Sheep”). When Kipling
returned to England in 1889, his reputation had preceded
him, and within a year he was acclaimed as one of the most
brilliant prose writers of his time. His fame was redoubled
upon the publication in 1892 of the verse collection Barrack-
Room Ballads, which contained such popular poems as
“Mandalay,” “Gunga Din,” and “Danny Deever.” Not since the
English poet Lord Byron had such a reputation been achieved
so rapidly. When the poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson,
died in 1892, it may be said that Kipling took his place in
popular estimation. In 1892 Kipling married Caroline
Balestier, the sister of Wolcott Balestier, an American
publisher and writer with whom he had collaborated in The
Naulahka (1892), a facile and unsuccessful romance. That
year the young couple moved to the United States and settled
on Mrs. Kipling’s property in Vermont, but their manners and
attitudes were considered objectionable by their neighbours.
Unable or unwilling to adjust to life in America, the Kiplings
returned to England in 1896. Ever after Kipling remained very
aware that Americans were “foreigners,” and he extended to
them, as to the French, no more than a semi-exemption from
his proposition that only “lesser breeds” are born beyond
the English Channel.

Besides numerous short-story collections

and poetry collections such as The Seven Seas (1896), Kipling
published his best-known novels in the 1890s and
immediately thereafter. His novel The Light That
Failed (1890) is the story of a painter going blind and spurned
by the woman he loves. Captains Courageous (1897), in spite
of its sense of adventure, is burdened by excessive descriptive
writing. Kim (1901), about an Irish orphan in India, is a
classic. The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle
Book (1895) are stylistically superb collections of stories.
These books give further proof that Kipling excelled at telling
a story but was inconsistent in producing
balanced, cohesive novels.

In 1902 Kipling bought a house at Burwash, Sussex, which

remained his home until his death. Sussex was the
background of much of his later writing—especially in Puck of
Pook’s Hill (1906) and Rewards and Fairies (1910), two
volumes that, although devoted to simple dramatic
presentations of English history, embodied some of his
deepest intuitions. In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize for
Literature, the first Englishman to be so honoured. In South
Africa, where he spent much time, he was given a house
by Cecil Rhodes, the diamond magnate and South African
statesman. This association fostered Kipling’s imperialist
persuasions, which were to grow stronger with the years.
These convictions are not to be dismissed in a word: they were
bound up with a genuine sense of a civilizing mission that
required every Englishman, or, more broadly, every white
man, to bring European culture to those he considered the
heathen natives of the uncivilized world. Kipling’s ideas were
not in accord with much that was liberal in the thought of the
age, and, as he became older, he was an increasingly isolated
figure. When he died, two days before King George V, he must
have seemed to many a far less representative Englishman
than his sovereign.
Legacy of Rudyard Kipling

Kipling’s poems and stories were extraordinarily popular in

the late 19th and early 20th century, but after World War I his
reputation as a serious writer suffered through his being
widely viewed as a jingoistic imperialist. (His rehabilitation
was attempted, however, by T.S. Eliot.) His verse is indeed
vigorous, and in dealing with the lives and colloquial speech of
common soldiers and sailors it broke new ground. Balladry,
music hall song, and popular hymnology provide its
unassuming basis; even at its most serious—as in
“Recessional” (1897) and similar pieces in which Kipling
addressed himself to his fellow countrymen in times of crisis—
the effect is rhetorical rather than imaginative.

But it is otherwise with Kipling’s prose. In the whole sweep of

his adult storytelling, he displays a steadily developing art,
from the early volumes of short stories set in India through
the collections Life’s Handicap (1891), Many
Inventions (1893), The Day’s Work (1898), Traffics and
Discoveries (1904), Actions and Reactions (1909), Debits and
Credits (1926), and Limits and Renewals (1932). While his
later stories cannot exactly be called better than the earlier
ones, they are as good—and they bring a subtler if less
dazzling technical proficiency to the exploration of deeper
though sometimes more perplexing themes. It is a far cry
from the broadly effective eruption of the supernatural in The
Phantom Rickshaw (1888) to its subtle exploitation in “The
Wish House” or “A Madonna of the Trenches” (1924), or from
the innocent chauvinism of the bravura “The Man Who Was”
(1890) to the depth of implication beneath the seemingly
insensate xenophobia of Mary Postgate (1915). There is much
in Kipling’s later art to curtail its popular appeal. It is
compressed and elliptical in manner and sombre in many of
its themes. The author’s critical reputation declined steadily
during his lifetime—a decline that can scarcely be accounted
for except in terms of political prejudice. Paradoxically,
postcolonial critics later rekindled an intense interest in his
work, viewing it as both symptomatic and critical of
imperialist attitudes.

Kipling, it should be noted, wrote much and successfully for

children—for the very young in Just So Stories (1902) and for
others in The Jungle Book and its sequel and in Puck of
Pook’s Hill and Rewards and Fairies. Of his miscellaneous
works, the more notable are a number of early travel sketches
collected in two volumes in From Sea to Sea (1899) and the
unfinished Something of Myself, posthumously published in
1941, a reticent essay in autobiography.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

 Portrait of Shelley, by Alfred Clint (1829)

Born 4 August 1792

Horsham, Sussex, England

Died 8 July 1822 (aged 29)

Gulf of La Spezia, Kingdom of
Sardinia (now Italy)

Occupation Poet
dramatist
essayist
novelist

Nationality English

Education Eton College

Alma mater University College, Oxford

Literary Romanticism
movement

Spouse Harriet Westbrook

(m. 1811; died 1816)

Mary Shelley

 
 (m. 1816)

Parents Timothy Shelley

Elizabeth Pilfold

Signature

Poetry, fiction and verse drama[edit]

