Poets

  • Aaron Rafi is a Canadian poet, now living in Toronto, best known for his Surviving the Censor: The Unspoken Words of Osip Mandelstam (2006). Its 48 prose poems are spoken by the Russian poet Osip, his wife Nadezhda, a voice from Stalin's transit camps, and a researcher. In November 2006, Daniel Domb, Canada’s pre-eminent cellist, composed music to these poems, which were performed at the Leah Poslins Theatre.… Read more

    Literary Period: Postmodern
  • Born November 15, 1881, Franklin P. Adams worked for forty years as a leading New York newspaper daily columnist and wit penning light verse and a weekly diary that amused a large and literate audience. A few years after graduating from the Armour Scientific Academy in Chicago in 1899, Adams first entered journalism in Chicago. Then, moving to New York, Adams successfully published mass-market light verse up to the… Read more

    Literary Period: Modern
  • Adams, John Quincy 1767 - 1848

    Hargreaves, Mary W. M. "Adams, John Quincy." American National Biography Online. American Council of Learned Societies: Oxford University Press, 2000.
    Literary Period: Unknown
  • Adams, Mary Electa 1823 - 1898

    Adams, Mary Electa. From Distant Shores: Poems. [Toronto: 1898]. Unpaginated. Internet Archive Reid, John G. "Adams, Mary Electa." Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Volume XII. Toronto: University of Toronto and Laval University, 2000.
    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Sarah Flower was born in Harlow, Essex, and married William Bridges Adams in 1834. Harold William Stephenson wrote a biography of this actress--Lady Macbeth, 1837--dramatic poet (Vivia Perpetua, 1841) and Unitarian hymn writer in The Author of Nearer my God to Thee in 1922. "Nearer my God to Thee" was one of thirteen hymns published by William Johnson Fox (1786-1864) in his Hymns and Anthems in 1841. They were… Read more

    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Addison, Joseph 1672 - 1719

    Rogers, Pat. “Addison, Joseph (1672-1719).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Augustan
  • Literary Period: Unknown
  • Pseudonym
    Dr. Mildred Undertwang,
    Agnew, Wendy. The Lillian Lectures. Toronto: Coach House Books, 1998.
    Literary Period: Postmodern
  • Ai, 1947 - 2010

    Florence Anthony, the poet, is known mainly by her pseudonym Ai. For more poems by her, see the Academy of America Poets

     

    Grandfather Says Motherhood, 1951

    and The Poetry… Read more

    Literary Period: Postmodern
  • Aiken, Conrad 1889 - 1973

    Butscher, Edward. "Aiken, Conrad." American Biographical Dictionary Online. American Council of Learned Societies: Oxford University Press, 2000.
    Literary Period: Modern
  • Akenside, Mark 1721 - 1770

    Dix, Robin. “Akenside, Mark (1721-1770).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Age of Johnson
  • Cecil Frances Humphreys was born at 25 Eccles Street, Dublin, and lived in Miltown House, county Tyrone, Ireland, beginning in 1833. She married the Right Reverend W. Alexander, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, in 1850. She wrote nearly 400 hymns, among which her work for children established her reputation as a poet. See Selected Poems of William Alexander, Archbishop of Armagh, 1896-1911, and Cecil Frances Alexander,… Read more

    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Alline, Henry 1748 - 1784

    Alline, Henry. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Boston: Peter Edes, 1786. Early American Imprints, Series 1, no. 44842. Online. Bumsted, J.M. "Alline, Henry." Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Vol. IV. University of Toronto / Université Laval, 2000.
    Literary Period: Colonial
  • Allingham, William 1824 - 1889

    William Allingham, born at Ballyshannon, published and edited verse from 1850 to his death in London on November 18, 1889. He worked for the customs service in London until his retirement in 1870, when he became sub-editor of Fraser's Magazine, then editor from 1874 to 1879. He married Helen Paterson, the water colourist. He was buried in St. Anne's Church cemetery, Ballyshannon, plot 201. His books of poetry include… Read more

    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Elleke Boehmer (editor of Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature 1870-1918 [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998]: 470) gives what is known about Mary Frances Leslie Miller's marriage (to Ernest Ames, a railway engineer) and book, An ABC, for Baby Patriots (1899). She also illustrated her husband's book, The Tremendous Twins, or How the Boers were Beaten (1900).

