John Davidson was born on 11 April 1857 in Barrhead, Renfrewshire, and died on 23 March 1909, or shortly thereafter, in the waters off Penzance, Cornwall. He was a Scottish poet, playwright, novelist, critic, journalist, and tireless literary experimenter whose work stands at a crucial threshold in British writing. In temperament and technique, he belonged neither wholly to the late Victorians nor wholly to the moder…
“Irony is the enigma within the enigma, the open secret, the only answer, the last word of philosophy, the nearest approach to truth; Irony affirms and delights in the whole.”
Neighbourhood:
Decadent Poets, Edwardian Poets, Love Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Scottish Poets, Symbolist Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Anger
Franklin Pierce Adams, known almost everywhere in print by the compact and memorable signature “F. P. A.,” was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 15 November 1881, and died in New York City on 23 March 1960. During the first half of the twentieth century, he became one of America’s most recognizable newspaper humorists, a poet of urbane light verse, an editor, anthologist, critic, and central presence in the literary soci…
“Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Edwardian Poets, Light Verse Poets
Emotional landscape: Irony, Longing, Sorrow