 (1810) Zastrozzi
 (1810) Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire (collaboration with Elizabeth Shelley)
 (1810) Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson: Being Poems Found
Amongst the Papers of That Noted Female Who Attempted the Life of the King in
1786
 (1810) St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian (published 1811)
 (1812) The Devil's Walk: A Ballad
 (1813) Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem
 (1815) Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude (Published 1816)
 (1816) Mont Blanc
 (1816) On Death
 (1817) Hymn to Intellectual Beauty (text)
 (1817) Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the
Nineteenth Century (published 1818)
 (1818) The Revolt of Islam, A Poem, in Twelve Cantos
 (1818) Ozymandias (text)
 (1818) Rosalind and Helen: A Modern Eclogue (published in 1819)
 (1818) Lines Written Among the Euganean Hills, October 1818
 (1819) The Cenci, A Tragedy, in Five Acts
 (1819) Ode to the West Wind (text)
 (1819) The Mask of Anarchy (published 1832)
 (1819) England in 1819
 (1819) Julian and Maddalo: A Conversation
 (1820) Peter Bell the Third (published in 1839)
 (1820) Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama, in Four Acts
 (1820) To a Skylark
 (1820) The Cloud
 (1820) The Sensitive Plant[187]
 (1820) Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts
 (1820) The Witch of Atlas (published in 1824)
 (1821) Adonais
 (1821) Epipsychidion
 (1822) Hellas, A Lyrical Drama
 (1822) The Triumph of Life (unfinished, published in 1824)
Short prose works[edit]
 "The Assassins, A Fragment of a Romance" (1814)
 "The Coliseum, A Fragment" (1817)
 "The Elysian Fields: A Lucianic Fragment" (1818)
 "Una Favola (A Fable)" (1819, originally in Italian)
Essays[edit]
 The Necessity of Atheism (with T. J. Hogg) (1811)
 Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things  (1811)
 An Address, to the Irish People (1812)
 Declaration of Rights (1812)
 A Letter to Lord Ellenborough (1812)
 A Vindication of Natural Diet (1813)
 A Refutation of Deism (1814)
 Speculations on Metaphysics (1814)
 On the Vegetable System of Diet (1814–1815; published 1929)
 On a Future State (1815)
 On The Punishment of Death (1815)
 Speculations on Morals (1817)
 On Christianity (incomplete, 1817; published 1859)
 On Love (1818)
 On the Literature, the Arts and the Manners of the Athenians (1818)
 On The Symposium, or Preface to The Banquet Of Plato (1818)
 On Frankenstein (1818; published in 1832)
 On Life (1819)
 A Philosophical View of Reform (1819–20, first published 1920)
 A Defence of Poetry (1821, published 1840)
Chapbooks[edit]
 Wolfstein; or, The Mysterious Bandit (1822)
 Wolfstein, The Murderer; or, The Secrets of a Robber's Cave (1830)
Translations[edit]
 The Banquet (or The Symposium) of Plato (1818) (first published in
unbowdlerised form 1931)
 Ion of Plato (1821)
Collaborations with Mary Shelley[edit]
 (1817) History of a Six Weeks' Tour
 (1820) Proserpine
 (1820) Midas[188]
Francis Bacon
Former Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain

Description
Description
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, Kt PC QC, also known as Lord Verulam, was an
English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and as Lord
Chancellor of England. His works are seen as developing the scientific method and
remained influential through the scientific revolution. Wikipedia

Born: 22 January 1561, York House, London, United Kingdom

Died: 9 April 1626, Highgate, London, United Kingdom

Influenced by: Aristotle, Plato, Roger Bacon, Niccolò Machiavelli, MORE

Education: Trinity College (1573–1576), University of Poitiers

Previous offices: Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (1617–1621), MORE

Quotes
Knowledge is power
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

The New Atlantis[edit]

Main article: New Atlantis

In 1623, Bacon expressed his aspirations and ideals in New Atlantis. Released in 1627,
this was his creation of an ideal land where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and
splendor, piety and public spirit" were the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of
Bensalem. The name "Bensalem" means "Son of Peace", [b] having obvious resemblance
with "Bethlehem" (birthplace of Jesus), and is referred to as "God's bosom, a land
unknown", in the last page of the work.
In this utopian work, written in literary form, a group of Europeans travels west from Peru
by boat. After having suffered with strong winds at sea and fearing for death, they "did lift
up their hearts and voices to God above, beseeching him of his mercy".[25] After that
incident, these travellers in a distant water finally reached the island of Bensalem, where
they found a fair and well-governed city, and were received kindly and with all humanity
by Christian and cultured people, who had been converted centuries before by a miracle
wrought by Saint Bartholomew, twenty years after the Ascension of Jesus, by which the
scriptures had reached them in a mysterious ark of cedar floating on the sea, guarded by
a gigantic pillar of light, in the form of a column, over which was a bright cross of light.
Many aspects of the society and history of the island are described, such as the
Christian religion; a cultural feast in honour of the family institution, called "the Feast of
the Family"; a college of sages, the Salomon's House, "the very eye of the kingdom", to
which order "God of heaven and earth had vouchsafed the grace to know the works of
Creation, and the secrets of them", as well as "to discern between divine miracles, works
of nature, works of art, and impostures and illusions of all sorts"; and a series of
instruments, process and methods of scientific research that were employed in the
island by the Salomon's House.[25] The work also goes on interpreting the ancient fable
of Atlantis, considering the lost island as actually being the American continent, which
would have had much greater civilizations in the distant past than the ones at present
suggest, but whose greatness and achievements were destroyed and covered by a
terrible flood, the present American Indians being just descendants of the more primitive
people of the ancient civilization of Atlantis who had survived the flood because they
lived apart from the civilization, in the mountains and high altitudes.
The inhabitants of Bensalem are described as having a high moral character and
honesty, no official accepting any payment for their services from the visitors, and the
people being described as chaste and pious, as said by an inhabitant of the island:
But hear me now, and I will tell you what I know. You shall understand that there is not
under the heavens so chaste a nation as this of Bensalem; nor so free from all pollution
or foulness. It is the virgin of the world. I remember I have read in one of your European
books, of a holy hermit amongst you that desired to see the Spirit of Fornication; and
there appeared to him a little foul ugly Aethiop. But if he had desired to see the Spirit of
Chastity of Bensalem, it would have appeared to him in the likeness of a fair beautiful
Cherubim. For there is nothing amongst mortal men more fair and admirable than the
chaste minds of this people. Know, therefore, that with them there are no stews, no
dissolute houses, no courtesans, nor anything of that kind. [...] And their usual saying is,
that whosoever is unchaste cannot reverence himself; and they say, that the reverence
of a man's self, is, next to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.[25]
In the last third of the book, the Head of the Salomon's House takes one of the European
visitors to show him all the scientific background of Salomon's House, where
experiments are conducted in Baconian method to understand and conquer nature and
to apply the collected knowledge to the betterment of society. Namely: 1) the end of their
foundation; 2) the preparations they have for their works; 3) the several employments
and function whereto their fellows are assigned; 4) and the ordinances and rites which
they observe.
In the society of Bensalem, Bacon anticipates the modern day research university. [26]
Here he portrayed a vision of the future of human discovery and knowledge and a
practical demonstration of his method. The plan and organization of his ideal college,
"Salomon's House", envisioned the modern research university in both applied and pure
science.
The end of their foundation is thus described: "The end of our foundation is the
knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of
human empire, to the effecting of all things possible". [25]
In describing the ordinances and rites observed by the scientists of Salomon's House, its
Head said: "We have certain hymns and services, which we say daily, of Lord and
thanks to God for His marvelous works; and some forms of prayer, imploring His aid and
blessing for the illumination of our labors, and the turning of them into good and holy
uses".[25] (See Bacon's "Student's Prayer" and Bacon's "Writer's Prayer")
There has been much speculation as to whether a real island society inspired Bacon's
utopia. Scholars have suggested numerous countries, from Iceland to Japan; Dr. Nick
Lambert highlighted the latter in The View Beyond.[27][page  needed]
A city named "Bensalem" was actually founded in Pennsylvania, in 1682.
Despite being posthumously published in 1626, New Atlantis has an important place in
Bacon's corpus. While his scientific treatises, such as The Advancement and Novum,
are prescriptive in tone, advising how European thought must change through the
adoption of the new scientific mindset, New Atlantis offers a look at what Bacon
envisions as the ultimate fruition of his instauration. This text pictures Bacon's dream of
a society organized around his epistemological and social agenda. In many ways
Bacon's utopian text is a cumulative work: the predominant themes Bacon consistently
returns to throughout his intellectual life—the dominance over Nature through
experimentalism, the notion of a charitable form of knowledge, and the complementary
relationship between religion and science—are very much foregrounded in New Atlantis,
becoming the pillars of Bensalemite culture. [28]

