Writer, born in Bristol, SW England, UK. He studed at Oxford, left without a degree, then studied law and settled in Keswick, where he was associated with Wordsworth and Coleridge. Originally a radical in politics, his views mellowed, and in 1809 he began to contribute to the Tory Quarterly Review. His literary output was considerable, and many of his short poems are familiar, such as Inchcape Rock and After Blenheim. Although made poet laureate in 1813, his prose became more widely known than his poetry, and included a life of Nelson, a naval history, and his letters.
Robert Southey (August 12, 1774 – March 21, 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate. Although his fame tends to be eclipsed
by that of his contemporaries and friends William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey's verse enjoys enduring popularity.
Life
He was born in Bristol to Thomas Southey and Margaret Hill and educated at Westminster School (from which he was expelled for writing a magazine article condemning flogging) and Balliol
College, Oxford (of his time at Oxford Southey was later to say "All I learnt was a little swimming ...
Later iterations of the plan moved the commune to Wales, but later, Southey was the first of the group to reject the idea as unworkable.
Southey's wife, Edith, was the sister of Coleridge's wife.
In 1819, through a mutual friend (John Rickman), Southey met leading civil engineer Thomas Telford and struck up a strong friendship.
In 1838, Edith died and Southey married Caroline Anne Bowles, also a poet.
Major works
Fall of Robespierre ( 1794 ). Joan of Arc: An Epic Poem ( 1796 ) Poems ( 1797 - 99 ) Letters from Spain ( 1797 ) Devil's Thoughts ( 1799 ) Thalaba the Destroyer ( 1801 ) Amadis de Gaula (
1803 ). Translation Madoc ( 1805 ) Letters from England ( 1807 ) ISBN 0-86299-130-7, (Alan Sutton, Paperback). Palmerin of England ( 1807 ). The Cid ( 1808 ). Translation The Curse of Kehama (
1810 ) The Life of Nelson ( 1813 ) Roderick, the Last of the Goths ( 1814 ) Wat Tyler: A Dramatic Poem ( 1817 ) Journal of a Tour in Scotland in 1819 ( 1929, posthumous ) The Life of Wesley, and
the rise and progress of Methodism (c.1820) A Vision of Judgment ( 1821 ) Life of Cromwell ( 1821 ) Thomas More ( 1829 ) The Pilgrim's Progress with a Life of John Bunyan (1830) Cowper ( 1833 )
The Doctors ( 1834 ). Select Lives of Cromwell and Bunyan (1846) The Inchcape Rock After Blenheim
Wikipedia Links
Caroline Bowles Goldilocks and the Three Bears The Three Bears
Trivia
In 1799, both Southey and Coleridge were involved with early experiments with nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Byron wrote a scornful dedication to his celebrated narritive poem Don Juan
addressed to Southey, who is dismissed as insolent, narrow and shabby. This was based both on Byron's disrespect for Southey's literary talent, and his disdain for Southey's conservative
politics. There is a satirical portrait of Southey in Byron's poem 'The Vision of Judgment', which is a parody of Southey's 'A Vision of Judgment'. Lewis Carroll's "You Are Old, Father William"
in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a parody of Southey's "The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them."
User Comments Add a comment…