Samuel Johnson stands as one of the most imposing and fascinating figures in the history of English literature, a man whose physical bulk was matched only by the magnitude of his intellectual achievements and the breadth of his influence on the language itself. Born on September 18, 1709, in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and dying in London on December 13, 1784, Johnson's seventy-five years encompassed a journey from pro…
“To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.”
Neighbourhood:
Augustan Poets, Devotional Poets, Light Verse Poets
Emotional landscape: Irony, Sorrow, Despair
Jean Elliot, often called Jane Elliot in later accounts, was born in April 1727 at Minto House in Teviotdale, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders, and died on 29 March 1805. She is remembered above all for “The Flowers of the Forest,” one of the most moving lyrics in the Scottish tradition. The apparent smallness of her surviving body of work has sometimes obscured the scale of her achievement. Elliot did not leav…
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Folk & Ballad Poets, Scottish Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Longing