Essays[edit]
A Collection of Apothegmes New and Old frontispiece, 1661

Bacon's Essays were first published in 1597 as Essayes. Religious Meditations. Places

of Perswasion and Disswasion. Seene and Allowed. There were only ten essays in this
version, relatively aphoristic and brief in style. A much-enlarged second edition appeared
in 1612, with 38 essays. Another, under the title Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall,
was published in 1625 with 58 essays. Bacon considered the Essays "but as recreation
of my other studies", and they draw on previous writers such as Michel de
Montaigne and Aristotle. The Essays were praised by his contemporaries and have
remained in high repute ever since; 19th-century literary historian Henry Hallam wrote
that "They are deeper and more discriminating than any earlier, or almost any later, work
in the English language".[29][30][31]
Bacon's coinages such as "hostages to fortune" and "jesting Pilate" have survived into
modern English, with 91 quotations from the Essays in the 1999 edition of The Oxford
Dictionary of Quotations, and the statue of Philosophy in the U.S. Library of Congress, in
Washington, D.C., is labelled with quotation "the inquiry, knowledge, and belief of truth is
the sovereign good of human nature" from Of Truth.[32][33] The 1625 essay Of Gardens, in
which Bacon says that "God Almighty first planted a Garden; and it is indeed the purest
of human pleasures [...], the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man",[34] was influential
upon the imagination of subsequent garden owners in England. [35]

The Wisdom of the Ancients[edit]

The Wisdom of the Ancients[36] is a book written by Bacon in 1609, and published in
Latin, in which he claims playfully to unveil the hidden meanings and teachings behind
ancient Greek fables. The book opens with two dedications: one to the Earl of Salisbury,
the other to the University of Cambridge. This is followed by a detailed Preface, in which
Bacon explains how ancient wisdom is contained within the fables. He opens the
Preface stating that fables are the poets' veiling of the "most ancient times that are
buried in oblivion and silence".[37]
He retells thirty-one ancient fables, suggesting that they contain hidden teachings on
varied issues such as morality, philosophy, religion, civility, politics, science, and art.
This work, not having a strictly scientific nature as other better-known works, has been
reputed among Bacon's literary works. However, two of the chapters, "Cupid; or the
Atom", and "Proteus; or Matter" may be considered part of Bacon's scientific philosophy.
Bacon describes in "Cupid" his vision of the nature of the atom and of matter itself. 'Love'
is described as the force or the "instinct" of primal matter, "the natural motion of the
atom", "the summary law of nature, that impulse of desire impressed by God upon the
primary particles of matter which makes them come together, and which by repetition
and multiplication produces all the variety of nature", "a thing which mortal thought may
glance at, but can hardly take in". [38]
The myth of Proteus serves, according to Bacon, to adumbrate the path to extracting
truth from matter. In his interpretation of the myth, Bacon finds Proteus to symbolize all
matter in the universe: "For the person of Proteus denotes matter, the oldest of all
things, after God himself; that resides, as in a cave, under the vast concavity of the
heavens" Much of Bacon's explanation of the myth deals with Proteus's ability to elude
his would-be captors by shifting into various forms: "But if any skillful minister of nature
shall apply force to matter, and by design torture and vex it…it, on the contrary…
changes and transforms itself into a strange variety of shapes and appearances…so that
at length, running through the whole circle of transformations, and completing its period,
it in some degree restores itself, if the force be continued." [39]
(See Wisdom of the Ancients in Wikisource.)
Masculine Birth of Time[edit]
In Masculus Partus Temporum (The Masculine Birth of Time, 1603), a posthumously
published text, Bacon first writes about the relationship between science and religion.
The text consists of an elderly teacher's lecturing his student on the dangers of classical
philosophy. Through the voice of the teacher, Bacon demands a split between religion
and science: "By mixing the divine with the natural, the profane with the sacred, heresies
with mythology, you have corrupted, O you sacrilegious impostor, both human and
religious truth."[40]
Much of the text consists of the elderly guide tracing the corruption of human knowledge
though classical philosopher to a contemporary alchemist. Bacon's elderly guide
commences his diatribe against ancient philosophers with Aristotle, who initially leads,
for Bacon, the human mind awry by turning its attention toward words: “Just when the
human mind, borne thither by some favoring gale, had found the rest in a little truth, this
man presumed to cast the closest fetters on our understandings. He composed an art or
manual of madness and made us slaves to words.” As Bacon develops further
throughout his scientific treatises, Aristotle's crime of duping the intellect into the belief
that words possess an intrinsic connection with Nature confused the subjective and the
objective. The text identifies the goal of the elderly guide's instructions as the student's
ability to engage in a (re)productive relationship with Nature: “My dear, dear boy, what I
propose is to unite you with things themselves in a chaste, holy, and legal wedlock.”
Although, as the text presents it, the student has not yet reached that point of intellectual
and sexual maturity, the elderly guide assures him that once he has properly distanced
himself from Nature he will then be able to bring forth “a blessed race of Heroes and
Supermen who will overcome the immeasurable helplessness and poverty of the human
race.”[41]

Meditationes Sacrae[edit]
A collection of religious meditations by Lord Bacon, published in 1597.
Among the texts of his Sacred Meditations are:[42]

