Read Ebook: The Mentor: Famous English Poets Vol. 1 Num. 44 Serial No. 44 by Mabie Hamilton Wright

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In 1809 he was off for Europe. In "Childe Harold" he has told his thoughts and experiences during these wanderings. The first two cantos of this poem appeared in 1812, and their success was instantaneous.

The life of a personality like Byron is so full of incident, so colored with romance and adventure, that to tell it in detail requires a great deal of space. Everything that he did was interesting; everywhere he went he left the impress of his genius. Women loved him, and men imitated him. Byron was the fashion, and the poet was renowned the world over.

He married Anne Isabella Milbanke in 1815. A daughter, Augusta Ada, afterward Countess of Lovelace, was born to them. In 1816 Lady Byron left her husband, giving as the reason her belief that he was insane.

The following spring Byron left England, and after traveling about for sometime met the poet Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Switzerland. From there he went to Italy, where he lived for a number of years. When there he wrote many of his greatest poems.

About this time Greece was struggling to throw off the rule of Turkey. Byron, a great believer in liberty of every sort, gave freely of his sympathy and money to the cause. In 1823 he fitted up an expedition and sailed to the aid of the Greeks; but before he could get into active service he was taken fatally ill, and died at Missolonghi on April 19, 1824. His last words were of Greece, the country he had come to help to freedom: "I have given her my time, my means, my health--and now I give her my life! What could I do more?"

Byron's body was carried back to England; but the British authorities would not allow him to be buried in Westminster Abbey. There is neither bust nor statue of him in Poets' Corner. His remains were finally laid beneath the chancel of the village church of Hucknall Torkard.

FAMOUS ENGLISH POETS

JOHN KEATS

Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course

No one man ever published a worse first volume nor a better last volume of poetry than did John Keats. And no poet was so severely criticized at the beginning nor more highly praised at the end of his life. Yet between the appearance of his first work and the publication of his last volume there was a space of but three years.

Keats' origin was humble; but not so vulgar as most people think. He was born on October 29, 1795, and was the eldest son of Thomas Keats, head hostler at the Swan and Hoop livery stables in London. But in spite of these commonplace early associations his parents were able to send John to a private school at Enfield. Thomas Keats was killed by a fall from his horse in 1804, and Mrs. Keats married another stable keeper. This marriage was an unhappy one, and the couple soon separated.

At school Keats was distinguished for his quick temper, a love of fighting, and a great appetite for reading. In 1810, when his mother died, he left school with the intention of becoming a doctor. He was apprenticed to Thomas Hammond, a surgeon in Edmonton; but he had a quarrel with him, and went to London in 1814 to study at Guy's and St. Thomas's hospitals.

Even in London, Keats could not concentrate his whole attention on the study of medicine. He read a great deal of poetry, especially Spenser. In 1816 he met Leigh Hunt, who introduced him to the poet Shelley. Already he had begun to write verse, and these friends stimulated his poetic gift, until in the winter of 1816-17 he definitely decided to give up the study of medicine and write for a living.

His first volume of "Poems by John Keats" appeared in the spring of 1817. This book was dedicated to Leigh Hunt. The next year he published "Endymion: A Poetic Romance." This volume was harshly treated by the famous critic Gifford in the Quarterly Review. Whether or not the poem deserved such severity, the language of the reviewer cut Keats to the quick. He also bitterly resented the attacks made upon him in Blackwood's Magazine.

With his friend Armitage Brown he next started on a walking tour of Scotland; but on account of the bad state of his health was forced to give this up. His brother Thomas Keats died of consumption at the beginning of December, 1818, and the poet went to live with Brown. When there he fell passionately in love with Fanny Brawne, a girl of seventeen, who lived nearby. It was at this time that he wrote his greatest poems; although his health was very poor.

Early in 1820 Keats realized that he had consumption; but he did not give up. In July he published his third and last volume of poetry, "Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems." In September, 1820, he started for Naples in an attempt to cure himself; but it was in vain, for on the following February 23 he died in Rome. He was buried in the old Protestant cemetery near the pyramid of Cestius. He requested that on his gravestone should be carved this inscription, "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."

It was formerly believed that the attacks of hostile reviewers were the cause of Keats' death; but this theory has long since been disproved. Although the sensitive poet felt these bitter attacks keenly, his was not a spirit to sink beneath them.

FAMOUS ENGLISH POETS

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born near Horsham, in the county of Sussex, England, on August 4, 1792. He was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley.

At the age of eleven he was sent to school at Eton. There he had a hard time. He resisted the "fagging" system,--a system under which the young boys must act as servants to the older ones,--and he would not work at his lessons. He was gentle natured and retiring; but when provoked he showed a very violent temper. So he was known as "Mad Shelley" by his schoolmates.

In 1810 Shelley entered Oxford. But he did not stay there long; for he and a friend, named Thomas Jefferson Hogg, became atheists, and Shelley wrote a little pamphlet on atheism, which he sent to the different heads of the colleges, asking them to notify him at once of their conversion to atheism. This they declined to do; but instead summoned both Shelley and Hogg and expelled them. Shelley and his friends complained at what they termed the injustice of the expulsion; but his father would have nothing to do with him. So Shelley went to London, where he wrote the poem "Queen Mab." This was not published until later.

When he was in London his sisters sent him money by means of Harriet Westbrook, one of their friends. Shelley converted her to atheism, and married her in August, 1811, because she did not wish to go back to school. This marriage turned out to be very unhappy, and they separated by mutual consent in 1813.

