Ivan Andreyevich Krylov, born on 13 February 1769 and dead on 21 November 1844, occupies a singular place in Russian literature: he is at once a classic author taught to children, a master satirist quoted by politicians and journalists, and a poet whose compact animal tales preserve an unusually sharp view of human weakness. To call him merely “the Russian Aesop,” as generations of readers have done, is useful but in…
“Friendship, then, should rest on the strongest foundation: respect, strengthened by knowledge of another's worth, a foundation that cannot be shaken.”
Neighbourhood:
Children's Verse, Folk & Ballad Poets, Light Verse Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Irony, Longing
John Ruskin was born in London on 8 February 1819, the only child of John James Ruskin and Margaret Cox Ruskin. He would become one of the nineteenth century’s most forceful and distinctive voices: an art critic, social thinker, lecturer, draftsman, historian of architecture, environmental observer, moral philosopher, and writer of prose whose rhythms often approached poetry. Though he is not chiefly remembered as a…
“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”
Neighbourhood:
Nature Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Tenderness