John Dryden (1631-1700) is an important figure in English literary history. Following the English Civil War (1642-51) and the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he built a reputation as the leading poet and literary critic of his day. King Charles II made him England’s...
John Betjeman was the UK’s Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984. His popularity is based on his poems, which are approachable and often humorous, and his many appearances on television. These days he might best be remembered for his blank verse autobiography,...
“Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.” – Charles Dickens (Hard Times) Dickens Basics Charles Dickens is, in the view of many, the greatest Victorian novelist. He’s certainly the most popular and widely read. Adaptations of...
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was one of the greatest of the Romantic poets. Like his friends Byron and Keats, he produced a remarkable body of work in a very short life. He is remembered for classic poems such as Ozymandias (1818), Ode to the West...
CS Lewis was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1898. He grew up in Ireland but moved to England in 1916 to attend University College, Oxford. After serving in the First World War, he returned to Oxford and completed his studies. In 1925 Lewis became...
John Milton is remembered and admired for his epic blank-verse poem Paradise Lost (1667). Born in London in 1608, he had expected to become an Anglican priest, but instead he was drawn to writing and philosophical studies. In 1638-39 he toured France and Italy, meeting...
William Blake – born in 1757 in London – was an inspiration for songwriters Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison and Van Morrison. The beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s 1970 album, Songs of Innocence and Experience, featured musical settings of poems from Blake’s collection of the same name....
Samuel Taylor Coleridge owes his fame to his masterful poetry and also to his influence on other poets, including his friend William Wordsworth. The two first met in 1795, when they set up homes a few miles apart in Somerset. Coleridge Cottage, now owned by...
Wilfred Owen is regarded as the greatest of the First World War poets. His poems attempt to educate the innocent public about the horrors of the war and the cynicism of the politicians directing it. Although Owen strenuously opposed the war, he showed great gallantry...
Robert Browning is one of the greatest of all Victorian poets. He was born in London in 1812 and began writing poetry at an early age. He’s best remembered for Porphyria’s Lover (1842), My Last Duchess (1842), How They Brought the Good News from Ghent...