 Of The Works of God and Man

 Of The Miracles of our Saviour
 Of The Innocence of the Dove, and the Wisdom of the Serpent
 Of The Exaltation of Charity
 Of The Moderation of Cares
 Of Earthly Hope
 Of Hypocrites
 Of Impostors
 Of Several kinds of imposture
 Of Atheism
 Of Heresies
 Of The Church and the Scriptures
Theological Tracts[edit]
Collection of Lord Bacon's prayers, published after his death.
Among the prayers of his Theological Tracts are:[43]

 A Prayer, or Psalm, made by the Lord Bacon, Chancellor of England

 A Prayer made and used by the Lord Chancellor Bacon
 The Student's Prayer
 The Writer's Prayer
 A Confession of Faith
An Advertisement Touching a Holy War[edit]
This treatise, that is among those which were published after Bacon's death and were
left unfinished, is written in the form of debate. In it, there are six characters, each
representing a sector of society: Eusebius, Gamaliel, Zebedeus, Martius, Eupolis, and
Pollio, representing respectively: a moderate divine, a Protestant zealot, a Roman
Catholic zealot, a military man, a politician, and a courtier.
In the work, the six characters debate on whether it is lawful or not for Christendom to
engage in a "Holy War" against infidels, such as the Turks, for the purpose of an
expansion of the Christian religion – many different arguments and viewpoints being
expressed by the characters. The work is left unfinished, it doesn't come to a conclusive
answer to the question in a debate.
Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker have argued, based on this treatise, that Bacon
was not as idealistic as his utopian works suggest, rather that he was what might today
be considered an advocate of genocidal eugenics. They see in it a defense of the
elimination of detrimental societal elements by the English and compared this to the
endeavors of Hercules while establishing a civilized society in ancient Greece. [44] The
work itself, however, being a dialogue, expresses both militarists' and pacifists'
discourses debating each other, and doesn't come to any conclusion since it was left
unfinished.
Laurence Lampert has interpreted Bacon's treatise An Advertisement Touching a Holy
War as advocating "spiritual warfare against the spiritual rulers of European
civilization."[45] This interpretation might be considered symbolical, for there is no hint of
such an advocacy in the work itself.[citation needed]
The work was dedicated to Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of Winchester and counselor of
the estate to King James.
Bacon's personal views on war and peace [edit]
While Bacon's personal views on war and peace might be dubious in some writings, he
thus expressed it in a letter of advice to Sir George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham:
For peace and war, and those things which appertain to either; I in my own disposition
and profession am wholly for peace, if please God to bless his kingdom therewith, as for
many years past he hath done [...] God is the God of peace; it is one of his attributes,
therefore by him alone must we pray, and hope to continue it: there is the foundation. [...]
(Concerning the establishment of colonies in the 'New World') To make no extirpation of
the natives under the pretense of planting religion: God surely will no way be pleased
with such sacrifices.[46]
Translation of Certain Psalms into English verse[edit]
Published in 1625 and considered to be the last of his writings, Bacon translated 7 of
the Psalms of David (numbers 1, 12, 90, 104, 126, 137, 149) to English in verse form, in
which he shows his poetical skills.
 William Blake
English poet

Description
Description
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during
his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual
art of the Romantic Age. Wikipedia

Born: 28 November 1757, Soho, London, United Kingdom

Died: 12 August 1827, London, United Kingdom

Artworks: The Ancient of Days, The Ghost of a Flea, Newton, MORE

On view: National Gallery of Art, MORE

Periods: Symbolism, Romanticism

Spouse: Catherine Blake (m. 1782–1827)

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and
printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal
figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. What he called
his prophetic works were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in
proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". [2] His visual
artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him "far and away the greatest
artist Britain has ever produced".[3] In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's
poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.[4] While he lived in London his entire life, except for three
years spent in Felpham,[5] he produced a diverse and symbolically rich œuvre, which
embraced the imagination as "the body of God"[6] or "human existence itself".[7]
Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is
held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the
philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have
been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as "Pre-Romantic". [8] A
committed Christian who was hostile to the Church of England (indeed, to almost all
forms of organised religion), Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of
the French and American revolutions.[9][10] Though later he rejected many of these political
beliefs, he maintained an amiable relationship with the political activist Thomas Paine;
he was also influenced by thinkers such as Emanuel Swedenborg.[11] Despite these
known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. The
19th-century scholar William Michael Rossetti characterised him as a "glorious
luminary",[12] and "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with
contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors". [13]

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a famed 19th-century

scholar, novelist and poet, known for works like 'Voices of the
Night,' 'Evangeline' and 'The Song of Hiawatha.'
Who Was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a Harvard scholar versed in

several European languages. He was heavily influenced by
Romanticism and made a name as a poet and novelist with works
like Hyperion, Evangeline, Poems on Slavery and The Song of
Hiawatha. He was also known for his translation of
Dante’s The Divine Comedy. 

Early Years

Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine, to an

established New England family. His father, a prominent lawyer,
expected his son would follow in his profession. Young Henry
attended Portland Academy, a private school and then Bowdoin
College, in Maine. Among his fellow students was the
writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow was an excellent student,
showing proficiency in foreign languages. Upon graduation, in 1825,
he was offered a position to teach modern languages at Bowdoin,
but on the condition that he first travel to Europe, at his own
expense, to research the languages. There he developed a lifelong
love of the Old World civilizations.

Upon returning from Europe, because the study of foreign languages

was so new in America, Longfellow had to write his own textbooks.
In addition to teaching, he published his first book Outre-Mer: A
Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea, a collection of travel essays on his
European experience. His work earned him a professorship at
Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Prolific Writer

Longfellow would produce some of his best work such as Voices of

the Night, a collection of poems including Hymn to the Night and A
Psalm of Life, which gained him immediate popularity. Other
publications followed such as Ballads and Other Poems, containing
“The Wreck of the Hesperus” and the “Village Blacksmith.” During
this time, Longfellow also taught full time at Harvard and directed the
Modern Languages Department. Due to budget cuts, he covered
many of the teaching positions himself.

Longfellow’s popularity seemed to grow, as did his collection of

works. He wrote about a multitude of subjects: slavery in Poems on
Slavery, literature of Europe in an anthology The Poets and Poetry
of Europe, and American Indians in The Song of Hiawatha. One of
the early practitioners of self-marketing, Longfellow expanded his
audience becoming one of the best-selling authors in the world.

