Arthur Hugh Clough, born in Liverpool on 1 January 1819 and dead in Florence on 13 November 1861, occupies an unusual and compelling place in nineteenth-century English poetry. He was a Victorian poet, but he often sounds impatient with the assurances conventionally associated with Victorian verse: confidence in progress, confidence in religious doctrine, confidence in moral formulas, and confidence that elevated poe…
“For poetry, like science, has its final precision; and there are expressions of poetic knowledge which can no more be rewritten than could the elements of geometry.”
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Love Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Longing
James Ballantine was born on 11 June 1806 in the West Port of Edinburgh, that atmospheric warren of narrow wynds and ancient tenements huddled beneath the towering shadow of Edinburgh Castle. The air there carried the mingled scents of brewing malt, woodsmoke, and the damp promise of the nearby Meadows, a place where history and everyday grit intertwined like threads in a tartan. His father, also named James, was a b…
Neighbourhood:
Folk & Ballad Poets, Scottish Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Wonder, Spirituality, Joy
