Charles Wolfe, born on 14 December 1791 and dead on 21 February 1823, occupies a small but secure territory in the history of poetry written in English. His name is inseparable from “The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna,” a poem so concise, grave, and memorable that it has long outlived the circumstances of its composition and, in many readers’ minds, eclipsed the life of the man who wrote it. For much of the n…
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Devotional Poets, Irish Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Despair
In the pantheon of American Romantic poetry, few figures burn as brightly—or as briefly—as Edward Coote Pinkney. Born into privilege on October 1, 1802, in London, England, and dying in poverty on April 11, 1828, in Baltimore, Maryland, Pinkney's twenty-five years encompassed a lifetime of passion, rebellion, literary brilliance, and ultimately, tragic unfulfillment. His story reads like a cautionary tale of artistic…
“The undersigned informs honorable men that he has found him unpossessed of courage to make satisfaction for the insolence of his folly. Saying thus much, the undersigned commits the craven to his infamy.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Death & Mortality, Love Poets, Romantic Poets
Emotional landscape: Tenderness, Longing, Wonder