Ebenezer Elliott was born on 17 March 1781 at Masbrough, near Rotherham, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and died on 1 December 1849 at Great Houghton, near Barnsley. He became known in his own lifetime as the “Corn Law Rhymer,” a title at once admiring, limiting, and revealing. It identified him with the campaign against the laws that kept imported grain expensive and bread beyond the reach of many poor families, b…
“What is a communist? One who hath yearnings for equal division of unequal earnings: idler or bungler, or both, he is willing to fork out his penny and pocket your shilling.”
Neighbourhood:
Nature Poets, Political Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Anger, Sorrow, Fear
George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron, born 22 January 1788 and dead on 19 April 1824, was at once a dazzling poet, a public celebrity before the modern age had fully invented celebrity, an aristocrat uneasy in his rank, an exile, a political speaker, a lover of freedom, and a man whose private conduct generated lasting pain as well as endless fascination. Known to the world as Lord Byron, he became one of the centr…
“I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments.”
Neighbourhood:
Dramatic Poets, LGBTQ+ Poets, Love Poets, Political Poets, Romantic Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Despair