Later Years and Death

In the last 20 years of his life, Longfellow continued to enjoy

fame with honors bestowed on him in Europe and America. Among
the admirers of his work were Queen Victoria, Alfred, Lord
Tennyson, Prime Minister William Gladstone, Walt
Whitman and Oscar Wilde. 

Longfellow also experienced more sorrow in his personal life. In

1861, a house fire killed his wife, Fanny, and that same year, the
country was plunged into the Civil War. His young son, Charley, ran
off to fight without his approval. After his wife’s death, he immersed
himself in the translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, a
monumental effort, published in 1867.
In March 1882, Longfellow had developed severe stomach pains
caused by acute peritonitis. With the aid of opium and his friends and
family who were with him, he endured the pain for several days
before succumbing on March 24, 1882. At the time of his death, he
was one of the most successful writers in America, with an estate
worth an estimated $356,000.    

Personal Life

Longfellow married Mary Storer Potter, also from a distinguished

family. Before he began at Harvard, they traveled to northern
Europe. While in Germany, Mary died following a miscarriage, in
1836. Devastated, Longfellow returned to the United States seeking
solace. He turned to his writing, channeling his personal experiences
into his work. He soon published the romance novel Hyperion, where
he unabashedly told of his unrequited love for Frances Appleton,
whom he had met in Europe soon after his first wife died. After seven
years, they married in 1843 and would go on to have six children.

Edgar Allan Poe

1849 "Annie" daguerreotype of Poe

Born Edgar Poe

January 19, 1809
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
 Died October 7, 1849 (aged 40)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

Alma mater University of Virginia

United States Military Academy

Spouse Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe

(m. 1836; died 1847)

Signature

Poe's Works
 “The Raven”
 “The Cask of Amontillado”
 “The Masque of the Red Death”
 “The Tell-Tale Heart”
 “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
 “The Fall of the House of Usher”
 "Metzengerstein"
 "The Gold Bug"
 Edgar Allan Poe (/poʊ/; born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)
was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his
poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is
widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of
American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest
practitioners of the short story. He is also generally considered the inventor of
the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the
emerging genre of science fiction.[1] Poe was the first well-known American writer
to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and
career.[2]
 Poe was born in Boston, the second child of actors David and Elizabeth "Eliza"
Poe.[3] His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following
year. Thus orphaned, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond,
Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but he was with them well into young
adulthood. Tension developed later as Poe and John Allan repeatedly clashed
over Poe's debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of Poe's
education. Poe attended the University of Virginia but left after a year due to lack
of money. He quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted
in the United States Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at this time
that his publishing career began with the anonymous collection Tamerlane and
Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian". Poe and Allan reached a
temporary rapprochement after the death of Allan's wife in 1829. Poe later failed
as an officer cadet at West Point, declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer,
 and he ultimately parted ways with Allan.
 Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working
for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary
criticism. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and New York City. He married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia
Clemm, in 1836, but Virginia died of tuberculosis in 1847. In January 1845, Poe
published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. He planned for years to
produce his own journal The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), but before it could
be produced, he died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, at age 40. The cause of
his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to disease, alcoholism,
substance abuse, suicide, and other causes.[4]
 Poe and his works influenced literature around the world, as well as specialized
fields such as cosmology and cryptography. He and his work appear throughout
popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes
are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an
annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery
genre.

Emily Dickinson

Daguerreotype taken at Mount Holyoke, December 1846 or early

1847; the only authenticated portrait of Dickinson after early

childhood[1]

Born December 10, 1830

Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.

Died May 15, 1886 (aged 55)

Amherst, Massachusetts, U.S.

Occupation Poet

Alma mater Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American
poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most
important figures in American poetry.[2]
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts into a prominent family with strong ties
to its community. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth,
she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's
house in Amherst.
Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered
an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for
her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson
never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon
correspondence.[3]
While Dickinson was a prolific writer, her only publications during her lifetime were 10 of
her nearly 1,800 poems, and one letter. [4] The poems published then were usually edited
significantly to fit conventional poetic rules. Her poems were unique for her era. They
contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as
unconventional capitalization and punctuation.[5] Many of her poems deal with themes of
death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends, and also explore
aesthetics, society, nature and spirituality.[6]
Although Dickinson's acquaintances were most likely aware of her writing, it was not until
after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister, discovered her cache
of poems—that her work became public. Her first collection of poetry was published in
1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis
Todd, though both heavily edited the content. A 1998 article in The New York
Times revealed that of the many edits made to Dickinson's work, the name "Susan" was
often deliberately removed. At least eleven of Dickinson's poems were dedicated to
sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, though all the dedications were
obliterated, presumably by Todd. [7] A complete, and mostly unaltered, collection of her
poetry became available for the first time when scholar Thomas H. Johnson
published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955.

"I taste a liquor never brewed" (1861)

"Success is Counted Sweetest" (1864)

"Because I could not stop for Death" (1890)

"There's a certain Slant of light" (1890)

"A Bird came down the Walk" (1891)

Poetry
""Hope" is the thing with feathers (poem)" (1891)

"I'm Nobody! Who are you?" (1891)

"I like to see it lap the Miles" (1891)

"I heard a Fly buzz—when I died" (1896)

"There is a pain — so utter —" (1929)

People Edward Dickinson (father)

William Austin Dickinson (brother)

Lavinia Norcross Dickinson (sister)

 Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson (sister in law)

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (editor)

Mabel Loomis Todd (editor)

QUICK FACTS

NAME

Mark Twain

BIRTH DATE

November 30, 1835

DEATH DATE

April 21, 1910

PLACE OF BIRTH

Florida, Missouri

PLACE OF DEATH

Redding, Connecticut

Mark Twain, the writer, adventurer and wily social critic born
Samuel Clemens, wrote the novels 'Adventures of Tom
Sawyer' and 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.’
Who Was Mark Twain?
Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, was the celebrated author of
several novels, including two major classics of American literature: The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was also a riverboat pilot,
journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur and inventor. 

Early Life

Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in the tiny village of Florida,
Missouri, on November 30, 1835, the sixth child of John and Jane Clemens. When he
was 4 years old, his family moved to nearby Hannibal, a bustling river town of 1,000
people. 

John Clemens worked as a storekeeper, lawyer, judge and land speculator, dreaming
of wealth but never achieving it, sometimes finding it hard to feed his family. He was
an unsmiling fellow; according to one legend, young Sam never saw his father
laugh. 

His mother, by contrast, was a fun-loving, tenderhearted homemaker who whiled

away many a winter's night for her family by telling stories. She became head of the
household in 1847 when John died unexpectedly. 

The Clemens family "now became almost destitute," wrote

biographer Everett Emerson, and was forced into years of economic
struggle — a fact that would shape the career of Twain.

