Joseph Addison, born on 1 May 1672 at Milston in Wiltshire and dead on 17 June 1719 at Holland House in Kensington, was one of the central makers of modern English prose. Poet, critic, dramatist, journalist, civil servant, parliamentarian, and Whig public intellectual, he achieved an influence out of proportion to the comparatively small bulk of his writing. His greatest achievement was not a single poem or play, tho…
“If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.”
Neighbourhood:
Augustan Poets, Hymn Writers, Light Verse Poets, Political Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Peace, Wonder
Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset, was born on 24 January 1638 and died on 29 January 1706. Although his birth year is occasionally given incorrectly as 1643, the date generally accepted by modern biographical scholarship is 1638. He was one of the most vivid aristocratic personalities of Restoration England: a court wit, lyric poet, naval volunteer, political officeholder, patron of writers, and, in his youth,…
Neighbourhood:
Georgian Poets, Light Verse Poets, Restoration Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Tenderness, Sorrow