The next year Shelley, accompanied by Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, the daughter of William Godwin, the speculative philosopher, and Claire Clairmont, a friend of the poet Lord Byron, visited Europe. In 1815 Shelley's grandfather died, and the poet was assured of a regular income of ,000 a year. In 1816 he visited Europe again, and in November of the same year his wife Harriet drowned herself. Shelley's two children were committed to the care of their grandfather Westbrook.

Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, and in 1818 they left England, never to return, going to Italy, where he wrote many of his greatest poems.

His second wife was a talented woman and a writer of ability. Under the name of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley she wrote that famous grewsome tale, "Frankenstein."

In July, 1822, Shelley set sail in a small boat to return to his summer home at Spezia. The boat was overtaken by a sudden squall and disappeared. Two weeks later Shelley's body was washed ashore with a copy of Keats' poems open in one of his pockets. The Tuscan quarantine regulations at that time required that whatever came ashore from the sea should be burned. Accordingly Shelley's body was placed on a pyre and reduced to ashes in the presence of Leigh Hunt, E. J. Trelawney, and Lord Byron. His ashes were collected and buried in the Protestant cemetery at Rome, near the grave of his friend Keats.

FAMOUS ENGLISH POETS

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course

At the age of twenty-one William Wordsworth was so undecided as to what he wanted to do for a living that his relatives believed he would turn out to be a good-for-nothing. At the age of thirty-five he had finished a tremendous poem in fourteen books, which he had begun because he was not ready at the time to take up anything more difficult!

Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, in Cumberland, England, on April 7, 1770, the son of John Wordsworth, a lawyer. When he was only fifteen he wrote as a school task an account in poetry of his summer vacation. He entered Cambridge at the age of seventeen; but did not get along well there because he did not like his studies nor the discipline of the college.

In those days, when there was no railroads or trolley lines, it was the custom for young Englishmen who could afford it to take walking trips through Europe during their vacations from college. In the summer of 1790 Wordsworth made a tour through France and among the Alps, and was much affected by the beauties of nature he saw, particularly at Lake Como. He graduated from St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1791, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

The French Revolution came along about this time, and, together with most of the progressive young men of the day, Wordsworth hailed it with enthusiasm. But later the horrors of the Revolution disgusted him; although he always remained a Republican in principle.

Wordsworth's friends urged him to enter the ministry, and he himself thought a little of becoming a lawyer; but he finally decided to write for a living. And a poor living it was at first! Sometimes he had hardly enough to eat. He published his first poems in 1793,--"An Evening Walk, Addressed to a Young Lady," and "Descriptive Sketches Taken During a Pedestrian Tour Among the Alps."

Two years later his poverty was lightened by a legacy of ,500 left him by a friend, and his sister Dorothy went to keep house for him. She helped him in many ways, and cheered his spirits. In 1802 he married Mary Hutchinson, and about the same time inherited ,000 from his father. Three years later he finished that long poem in fourteen books, "The Prelude," containing an account of the cultivation and development of his own mind. This was not published until after the poet's death.

Wordsworth continued to write many poems, most of which had to do with the beauties of nature. Nature in all her forms was his delight. He liked to walk by himself in the fields, and to talk with the poorer people, those nearest to the soil. He was simple, kindly, and much loved by those who knew him.

In 1843 Wordsworth succeeded Robert Southey as poet laureate of England, and was recognized as the greatest living English poet. He held this honor only seven years, as he died at Rydal Mount, his home in England, on April 23, 1850.

FAMOUS ENGLISH POETS

ALFRED TENNYSON

Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course

Alfred Tennyson was born at Somersby in Lincolnshire, England, on August 6, 1809. His father was a rector, and the poet's boyhood was passed in an atmosphere of poetry and music. Even as a child he wrote verses, and some of these were published in 1827 in a volume, "Poems by Two Brothers," written by himself and his elder brother Charles.

He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1829, and in the same year won the chancellor's medal with a blank-verse poem called "Timbuctoo." His closest friend at college was Arthur Henry Hallam, a brilliant young man who belonged to The Apostles, a society of which Tennyson was also a member.

"Poems, Chiefly Lyrical," was published in 1830; but the following year, soon after the death of his father, the poet left Cambridge without taking his degree. He then decided to devote his life to writing poetry. A small volume of poems published in 1832 proved that he had chosen well; for it contained some of his best work.

But now for ten years the poet kept silence. He did not publish another line of poetry until 1842. The reason for this was the death of his friend Arthur Hallam. Hallam was the closest intimate of Tennyson, and when he died suddenly at Vienna in 1833 the poet received a blow from which he never fully recovered. But this great loss was poetically the making of Tennyson. The volume of 1842 contained some of his greatest poems, among them being "Ulysses," "Locksley Hall," and "Break, Break, Break."

Five years after this appeared "The Princess," a long poem treating of the "woman question" in a half-humorous way. It is a poem of great beauty.

Then in 1850 came the elegy on the death of Hallam, "In Memoriam." This had been long expected, and it proved to be one of the greatest poems of the century.

In the same year Tennyson married Emily Sellwood, and was appointed poet laureate to succeed Wordsworth. His first official poem in this position was the "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" in 1852. Two years later "The Charge of the Light Brigade" electrified the world. "Maud" appeared in 1855, and then four years later began the publication of the famous "Idylls of the King," poems in blank verse telling of King Arthur and his court. From that time on Tennyson wrote many poems and dramas.

In 1884 he was made Lord Tennyson, first Baron of Aldworth and Farringford. He took the title from his two country houses in Sussex and on the Isle of Wight. On October 6, 1892, Tennyson died at Aldworth "with the moonlight falling on closed eyes and voiceless lips."

FAMOUS ENGLISH POETS

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