His most famous novels included The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

(1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which are loosely based
on Twain's boyhood experiences in Missouri. Twain also wrote numerous
short stories, most notably “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County” (1865).
 QUICK FACTS

NAME

Robert Frost

BIRTH DATE

March 26, 1874

DEATH DATE

January 29, 1963

EDUCATION

Dartmouth College, Lawrence High School, Harvard University

PLACE OF BIRTH

San Francisco, California

PLACE OF DEATH

Boston, Massachusetts
obert Frost was an American poet who depicted realistic New
England life through language and situations familiar to the
common man. He won four Pulitzer Prizes for his work and
spoke at John F. Kennedy's 1961 inauguration.
Who Was Robert Frost?

Robert Frost was an American poet and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes. Famous works
include “Fire and Ice,” “Mending Wall,” “Birches,” “Out Out,” “Nothing Gold Can
Stay” and “Home Burial.” His 1916 poem, "The Road Not Taken," is often read at
graduation ceremonies across the United States. As a special guest at President John
F. Kennedy’s inauguration, Frost became a poetic force and the unofficial "poet
laureate" of the United States.

Frost spent his first 40 years as an unknown. He exploded on the scene after returning
from England at the beginning of World War I. He died of complications from
prostate surgery on January 29, 1963.

Early Years

Frost was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, California. He spent the first 11
years of his life there, until his journalist father, William Prescott Frost Jr., died of
tuberculosis.

Following his father's passing, Frost moved with his mother and sister, Jeanie, to the
town of Lawrence, Massachusetts. They moved in with his grandparents, and Frost
attended Lawrence High School.

After high school, Frost attended Dartmouth College for several

months, returning home to work a slew of unfulfilling jobs.

Beginning in 1897, Frost attended Harvard University but had to drop

out after two years due to health concerns. He returned to Lawrence
to join his wife.

In 1900, Frost moved with his wife and children to a farm in New
Hampshire — property that Frost's grandfather had purchased for
them—and they attempted to make a life on it for the next 12 years.
Though it was a fruitful time for Frost's writing, it was a difficult period
in his personal life, as two of his young children died.

During that time, Frost and Elinor attempted several endeavors,

including poultry farming, all of which were fairly unsuccessful.

Despite such challenges, it was during this time that Frost

acclimated himself to rural life. In fact, he grew to depict it quite well,
and began setting many of his poems in the countryside.

Wife

Frost met his future love and wife, Elinor White, when they were both
attending Lawrence High School. She was his co-valedictorian when
they graduated in 1892.

In 1894, Frost proposed to White, who was attending St. Lawrence

University, but she turned him down because she first wanted to
finish school. Frost then decided to leave on a trip to Virginia, and
when he returned, he proposed again. By then, White had graduated
from college, and she accepted. They married on December 19,
1895.

White died in 1938. Diagnosed with cancer in 1937 and having

undergone surgery, she also had had a long history of heart trouble,
to which she ultimately succumbed.

Children

Frost and White had six children together. Their first child, Elliot, was
born in 1896. Daughter Lesley was born in 1899.

Elliot died of cholera in 1900. After his death, Elinor gave birth to four
more children: son Carol (1902), who would commit suicide in 1940;
Irma (1903), who later developed mental illness; Marjorie (1905),
who died in her late 20s after giving birth; and Elinor (1907), who
died just weeks after she was born.

Early Poetry

In 1894, Frost had his first poem, "My Butterfly: an Elegy," published
in The Independent, a weekly literary journal based in New York
City.
Two poems, "The Tuft of Flowers" and "The Trial by Existence,"
were published in 1906. He could not find any publishers who were
willing to underwrite his other poems.

In 1912, Frost and Elinor decided to sell the farm in New Hampshire
and move the family to England, where they hoped there would be
more publishers willing to take a chance on new poets.

Within just a few months, Frost, now 38, found a publisher who
would print his first book of poems, A Boy’s Will, followed by North of
Boston a year later.

It was at this time that Frost met fellow poets Ezra Pound and

Edward Thomas, two men who would affect his life in significant
ways. Pound and Thomas were the first to review his work in a
favorable light, as well as provide significant encouragement. Frost
credited Thomas's long walks over the English landscape as the
inspiration for one of his most famous poems, "The Road Not
Taken."

Apparently, Thomas's indecision and regret regarding what paths to

take inspired Frost's work. The time Frost spent in England was one
of the most significant periods in his life, but it was short-lived.
Shortly after World War I broke out in August 1914, Frost and Elinor
were forced to return to America.

Public Recognition for Frost’s Poetry

When Frost arrived back in America, his reputation had preceded

him, and he was well-received by the literary world. His new
publisher, Henry Holt, who would remain with him for the rest of his
life, had purchased all of the copies of North of Boston. In 1916, he
published Frost's Mountain Interval, a collection of other works that
he created while in England, including a tribute to Thomas.

Journals such as the Atlantic Monthly, who had turned Frost down

when he submitted work earlier, now came calling. Frost famously
sent the Atlantic the same poems that they had rejected before his
stay in England.

In 1915, Frost and Elinor settled down on a farm that they purchased
 in Franconia, New Hampshire. There, Frost began a long career as a
teacher at several colleges, reciting poetry to eager crowds and
writing all the while.

Famous Poems

Some of Frost’s most well-known poems include:

 “The Road Not Taken”

 “Birches”
 “Fire and Ice”
 “Mending Wall”
 “Home Burial”
 “The Death of the Hired Man”
 “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”
 “Acquainted with the Night”
 “Out, Out”
 “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Death

