William Wordsworth
He was born on 7th April 1770,in cockermouth in the Lake District, England. When many poets still wrote about ancient heroes in grandiloquent style, Wordsworth focused on nature, children, the poor, common people and used ordinary words to express his feelings. He also helped in the launch of the romantic age in English literature. He defined poetry as ‘the spontaneous overflow feelings” arising form “emotion recollected in tranquility “.Wordsworth's masterpiece is generally considered to be The Prelude, an autobiographical poem of his early years that was revised and expanded a number of times.
Early life
Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, which is now in the country of Cumbria. His mother died in 1778 and his father died in 1783. Relatives provided for his education. Wordsworth entered Cambridge University in 1787, the year he wrote his first significant poem.
Later career
Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson in 1802. They had five children Wordsworth was deeply saddened by the death of his brother John in 1805. His sadness was reflected in is poem “Elegiac stanzas suggested by a picture of Peele Castle” (1806). By 1806 Wordsworth had completed one of the most famous poems in English literature,” Ode: intimations of immortality”.
Wordsworth’s masterpiece is his long autobiographical poem,The prelude; Growth of a poet’s mind. It was published in 1850. Wordsworth wrote most of his best poetry before 180. But he wrote several important works later, like” The excursion” (1814). This long poem discusses virtue, education, and religious faith. Wordsworth wrote 523 sonnets and many of them compare with those of William Shakespeare and John Milton.
In the year 1850 this great poet passed away.
Admonition to a Traveller –william wordsworthottom of Form
Yes, there is holy pleasure in thine eye!
- The lovely cottage in the guardian nook
Hath stirred thee deeply; with its own dear brook,
Its own small pasture, almost its own sky!
But covet not the abode -O do not sigh
As many do, repining while they look;
Intruders who would tear from Nature's book
This precious leaf with harsh impiety:
- Think what the home would be if it were thine,
Even thine, though few thy wants! -Roof, window, door,
The very flowers are sacred to the Poor,
The roses to the porch which they entwine:
Yea, all that now enchants thee, from the day
On which it should be touched would melt away!
John Keats
John Keats (October 31, 1795 – February 23, 1821) was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement. During his short life, his work received constant critical attacks from the periodicals of the day, though politics, rather than aesthetics, often dictated those opinions. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, audiences began to appreciate his poetry fully and the significance of the cultural change his work both presaged and helped to form. Elaborate word choice and sensual imagery characterize Keats' poetry, especially his early writings. He often felt himself working in the shadow of past poets, particularly Milton, Spenser and Shakespeare. Only towards the end of his life did he produce his most original and most memorable poems, including a series of odes that remain among the most popular poems in English.
His life
Keats was born in London on Oct. 31, 1795, the son of a livery stable keeper. He attended the Clarke school in Enfield, outside London, and his interest in literature was first aroused there. Keats later studied medicine and passed his medical examinations, but he never practiced as a doctor because he had decided to become a poet and writer. He dedicated his first volume, Poems (1817), to his friend Leigh Hunt. In 1818, Keats published his second volume, Endymion, a long mythological story in verse. From the autumn of 1818 until the autumn of 1819, Keats experienced an intense burst of creativity, and his final and best volume was published in 1820.
His work
In 1817 he wrote the poem “On first looking into Chapman’s homer”. Some of his other poems are: Lamia, Hypersion, On a Grecian Urn, To Nightingale, On Melanchology and To Autumn.
Due to tuberculosis he died in Rome and was buried there in the year 1821.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was one of the greatest English lyric poets. He experimented with many literary styles and had a lasting influence on many late writers, particularly Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Butler Yeast, George Bernard Shaw, and Thomas Hardy.
His life
Shelley was born on the 4th of august 1792, in Sussex into a wealthy and politically prominent family. He had a stormy career at Eton College and Oxford University, from which he was expelled in 1811.
