John Ruskin was born in London on 8 February 1819, the only child of John James Ruskin and Margaret Cox Ruskin. He would become one of the nineteenth century’s most forceful and distinctive voices: an art critic, social thinker, lecturer, draftsman, historian of architecture, environmental observer, moral philosopher, and writer of prose whose rhythms often approached poetry. Though he is not chiefly remembered as a…
“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”
Neighbourhood:
Nature Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Tenderness
William Watson was born on 2 August 1858 at Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire, and died on 11 August 1935 at Ditchling, Sussex. During his lifetime he occupied a curious and at times conspicuous place in English literary culture. He was praised as one of the finest inheritors of the Victorian poetic tradition, repeatedly mentioned as a possible Poet Laureate, admired for his disciplined music and moral seriousness, and…
“And after all, the highest beauty in art is, perhaps, a transcendent propriety.”
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Edwardian Poets, Georgian Poets, Nature Poets, Political Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Despair