    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Anderson, James 1839 - 1922

    Anderson, James. Sawney's Letters and Cariboo Rhymes. Toronto: W. S. Johnson, 1895. Internet Archive
    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Anderson, Robert T. Canadian Born and Other Western Verse. Edmonton: Esdale Press, 1913. Internet Archive --. The Old Timer and Other Poems. Edmonton: Edmonton Printing and Publishing, 1909. Internet Archive --. Troopers in France. Coles Printing Co., 1932
    Literary Period: Georgian
  • Anonymous, 1100 - 2010

    Literary Period: Unknown
  • Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) was the illegitimate son of a Polish mother whose name was Kostrowitzky. After desultory studies in Paris, he led a rather nomadic life until the First Great War in which he enlisted in 1914. He was wounded in 1916 and died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. Apollinaire has many moods and many styles. He can be simple and tender, coarse and vulgar, gay, ribald, intense. He is an… Read more

    Literary Period: Unknown
  • Arnold, Matthew 1822 - 1888

    Collini, Stefan. “Arnold, Matthew (1822-1888).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Victorian
  • James Arthur's first book of poetry, Charms Against Lightning, was published as a Lannan Literary Selection by Copper Canyon Press in 2012. His work has appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, The New Republic and The New Yorker. In 2003 he received an MFA from the University of Washington, and he is currently an Assistant Proffessor at Johns Hopkins University.

     

    Bibliography:

    Charms Against… Read more

    Literary Period: Postmodern
  • Askew, Anne 1521 - 1546

    Thomas Kyme, Anne's husband, expelled her from their Lincolnshire home, after Anne herself left him to preach in London, denying the doctrine of transubstantiation, which holds that the bread and wine of the Christian mass or communion are literally transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Anne held to the Protestant belief that the mass was an act of remembrance and spiritual communion with her God.… Read more

    Literary Period: Tudor
  • Askham, John 1825 - 1894

    Born in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, on July 25, 1825, John Askham had almost no formal education. After labouring as a child in his father's shoe-making shop, Askham earned his living as a shoe-maker. He taught himself to read and write and published his verses in local newspapers and then as volumes, financed by subscriptions. These books included Sonnets on the Months and other Poems (1863), Descriptive Poems… Read more

    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Literary Period: Postmodern
  • Auden, Wystan Hugh 1907 - 1973

    For more poems, see the Academy of America Poets

     

    As I Walked Out One Evening Epitaph on a Tyrant First Things First Friday's Child In Memory of Sigmund Freud In Memory of W. B. Yeats Lullaby On Reading a Child's Guide to Modern Physics On the Circuit September 1, 1939 The Fall of Rome The More… Read more
    Literary Period: Modern
  • Pseudonym
    Gaultier, Bon

    With Sir Theodore Martin, Aytoun was responsible for Bon Gaultier's Ballads (1845).

    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Balfour, Mary 1775 - 1818

    Mary Balfour published at least four books:

    Hope: A Poetical Essay: with Various Other Poems (Belfast: Smith and Lyons, 1810) Kathleen O’Neil: A Grand National Melodrama (Belfast: Archbold and Duncan 1814) Emmeline with Some Other Pieces (Edinburgh: Manners and Miller, 1819) Do (Edinburgh: Manners and Miller / Archibald Constable; London: John Murray, 1820)

     

    Literary Period: Romantic
  • Literary Period: Edwardian
  • Born in Kibworth, Leicestershire, Anna Letitia Aitkin was educated at home by her mother, Jane Jennings. Her father became tutor in divinity at a new Presbyterian school at Warrington, Lancashire, where 15-year-old Anna became friends with Joseph Priestley and his wife when he moved there as tutor in languages in 1761. In 1772 Anna published her Poems (3rd edn., London: Joseph Johnson, 1773; B-12 0448 Fisher Library)… Read more

    Literary Period: Romantic
  • Barber, Mary 1685 - 1755

    Coleborne, Bryan. "Barber, Mary (c.1685-1755)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Augustan
  • Pseudonym
    Ingoldsby, Thomas
    Scott, Rosemary. "Barham, Richard Harris (1788-1845)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Victorian
  • An often-published antiquarian, novelist, and travel writer, Baring-Gould was born in Exeter and educated at Clare College, Cambridge. In 1864 he became curate of Horbury, Yorkshire, but moved to become rector of Lew Trenchard, Devon, in 1881, when he inherited his family estate there, and stayed until his death. William Ernest Purcell wrote a biography in Onward Christian Soldier: A Life of Sabine Baring-Gould,… Read more

    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Barnes, William 1801 - 1886

    Wrigley, Chris. "Barnes, William (1801-1886)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Barnfield, Richard 1574 - 1620

    Massai, Sonia. "Barnfield, Richard (bap. 1574, d. 1620)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Elizabethan
  • Barwin, Gary 1964 - 0