Later in his life he married Mary Godwin were married in 1816. Shelley believed the Irish were being oppressed by their rulers, and tried to rouse to rebel against England. He wrote Queen Mab (1812-1813). In 1818 Shelley wrote a sequence of important poems, including Prometheus Unbound (1820), The Witch of Atlas (1820), Espipsychidin (1821). The death of acquaintance, the English poet John Keats, inspired Shelley’s elegy Adonais on the year 1821.
His works
Shelley’s poems are emotionally direct, but difficult to understand intellectually. Much of his poetry is autobiographical, including his most famous lyric “Ode to the west wind” (1819). The role of imagination as a spiritual guide in the subject of “Mont Blank” (1816). This powerful meditative poem first revealed Shelley’s mature style.
In his most ambitious long poem, the lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound, Shelley attempted to combine his imaginative faith of his hopes for humanity. Like much of Shelley’s work, this play is based on classical Greek modals.
Shelley’s poetry became sombre after the revolutionary hope expressed in Prometheus Unbound. The Irish poet William Butler Yeast described Shelley’s themes as an increasing conflict between infinite desire and the inability fully to realize such desire.
Epipsychidion expresses Shelley’s love for an Italian noblewoman, Emila Viviani. In 1821, Shelley wrote his famous essay “A defense of poetry.”
According to the unfinished poem of human defeat, The triumph of life, good and the means of accomplishing good cannot be reconciled. Shelley always looked towards the hope of inspiration, as in “Ode to the west wind.”
On July 8th, 1822, Shelley drowned during a storm while sailing near Italy.
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861, noble laureate for literature was one of modern India’s greatest poets and the composer of independent India’s national anthem.tagore wrote primarily in Bengali (an Indian language spoken in the eastern part of India), but translated many of his works into English himself. Tagore’s writing is highly imagistic, deeply religious and imbued with his love of nature and his homeland. He was awarded the noble prize in literature for his collection of poems ‘gitanjali’. Tagore ‘s works are classics, renowned for their lyrical beauty and spiritual poignancy. In Tagore’s own words, “the words speak to me in colors, my soul answers in music”. For most of his poems, tagore composed a melody so that they are actually song-texts. This musical aspect of the poems is at times lost in translations.
John Milton
John Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet and political writer. He is the author of Paradise Lost (1667, revised 1674), considered by many to be the greatest epic poem in the English language. He also wrote Paradise Regained (1671) and Samson Agonistes (1671). Milton composed the first two of these works, and probably also the last, when he was totally blind.
His life and works
John Milton was born on December 9th 1608 in Bread Street, Cheapside, London.
In 1620 he entered St. Paul’s School.
On February 12th 1625 he Matriculated at Christs College, Cambridge.
In 1629 March he took a BA degree.
In the year 1629 in the month of December he wrote “On the morning of Christs nativity.”
In 1632 July he took an MA degree.
From 1632 July-1638 April he lived at Hammersmith and Horton.
In 1639-1640 he settled in London.
In the 1642 (May-June) he married Mary Powell, who left him about a month later.
In the year 1645 his wife returned. His Miscellaneous poems were also published.
Some of his works in the year 1649 were: The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (February) and Eikonoklases (October).
In the year 1651 Milton wrote “Defensio pro Populo Angilicano.”
By the year 1652 Milton became totally blind. His wife also passed away the same year.
Being blind in the year 1654 he wrote “Defensio Secunda”.
He also wrote “Defensio Pro Se” in the year 1655.
In the year 1656 he married Katherine Woodcock. In the year 1658 Katherine Woodcock passed away.
In the year 1663 Milton married Elizabeth Minshull.
In the year 1667 he published “Paradise Lost”
In the year 1667 he published “Paradise Regained.”
In the year 1674 he published its second part.
In he year 1674 on November 8th he passed away and was buried in St Giles’ Church, Cripplegate.
Reference: www.wikipedia.org
Pictures courtesy:www.born-today.com,www.englit.ed.ac.uk,
www.english.upenn.edu, www.crescentmoon.org.uk,
www.notablebiographies.com,www.writespirit.net,
www.poetseers.org, www.europe-
cities.com,www.faculty.mercer.edu
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