On January 29, 1963, Frost died from complications related to

prostate surgery. He was survived by two of his daughters, Lesley
and Irma. His ashes are interred in a family plot in Bennington,
Vermont.
 Biography of  T.S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis in 1888 to a family with
prominent New England heritage. Eliot largely abandoned his
midwestern roots and chose to ally himself with both New and Old
England throughout his life. He attended Harvard as an
undergraduate in 1906, where he was accepted into its literary
circles, and had a predilection for 16th- and 17th-century poetry, the
Italian Renaissance (particularly Dante), Eastern religion, and
philosophy. Perhaps the greatest influences on him, however, were
19th-century French Symbolists such as Charles Baudelaire, Arthur
Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, and especially Jules Laforgue. Eliot
took from them a sensual yet precise attention to symbolic images, a
feature that would be the hallmark of his brand of Modernism.
Eliot also earned a master's degree from Harvard in 1910 before
studying in Paris and Germany. He settled in England in 1914 at the
outbreak of World War I, studying at Oxford, teaching, and working
at a bank. In 1915 he married British writer Vivienne Haigh-Wood
(they would divorce in 1933), a woman prone to poor physical and
mental health; in November of 1921, Eliot had a nervous
breakdown.
By 1917 Eliot had already achieved great success with his first book
of poems, Prufrock and Other Observations, which included "The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," a work begun in his days at
Harvard. Eliot's reputation was bolstered by the admiration and aid
of esteemed contemporary poet Ezra Pound, the other towering
figure of modernist poetry. During Eliot's recuperation from his
breakdown in a Swiss sanitarium, he wrote The Waste Land,
arguably the most influential English-language poem ever written.
Eliot founded the quarterly journal Criterion in 1922, editing it until
its end in 1939. He was now the voice of modernism, and in London
he expanded the breadth of his writing. In addition to writing poetry
and editing it for various publications, he wrote philosophical
reviews and a number of critical essays. Many of these, such as
"Tradition and the Individual Talent," have become classics, smartly
and affectionately dissecting other poets while subtly informing the
reader about Eliot's own work. Eliot declared his preference for
poetry that does away with the poet's own personality and uses the
"objective correlative" of symbolic, meaningful, and often chaotic
concrete imagery.
Eliot joined the Church of England in 1927 and his subsequent work
reflects his Anglican attitudes. The six-part poem "Ash Wednesday"
(1930) and other religious works in the early part of the 1930s,
while notable in their own right, retrospectively feel like a warm-up
for his epic Four Quartets (completed and published together in
1943). Eliot used his wit, philosophical preoccupation with time,
and vocal range to examine further religious issues.
Eliot wrote his first play, Murder in the Cathedral, in 1935. A verse
drama about the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, the play's
religious themes were forerunners of Eliot's four other major
plays, The Family Reunion (1939), The Cocktail Party (1949), The
Confidential Clerk (1953), and The Elder Statesman (1959). With
these religious verse dramas cloaked in secular conversational
comedy, Eliot belied whatever pretensions his detractors may have
found in his Anglophilia. He wrote Old Possum's Book of Practical
Cats in 1939, a book of verse for children that was eventually
adapted into the Broadway musical Cats.
As one might predict based on the tone of his poetry, Eliot was
unhappy for most of his life, but his second marriage in 1957 proved
fruitful. When he died in 1965, he was the recipient of a Nobel Prize
(1948), the author of the century's most influential poem, and
arguably the century's most important poet. Perhaps due to the large
shadow he casts, relatively few poets have tried to ape his style;
others simply find him cold. Still, no one can escape the authority of
Eliot's modernism; it is as relevant today as it was in 1922. While
Eliot may not have as much influence on poets today as do some of
his contemporaries, the magnitude of his impact on poetry is
unrivaled.
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and
sportsman. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory
—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and his
public image brought him admiration from later generations. Wikipedia

Born: 21 July 1899, Oak Park, Illinois, United States

Died: 2 July 1961, Ketchum, Idaho, United States
Spouse: Mary Welsh Hemingway (m. 1946–1961), MORE
Children: Gregory Hemingway, Jack Hemingway, Patrick Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in suburban
Oak Park, IL, to Dr. Clarence and Grace Hemingway. Ernest
was the second of six children to be raised in the quiet
suburban town. His father was a physician, and both parents
were devout Christians. Hemingway's childhood pursuits
fostered the interests that would blossom into literary
achievements.

Although Grace hoped her musical interests would influence

her son, young Hemingway preferred to accompany his father
on hunting and fishing trips. This love of outdoor adventure
would be reflected later in many of Hemingway's stories,
particularly those featuring protagonist Nick Adams.

Hemingway also had an aptitude for physical challenge that

engaged him throughout high school, where he both played
football and boxed. Because of permanent eye damage
contracted from numerous boxing matches, Hemingway was
repeatedly rejected from service in World War I. Boxing
provided more material for Hemingway's stories, as well as a
habit of likening his literary feats to boxing victories.

Hemingway also edited his high school newspaper and

reported for the Kansas City Star, adding a year to his age
after graduating from high school in 1917.
After this short stint, Hemingway finally was able to
participate in World War I as an ambulance driver for the
American Red Cross. He was wounded on July 8, 1918, on the
Italian front near Fossalta di Piave. During his convalescence in
Milan, he had an affair with a nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky.
Hemingway received two decorations from the Italian
government, and he joined the Italian infantry. Fighting on the
Italian front inspired the plot of A Farewell to Arms in 1929.
Indeed, war itself is a major theme in Hemingway's works.
Hemingway would witness firsthand the cruelty and stoicism
required of the soldiers he would portray in his writing when
covering the Greco-Turkish War in 1920 for the Toronto Star. In
1937, he was a war correspondent in Spain, and the events of
the Spanish Civil War inspired For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Upon returning briefly to the United States after the First
World War, Hemingway worked for the Toronto Star and lived
for a short time in Chicago. There, he met Sherwood
Anderson and married Hadley Richardson in 1921. On
Anderson's advice, the couple moved to Paris, where he
served as foreign correspondent for the Star. As Hemingway
covered events on all of Europe, the young reporter
interviewed important leaders such as Lloyd George,
Clemenceau, and Mussolini.
The Hemingways lived in Paris from 1921-1926. This time of
stylistic development for Hemingway reached its zenith in
1923 with the publication of Three Stories and Ten Poems by
Robert McAlmon in Paris and the birth of his son John. This
time in Paris also inspired the novel A Moveable Feast,
published posthumously in 1964.
During this period following the birth of his first child,
Hemingway began to acquire a series of nicknames that
eventually culminated in the well-known moniker “Papa.”
Hadley and John referred to him as “Ernestoic,” “Tatie,” and
“Tiny,” and he was also known as “Ernie,” “Hem,” “Wemedge,”
and “Hemmy” at various points in his life. “Papa” came about
for a number of reasons, including, according to official
biographer Carlos Baker, Hemingway’s desire to be respected,
admired, and obeyed. In addition, “Papa” dovetailed with
Hemingway’s reputation as a rough-and-tumble outdoorsman
and adventurer.