    Barwin, Gary. The Porcupinity of the Stars. Toronto, ON: Coach House Press, 2010. PS8553 .A799 P67 2010 Robarts --. Doctor Weep and Other Strange Teeth. Toronto: Mercury Press, 2004. Fiction. --.… Read more
    Literary Period: Postmodern
  • Bates, David 1809 - 1870

    Born at Indian Hill, Ohio, March 6, 1809, David Bates was educated as a clerk in Buffalo and then in a mercantile house in Indianapolis, Indiana. Eventually he rose in the company to be a full member and its buyer, and he and his family settled in Philadelphia. He contributed as a man of letters to journals and published a volume of poetry, Eolian, in 1849. His son Stockton, who published his collected works after his… Read more

    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Katharine Lee Bates, born August 12, 1859, graduated from Wellesley College in 1880, joined its English Department five years later, and earned a Masters degree there in 1891 following study at Oxford in 1888-89. She published the scholarly work for which she is best known critically, The English Religious Drama, in 1893, and edited many classics of English literature. One of her anthems, America the Beautiful, gave… Read more

    Literary Period: Realistic
  • Bateson, Thomas 1570 - 1630

    Brown, David. “Bateson, Thomas (d. 1630).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Elizabethan
  • Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) spent most of his life in Paris, though one can see in some of his poetry the influence of an early voyage he made to the East Indies. His mother and stepfather had encouraged this trip in the hope that it would make Baudelaire forget about following a literary career. When Baudelaire returned to France he extravagantly spent the inheritance he received at the age of twenty-one from his… Read more

    Literary Period: Unknown
  • After taking his M.A. and Ph.D. at Harvard University, Joseph Warren Beach returned to Minneapolis in 1907 to the Department of English at the University of Minnesota, his undergraduate alma mater. Starting as Assistant Professor, he became Associate Professor in 1917 and Professor in 1924. Beach chaired the English Department from 1939 to 1948, after which time he retired. An expert in many literary figures -- Henry… Read more

    Literary Period: Modern
  • Beattie, James 1735 - 1803

    Robinson, Roger J.. “Beattie, James (1735-1803).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Age of Johnson
  • Beaumont, Francis 1584 - 1616

    Finkelpearl, P. J.. “Beaumont, Francis (1584/5-1616).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Jacobean
  • Halsey, Alan. “Beddoes, Thomas Lovell (1803-1849).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Victorian
  • Born in 673 and sent at seven years old by his parents to the monastery of St. Peter in Monkwearmouth, Bede moved to the abbey at Jarrow in 682, where he lived as a monk until his death on May 25, 735. For thirty years from his entrance into the priesthood about 703, Bede collected extracts from the church fathers and developed materials that would come out in his Lives of the Abbots and Ecclesiastical History, our… Read more

    Literary Period: Old English
  • Behn, Aphra 1640 - 1689

    Todd, Janet. “Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
    Literary Period: Restoration
  • Tolley, A. T.. “Bell, Julian Heward (1908–1937).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Bell, Julian. Winter Movement and Other Poems. London: Chatto and Windus, 1930. PR6003 .E434 W5 1930 E. J. Pratt Library at Victoria University --. Work for the Winter and Other Poems. London: Hogarth Press, 1936. PR 6003 .E434W67 1936 Robarts Library --.… Read more
    Literary Period: Modern
  • Belleau, Rémy 1528 - 1577

    Rémy Belleau (1528-1577) was also a member of the "Pléiade" and an enthusiastic student of the classics. He imitated Anacreon in his Petites Inventions (1556), but is best known for his Bergerie (1565), a pastoral narrative interspersed with poems. Belleau excels in descriptive poetry and especially in the portrayal of nature of which "Avril" is the best-known example.

    Belleau, Remy. Oeuvres complètes. Ed. A.… Read more
    Literary Period: Unknown
  • Bergonzi, Bernard. "Belloc, (Joseph) Hilaire Pierre René (1870–1953)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.

    Literary Period: Modern
  • Born April 24, 1862, to Mary Sidgwick and Edward White Benson, future archbishop of Canterbury (1882-1896), Arthur Christopher Benson became a popular essayist of Edwardian England, the librettist of England's beloved anthem, "Land of Hope and Glory," and the editor of Queen Victoria's letters. Benson received his education at Temple Grove School, East Sheen, at Eton 1874-81, and at King's College, Cambridge, 1881-84… Read more

    Literary Period: Edwardian
  • Benson, Mary Josephine. My Pocket Beryl. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1921. Internet Archive. "Benson, Mary Josephine Trotter." Canada's Early Women Writers. Simon Fraser University.
    Literary Period: Georgian