Giacomo Leopardi was born in Recanati, in the Marches, then part of the Papal States, on 29 June 1798, and died in Naples on 14 June 1837, only weeks before his thirty-ninth birthday. His short life produced one of the most searching bodies of poetry and prose in modern European literature. He is often introduced as Italy’s supreme poet of pessimism, and there is truth in the description, but it is insufficient if it…
“Death is not an evil, because it frees a person from all evils and, together with life's good things, takes away desires.”
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Love Poets, Nature Poets, Romantic Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Spirituality
Edward FitzGerald was born Edward Purcell on 31 March 1809 at Bredfield House, near Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, and died on 14 June 1883 at Merton, Norfolk. He occupies an unusual position in English literary history. He wrote original prose, verse, letters, dialogues, and adaptations, translated from Spanish, Greek, and Persian, and moved in circles that included Alfred Tennyson, William Makepeace Thackeray, Tho…
“I suppose I shall be known by the Rubáiyát, and I don't care how.”
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Decadent Poets, Love Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Peace, Joy, Tenderness
