Lucretius

Titus Lucretius Carus (c.99-55 BC) was a Roman poet and Epicurean philosopher, whose De rerum natura/On die Nature of Things envisaged the whole universe as a combination of atoms,...

Lucan

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (AD 39-65) was a Latin poet, born in Cordova, a nephew of Seneca and favourite of Nero until the emperor became jealous of his verse. Short Biography: He...

Federico Garcia Lorca

Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) was a Spanish poet and playwright, born in Granada. Short Biography: Romancero gitano/Gipsy Ballad-book (1928) shows the influence of the Andalusian...

Lope de Vega

Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio (1562-1635) was born in Madrid, served with the Armada (1588), and in (1613) took holy orders. Short Biography: He wrote epics, pastorals,...

Giacomo Leopardi

Giacomo Leopardi, Count Leopardi (1798-1837) was an Italian romantic poet. Short Biography: The first collection of his uniquely pessimistic poems, / Versi/Verses, appeared in...

Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was a English poet. Short Biography: His perfectionist, pessimistic verse includes The North Ship (1945), The Whitsun Weddings (1964), and High Windows...

William Langland

William Langland (c.1332-c.1400) was a English poet. Short Biography: Born in the West Midlands, he took minor orders, and in later life settled in London. His alliterative Vision...

Horace

Horace (65-8 BC) became a leading poet under the patronage of the emperor Augustus. Short Biography: His works include Satires (35-30 BC), the four books of Odes (c. 25-24),...

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was an English poet. Short Biography: His work, marked by its religious themes and use of natural imagery, includes "The Wreck of the Deutschland"...

Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) was a German romantic poet and journalist, who wrote Reisebilder (1826) and Buch der Lieder / Book of Songs (1827). Short Biography: From 1831 he lived...

Mihai Eminescu

Mihai Eminescu (real name Mihail Eminovici) was born on January 15, 1850 in Botosani, Romania. He is the most famous Romanian poet of all times. Biography and Career : Between...

John Dryden

John Dryden (1631-1700) was a English poet and dramatist, noted for his satirical verse and for his use of the heroic couplet. Short Biography: His poetry includes the verse...

John Donne

John Donne (1571-1631) was a English metaphysical poet, whose work is characterized by subtle imagery and figurative language. Short Biography: In 1615 Donne took orders in the...

Cecil Day-Lewis

Cecil Day-Lewis (1904-1972) was a Irish poet laureate 1968-1972. Short Biography: With Auden and Spender, he was one of the influential left-wing poets of the 1930s. He also...

Ruben Dario

Pen name of Felix Ruben Garcia Sarmiento (1867-1916) was an Nicaraguan poet. Short Biography: His Azall (Azure) written in 1888, a collection of prose and verse influenced by...

Dante Alighieri

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was an Italian poet. His masterpiece is Divina Commedia / The Divine Comedy 1300-1321. Other works include the prose philosophical treatise Convivio...

Dafydd ap Gwilym

Dafydd ap Gwllym (c. 1340 - c.1400) was a Welsh poet. Short Biography: His work is notable for its complex but graceful style, its concern with nature and love rather than with...

E. E. Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962) was an American poet, whose published collections of poetry include Tulips and Chimneys in 1923. Short Biography: His poems were initially...

George Crabbe

George Crabbe (1754-1832) was a English poet. Short Biography: Originally a doctor, he became a clergyman in 1781, and wrote grimly realistic verse of the poor of his own time...

William Cowper

William Cowper (1731-1800) was an English poet. Short Biography: He trained as a lawyer, but suffered a mental breakdown in 1763 and entered an asylum, where he underwent an...

Abraham Cowley

Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) was an English poet. Short Biography: He introduced the Pindaricode (based on the Greek poet Pindar) to English poetry, and published metaphysical...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was a English poet, one of the founders of the Romantic movement. Short Biography: A friend of Southey and Wordsworth, he collaborated with...

John Clare

John Clare (1793-1864) was a English poet. Short Biography: His work includes Poems Descriptive of Rural Life in 1820, The Village Minstrel in 1821, and Shepherd's Calendar in...

Chretien de Troyes

Chretien de Troyes medieval French poet, born in Champagne about the middle of the 12th century. Short Biography: His epics, which include Le Chevalier de la Charrette; Perceval...