Winthrop Mackworth Praed was born in London on 28 July 1802 and died there on 15 July 1839, only thirteen days short of his thirty-seventh birthday. His short life encompassed several identities that Victorian readers often preferred to keep distinct: he was a gifted schoolboy journalist, a prize-winning Cambridge classicist, a lawyer, a Conservative politician, a public speaker of exceptional brilliance, and one of…
“I should certainly refuse to occupy any post in which I should be expected to place myself in personal collision with any man.”
Neighbourhood:
Georgian Poets, Light Verse Poets, Romantic Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Peace
Arthur Hugh Clough, born in Liverpool on 1 January 1819 and dead in Florence on 13 November 1861, occupies an unusual and compelling place in nineteenth-century English poetry. He was a Victorian poet, but he often sounds impatient with the assurances conventionally associated with Victorian verse: confidence in progress, confidence in religious doctrine, confidence in moral formulas, and confidence that elevated poe…
“All things become clear to me by work more than by anything else. Any kind of drudgery will help one out of the most uncommon either sentimental or speculative perplexity.”
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Love Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Longing