The life of William Morris presents one of the most remarkable and multifaceted careers in Victorian literature and culture. Born on March 24, 1834, in Walthamstow, Essex, and dying on October 3, 1896, in Hammersmith, London, Morris packed into his sixty-two years an astonishing array of accomplishments as poet, designer, craftsman, printer, translator, socialist activist, and visionary. He remains a figure who defie…
“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
Neighbourhood:
Nature Poets, Political Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Spirituality, Sorrow
In the annals of Victorian literature and art, few figures burn as brightly or as contradictorily as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882). Born Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti on May 12, 1828, in London, he would reverse his given names to honor the great Italian poet who profoundly influenced his work and worldview. A man of extraordinary artistic vision who helped revolutionize British poetry and painting, Rossetti em…
“A work of art is beautiful when it expresses the deepest truth of the human soul.”
Neighbourhood:
Love Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Wonder, Tenderness, Sorrow