Oliver Goldsmith, born probably on 10 November 1728 and dead on 4 April 1774, lived only forty-five years, yet he became one of the most various, humane, and enduring voices in eighteenth-century English literature. He was an Irishman who made his reputation in London, a clergyman’s son who never settled into a profession, a medical student who rarely practised medicine, a chronically indebted writer who produced som…
“Life is a journey that must be travelled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.”
Neighbourhood:
Augustan Poets, Irish Poets, Light Verse Poets, Nature Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Despair
In the fertile but unsettled literary soil of colonial America, the figure of Thomas Godfrey stands as both a beacon and a cautionary tale—the first native-born American poet to publish a volume of verse, yet a voice largely forgotten by the canon that followed. His brief life—spanning only twenty-seven years from 1736 to 1763—was marked by intellectual ambition, poetic sensitivity, and a tragic trajectory that encap…
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Augustan Poets, Colonial American Poets, Death & Mortality, Love Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Joy, Sensuality, Wonder
