Robert Seymour Bridges was born on 23 October 1844 at Walmer, near Deal in Kent, into a prosperous and cultivated English family whose security gave him both educational opportunity and, eventually, the independence to pursue literature without needing to earn his living from it. He was the fourth son of John Thomas Bridges and Harriet Elizabeth Bridges. His father had served in the navy and later held administrative…
“Closely allied to these imaginative phrases, and perhaps more characteristic of Keats and peculiar to him, are the short vivid pictures which may be called his masterpieces of word-painting.”
Neighbourhood:
Dramatic Poets, Edwardian Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Wonder, Peace
Charles Stuart Calverley burst onto the Victorian literary scene like a sudden shaft of sunlight piercing the solemn clouds of high-minded poetry. Born in an age that prized ponderous epics and moralizing odes, he carved out a niche as the undisputed master of light verse, parody, and scholarly wit. His poems danced with verbal dexterity, skewering pretension while celebrating the simple joys of tobacco, beer, and sc…
Neighbourhood:
Light Verse Poets, Love Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Irony, Joy, Tenderness
