William Ernest Henley was born on 23 August 1849 in Gloucester, England, and died on 11 July 1903 at Woking, Surrey. He occupies an unusual place in English literary history: widely remembered by the public for a single short poem, “Invictus,” yet far more consequential in his own age as a poet, editor, critic, journalist, dramatist, and formidable presence in literary society. Henley’s life was shaped by physical pa…
“He is the master and the victim of a monstrous cleverness which is neither to hold nor to bind, and will not permit him to do things as an honest, simple person of genius would.”
Neighbourhood:
Confessional Poets, Death & Mortality, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Longing
Henry John Newbolt was born on 6 June 1862 at Bilston, Staffordshire, into a clerical and professional English family whose assumptions about duty, learning, faith, service, and social order would remain visible throughout his work. He became one of the most widely known poets of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, celebrated above all for robust ballads of sailors, soldiers, schoolboys, explorers, and imperial end…
“The test of a poem is that it should be memorable.”
Neighbourhood:
Edwardian Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Wonder, Spirituality
