Arthur Davison Ficke was born in Davenport, Iowa, on 10 November 1883, at a moment when the United States was rapidly becoming both an industrial power and a more self-conscious literary nation. He died on 30 November 1945, at the age of sixty-two, leaving a body of poetry that can seem difficult to classify neatly. He was at once a disciplined maker of sonnets, a cosmopolitan traveler, a student of Asian cultures, a…
“To see the world truly, one must first learn to look past the illusions of one's own desires.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Decadent Poets, Edwardian Poets, Imagist Poets, Modernist Poets, Symbolist Poets
Emotional landscape: Fear, Sorrow, Wonder
Joseph Milton Hayes, known to the public as J. Milton Hayes, was born in Bristol on 13 January 1884 and died on 6 February 1940. During his lifetime he became one of the best-known writers of recitation verse in Britain, a poet whose work was heard as often as it was read. His celebrity rested especially on “The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God,” a narrative poem whose opening line, “There’s a one-eyed yellow idol…
“I wrote The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God in five hours, but I had it all planned out. It isn't poetry and it does not pretend to be, but it does what it sets out to do.”
Neighbourhood:
Folk & Ballad Poets, Light Verse Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Longing
