John Ruskin was born in London on 8 February 1819, the only child of John James Ruskin and Margaret Cox Ruskin. He would become one of the nineteenth century’s most forceful and distinctive voices: an art critic, social thinker, lecturer, draftsman, historian of architecture, environmental observer, moral philosopher, and writer of prose whose rhythms often approached poetry. Though he is not chiefly remembered as a…
“The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way.”
Neighbourhood:
Nature Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Sorrow, Tenderness
The life of William Morris presents one of the most remarkable and multifaceted careers in Victorian literature and culture. Born on March 24, 1834, in Walthamstow, Essex, and dying on October 3, 1896, in Hammersmith, London, Morris packed into his sixty-two years an astonishing array of accomplishments as poet, designer, craftsman, printer, translator, socialist activist, and visionary. He remains a figure who defie…
“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
Neighbourhood:
Nature Poets, Political Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Spirituality, Sorrow