George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, was born on 22 November 1819 at South Farm on the Arbury estate near Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England, and died in London on 22 December 1880. She became one of the defining writers of the Victorian age, though she reached that position by a route unusually difficult for a woman of her period. Novelist, translator, editor, critic, essayist, and poet, Eliot brought philos…
“Appeals founded on generalisations and statistics require a sympathy ready-made, a moral sentiment already in activity.”
Neighbourhood:
Love Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Despair
Alfred Austin was born on 30 May 1835 at Headingley, then a village just outside Leeds in Yorkshire, and died on 2 June 1913 at Ashford, Kent. For seventeen years, from 1896 until his death, he held the conspicuous and difficult office of Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. Yet his name has endured less securely than those of the poets who preceded and surrounded him. To later readers, Austin has often appeared chie…
“Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.”
Neighbourhood:
Edwardian Poets, Nature Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Tenderness