In January 1923, Hemingway began writing sketches that

would appear in In Our Time, which was published in 1924. In
August of 1923 he and Hadley returned to Toronto where he
worked once again for the Star. At this point, he produced no
writing that was not committed to publication, and in the
coming months, his job kept him from starting anything new.
However, this time off from writing gave him renewed energy
upon his return to Paris in January of 1924.
During his time in Toronto he read Joyce's Dubliners, which
forever changed his writing career. By August of 1924, he had
the majority of In Our Time written. Although there was a
period when his publisher Horace Liverwright wanted to
change much of the collection, Hemingway stood firm and
refused to change even one word of the book.
In Paris, Hemingway used Sherwood Anderson's letter of
introduction to meet Gertrude Stein and enter the world of
expatriate authors and artists who inhabited her intellectual
circle. The famous description of this "lost generation" was
born of an employee's remark to Hemingway, and it became
immortalized as the epigraph for his first major novel, The Sun
Also Rises.
This "lost generation" both characterized the postwar
generation and the literary movement it produced. In the
1920s, writers such as Anderson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James
Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein decried the false ideals
of patriotism that led young people to war, only to the benefit
of materialistic elders. These writers held that the only truth
was reality, and thus life could be nothing but hardship. This
tenet strongly influenced Hemingway.

The late 1920s were a time of many publications for

Hemingway. In 1926, The Torrents of Spring and The Sun Also
Rises were published by Charles Scribner's Sons.
In 1927 Hemingway published a short story collection, Men
Without Women. In the same year he divorced Hadley
Richardson and married Pauline Pfieffer, a writer for Vogue. In
1928, they moved to Key West, where sons Patrick and
Gregory were born in 1929 and 1932. 1928 was a year of both
success and sorrow for Hemingway. In this year, A Farewell to
Arms was published, and his father committed suicide.
Clarence Hemingway had been suffering from hypertension
and diabetes. This painful experience is reflected in the
pondering of Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
In addition to personal experiences with war and death,
Hemingway's extensive travel in pursuit of hunting and other
sports provided a great deal of material for his novels.
Bullfighting inspired Death in the Afternoon, published in 1932.
In 1934, Hemingway went on safari in Africa, which gave him
new themes and scenes on which to base The Snows of
Kilamanjaro and The Green Hills of Africa, published in 1935.
In 1937 he traveled to Spain as a war correspondent, and he
published To Have and Have Not. After his divorce from Pauline
in 1940, Hemingway married Martha Gelhorn, a writer. They
toured China before settling in Cuba at Finca Vigia (Look-out
Farm). For Whom the Bell Tolls was published in the same year.
During World War II, Hemingway volunteered his fishing boat
and served with the U.S. Navy as a submarine spotter in the
Caribbean. In 1944, he traveled through Europe with the Allies
as a war correspondent and participated in the liberation of
Paris. Hemingway divorced again in 1945 and then married
Mary Welsh, a correspondent for Time magazine, in 1946.
They lived in Venice before returning to Cuba.
In 1950 he published Across the River and Into the Trees, though
it was not received with the usual critical acclaim. In 1952,
however, Hemingway proved the comment "Papa is finished"
wrong, with The Old Man and the Sea winning the Pulitzer Prize
in 1953. In 1954, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
In 1960, the now aged Hemingway moved to Ketchum, Idaho,
where he was hospitalized for uncontrolled high blood
pressure, liver disease, diabetes, and depression.

On July 2, 1961, he died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. He

was buried in Ketchum. "Papa" was both a legendary celebrity
and a sensitive writer, and his influence, as well as some
unseen writings, survived his passing. In 1964, A Moveable
Feast was published; in 1969, The Fifth Column and Four Stories
of the Spanish Civil War; in 1970, Islands in the Stream; in
1972, The Nick Adams Stories; in 1985, The Dangerous Summer;
and in 1986, The Garden of Eden.
Hemingway's own life and character are as fascinating as in
any of his stories. On one level, Papa was a legendary
adventurer who enjoyed his flamboyant lifestyle and celebrity
status. However, deep inside lived a disciplined author who
worked tirelessly in pursuit of literary perfection. His success
in both living and writing is reflected in the fact that
Hemingway is a hero to intellectuals and rebels alike; the
passions of the man are equaled only by those in his writing.
Walter Whitman was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a
part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in
his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often
called the father of free verse. Wikipedia

Born: 31 May 1819, West Hills, New York, United States

Died: 26 March 1892, Camden, New Jersey, United States
Nationality: American
Siblings: George Washington Whitman, MORE
Poems

Biography of  Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman into an American working-class farming family in

the early nineteenth century. When Whitman was four, his father
moved the family to Brooklyn, New York. During Whitman’s
childhood, New York City was still developing into a major urban
center, and much of his work alludes to the expansion of this
metropolis. Young Whitman often traveled between Brooklyn and
Manhattan by ferry, which inspired him to frequently address
themes of crossing and gathering in his poetry.
Whitman attended public school in Brooklyn. On weekends and
during holidays, he often visited his grandparents on their farm on
Long Island - a pastoral setting that provided a stark contrast to the
bustling urban environment of New York City. As a result,
Whitman developed a dual love of the city and the countryside. At
the age of eleven, Whitman finished his formal education and began
working as an office boy. However, he was a voracious reader and
continued to educate himself independently. In 1831, he began
working at a small newspaper. There, he had the opportunity to
publish his first work, a group of essays on life in New York.
Whitman then spent five years as a teacher in several country
schools on Long Island. Whitman was extremely frustrated that
many of his students were behind in their studies and did not seem
to respond to the established curriculum. Soon, he refused to
conduct his classroom using these regular teaching methods.
Instead, he often used his own poetry as a teaching tool. Though
Whitman was quite unhappy during this time in his life, these
experiences created the foundation for Whitman's theory of
education and learning and inspired several of his poems.
Whitman briefly returned to print journalism as the editor of
the Brooklyn Eagle. He lost his job in 1848 after engaging in a
heated political debate with the newspaper’s owner. After that,
Whitman made the bold proclamation that he was going to become
a poet. Whitman began writing Leaves of Grass around 1850. By
1855, he had completed a first edition, which he printed himself.
The collection received several complimentary reviews from literary
critics, but several years passed before it was widely distributed.
Whitman and his family experienced many hardships during the
Civil War. Whitman’s brother enlisted in the Union Army and was
captured by Confederate soldiers. Whitman himself worked as a
clerk in Washington, D.C. until he was fired, purportedly because
the Secretary of the Interior found a copy of Leaves of Grass and
objected to the sexual content. After losing his job, Whitman started
working on another edition of Leaves of Grass, which was
published in 1868.
In the later years of his life, Whitman lived in Camden, New Jersey.
He continued to write and publish new versions of Leaves of Grass.
He assembled the final edition of the book, which would later be
called the "deathbed" edition, in 1891. Critics believe that this
version is the most complete representation of Whitman's vision.
Walt Whitman died of complications from pneumonia in 1892 and
is buried in Camden.