Born: baptised November 1567, Lowetoft, Suffolk Died: c. 1601 (aged 33-34) Notable Works: Summer’s Last Will and Testament Thomas Nashe (baptised November 1567 – c. 1601) was an Elizabethan playwright, poet, satirist and a significant pamphleteer. His most famous works are The Unfortunate Traveller and Summer’s Last Will and Testament. Very little is known about […]

Born: July 28, 1844, Stratford, England Died: June 8, 1889 (aged 44), Dublin, Ireland Notable Works: “Binsey Poplars”, “Pied Beauty”, “The Windhover: To Christ our Lord”, The Wreck of the Deutschland Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest. While he did not gain fame during […]

Born: December 26, 1716, London, England Died: July 30, 1771 (aged 54), Cambridge, England Notable Works: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, classical scholar and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge, best known for his poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, published […]

Born: November 30, 1554, Kent, England Died: October 17, 1586 (aged 31), Zutphen, Netherlands Notable Works: Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poesy, The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier. While he did not write much poetry and certainly […]

Born: May 21, 1688, London, England Died: May 30, 1744 (aged 56), Middlesex, England Notable Works: The Dunciad, The Rape of the Lock, An Essay on Criticism, His translation of Homer Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 — 30 May 1744) was an English poet, considered the foremost English poet of the early 18th century and […]

Born: baptised August 24, 1591, London, England Died: buried October 15, 1674 (aged 83), Devon, England Notable Works: Hesperides Robert Herrick (baptised 24 August 1591 – buried 15 October 1674) was an English poet and cleric. While not particularly famous during his lifetime, he wrote over 2,500 poems, about half of which appear in his […]

Born: April 17, 1621, Brecknockshire, Wales Died: April 23, 1695 (aged 74), Brecknockshire, Wales Notable Works: Silex Scintillans Henry Vaughan (17 April 1621 — 23 April 1695) was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author, translator and physician. He is best known for his poem Silex Scintillans which was published in 1650, with a second part in […]

Born: April 7, 1770, Cockermouth, England Died: April 23, 1850 (aged 80), Rydal, England Years Active: 1973—1850 Notable Works: Lyrical Ballads (1667), The Prelude (1644) William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet, best known for Lyrical Ballads (1667), which he wrote with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He and Coleridge […]

Born: October 21, 1772, Ottery St Mary, Devon, England Died: July 25, 1834 (aged 61), Highgate, England Years Active: 1794—1834 Notable Works: The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (1798), Kubla Khan (1816), Biographia Literaria (1817), Christabel (1797) Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher and […]

Born: April 3, 1593, Montgomery, Wales Died: March 1, 1633 (aged 39), Bemerton, Wiltshire, England Notable Works: The Temple, The Country Parson, Jacula Prudentum George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was a poet, orator and priest of the Church of England. Born in Wales, Herbert is considered one of the most influential […]