Charles Kingsley was born on 12 June 1819 at Holne, a village on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, into a family whose circumstances, movements, religious commitments, and imaginative habits all helped to shape his career. He became one of the most conspicuous Victorian public intellectuals: an Anglican clergyman, novelist, poet, historian, lecturer, social reformer, controversialist, and writer for children. In his own…
“The men whom I have seen succeed best in life have always been cheerful and hopeful men.”
Neighbourhood:
Children's Verse, Nature Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Despair
Matthew Arnold was born on 24 December 1822 at Laleham, Middlesex, a village beside the Thames, and died suddenly on 15 April 1888 at Liverpool. He became one of the defining English voices of the Victorian age: a poet of haunting melancholy, a critic who sought standards of excellence amid cultural confusion, an educational civil servant with an unusually broad public vision, and a controversial commentator on relig…
“The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light.”
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Love Poets, Nature Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Despair
