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Curated category

English male poets

  • Charles DickensOn the 12th of May 1824, twelve-year-old Charles Dickens boarded a small boat to visit his father inside the Marshalsea debtors' prison in Southwark.
  • James MabbeJames Mabbe entered the world in 1572. He grew up to become a scholar at Oxford University. His academic journey led him to Magdalen College, where he earned…
  • William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and baptised on the 26th of April 1564. His father John worked as an alderman and a…
  • John Davies of HerefordJohn Davies of Hereford was born around 1565 in the city of Hereford. He worked as a writing-master, teaching others how to write and read during the early…
  • John KeatsJohn Keats was born in Moorgate, London, on the 31st of October 1795, into a world that would eventually crown him a master of English verse, yet his origins…
  • Percy Bysshe ShelleyOn a summer day in 1804, Percy Bysshe Shelley stood before the wooden paling fence at Eton College. He held a bag of gunpowder he had stolen from the school…
  • Lord ByronGeorge Gordon Byron entered the world on the 22nd of January 1788 on Holles Street in London. His birthplace now sits beneath a branch of the department…
  • Thomas HardyThomas Hardy was born on the 2nd of June 1840 in Higher Bockhampton, a small hamlet east of Dorchester. His father worked as a stonemason and local builder…
  • William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth entered the world on the 7th of April 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland. He was the second of five children born to John Wordsworth and Ann…
  • Jonathan SwiftJonathan Swift entered the world on the 30th of November 1667 in Dublin. His father was a native of Goodrich, Herefordshire who had fled to Ireland after his…
  • Alexander PopeAlexander Pope was born on the 21st of May 1688 at six forty-five pm in London. His parents were Catholics during a time when England faced revolution.
  • Alfred, Lord TennysonAlfred Tennyson was born on the 6th of August 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire. His father George Clayton Tennyson served as rector there from 1807 until his…
  • Ben JonsonBenjamin Jonson was born in June 1572, possibly on the 11th day of that month. His father died a single month before his birth after losing property and…
  • John MiltonJohn Milton was born on the 9th of December 1608 in Bread Street, London. His father, also named John Milton, had moved to London around 1583 after being…
  • Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge was born on the 21st of October 1772 in Ottery St Mary, a small town in Devon. His father served as the vicar of the local church and…
  • William BlakeWilliam Blake was born on the 28th of November 1757 at 28 Broad Street in Soho, London. He was the third of seven children, and two died in infancy.
  • William MorrisWilliam Morris was born at Elm House in Walthamstow, Essex, on the 24th of March 1834. He entered a world of wealth and evangelical Protestantism as the…
  • A. A. MilneAlan Alexander Milne was born in Kilburn, London on the 18th of January 1882. He grew up at Henley House School where his father taught him to read by the…
  • W. H. AudenWystan Hugh Auden was born at 54 Bootham in York, England, on the 21st of February 1907. His father George Augustus Auden worked as a physician while his…
  • Leonard Digges (writer)Leonard Digges entered University College, Oxford in 1603. This was the same year his mother remarried Thomas Russell of Alderminster.
  • William Forrest (poet)William Forrest stood among the scholars at Christ Church, Oxford, during heated discussions in 1530. Henry VIII sought the university's judgment on his…
  • Christopher MarloweChristopher Marlowe was baptised at St George's Church in Canterbury on the 26th of February 1564. He was the second child born to John Marlowe, a local…
  • Aldous HuxleyThe year 1894 marked the birth of Aldous Leonard Huxley in Godalming, Surrey. He entered a world already defined by scientific brilliance and literary fame.
  • Michael DraytonMichael Drayton arrived in the world at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, during early 1563. Very little documentation exists regarding his…
  • University WitsChristopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, and Thomas Nashe sat at Cambridge while John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and George Peele studied at Oxford.
  • Thomas MoreThomas More entered the world on the 7th of February 1478 within the City of London. His father Sir John More was a successful lawyer who later became a…
  • Edmund SpenserEdmund Spenser was born in East Smithfield, London, around the year 1552. His parentage remains obscure to modern historians, though evidence suggests he was…
  • John Fletcher (playwright)John Fletcher was born in December 1579 and baptized on the 20th of that month. He entered the world in Rye, Sussex, as the son of Richard Fletcher.
  • Walter RaleighSir Walter Raleigh was born on the 22nd of January 1552 in East Budleigh, Devon. His father held Fardel Manor while his mother Katherine Champernowne owned…
  • Joseph of ExeterJoseph of Exeter emerged from the quiet streets of Exeter, England during the twelfth century. He was a Latin poet whose name appears in historical records…
  • John DrydenJohn Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire. His father Erasmus Dryden belonged to a landowning gentry family…
  • John GowerJohn Gower lived from approximately 1330 until October 1408. Very few details exist about his birth or early family life.
  • Philip SidneyPenshurst Place in Kent served as the birthplace of Sir Philip Sidney on the 30th of November 1554. He emerged from a family deeply embedded in English…
  • Thomas Wyatt (poet)Sir Thomas Wyatt entered the world at Allington Castle near Maidstone in Kent during 1503. His family traced their roots back to Yorkshire before settling in…
  • Edmund CartwrightEdmund Cartwright entered the world on the 24th of April 1743 at Marnham in Nottinghamshire. He was the fourth son born to William Cartwright and his wife…
  • Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of OxfordOn the 12th of April 1550, Edward de Vere entered the world at Hedingham Castle in Essex. He was the only son of John de Vere, the 16th Earl of Oxford, and…
  • Henry WottonHenry Wotton was born on the 30th of March 1568 at Bocton Hall in Kent. His father Thomas Wotton died in 1587 leaving Henry only a hundred marks a year.
  • Kevin Crossley-HollandKevin John William Crossley-Holland arrived in the world on the 7th of February 1941. He grew up in Whiteleaf, a quiet village nestled within the Chilterns…
  • Richard AldingtonEdward Godfree Aldington arrived in the world on the 8th of July 1892 within the port city of Portsmouth. He was the eldest of four children born to Albert…
  • Robert SoutheyRobert Southey was born on the 12th of August 1774 in Wine Street, Bristol. He grew up in a house that still stands today as a quiet reminder of his origins.
  • Nicholas Rowe (writer)Nicholas Rowe was born on the 20th of June 1674 in Little Barford, Bedfordshire. His father John worked as a barrister and sergeant-at-law before dying in…