In the grand tapestry of English Renaissance poetry, few figures occupy such a fascinating yet underexplored position as Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux of Harrowden. Born into privilege and immersed in the turbulent court life of Henry VIII, Vaux emerged as one of the early Tudor poets whose work would bridge the medieval and modern worlds of English verse. His life, spanning the transformative years from 1509 to 1556,…
“I humbly require you to be good unto me. I have as I perceive a great many more foes than friends, and am like, your goodness reserved, to be trodden under the feet and to be made a slave.”
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Elizabethan Poets, Love Poets, Medieval Poets, Renaissance Poets
Emotional landscape: Despair, Sorrow, Longing
Sir Henry Taylor occupies one of the more curious niches in nineteenth-century English letters: a poet who spent his working life not in garrets or universities but behind the desk of a government office, quietly shaping the administration of Britain's colonies while writing, in his spare hours, verse dramas that made him, for a brief and dazzling season, one of the most celebrated writers in the land. He was born on…
“Of all the uses of adversity which are sweet, none are sweeter than those which grow out of disappointed love.”
Neighbourhood:
Dramatic Poets, Edwardian Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Tenderness, Sorrow, Spirituality