Robert Southey was born in Bristol on 12 August 1774 and died at Greta Hall, near Keswick in the Lake District, on 21 March 1843. During his lifetime he was among the most visible men of letters in Britain: a poet, historian, biographer, reviewer, editor, translator, political commentator, children’s writer, and, from 1813 until his death, Poet Laureate. Yet posterity has treated him unevenly. He is often remembered…
“The history of any private family, however humble, could it be fully related for five or six generations, would illustrate the state and progress of society better than the most elaborate dissertation.”
Neighbourhood:
Hymn Writers, Nature Poets, Political Poets, Romantic Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Irony, Wonder
Sir Walter Raleigh, born about 1554 at Hayes Barton in the parish of East Budleigh, Devon, and executed in London on 29 October 1618, remains one of the most vivid and contradictory figures of the English Renaissance. He was a soldier, imperial promoter, courtier, colonial entrepreneur, naval commander, politician, prisoner, historian, scientist, and poet. In popular memory he is often reduced to a picturesque legend…
“Whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.”
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Elizabethan Poets, Love Poets, Nature Poets, Renaissance Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Spirituality
