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
Arthur Symons was born on 28 February 1865 at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales, into a household shaped by religious discipline, frequent movement, and intellectual aspiration. He was the son of the Reverend Arthur Symons, a Wesleyan Methodist minister, and Mary Ann Symons. His father’s ministry required the family to move from place to place, and the boy’s childhood was therefore less rooted in one local communit…
“For nearly a year I have been normal, human, like other people, no longer isolated from the men and women whom I met in the street.”
Neighbourhood:
Decadent Poets, Edwardian Poets, Symbolist Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Wonder
