Greatest Poets , Biographies and Examples of Best Poems

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Greatest Poets , Biographies and Examples of Best Poems

William Blake Biography
The biography of William Blake. William Blake (born on November 28, 1757 in London's West End) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. He was one of the greatest poets of the Romantic era.

This page has biographical information on William Blake, one of the best poets of all time. We also provide access to the poet's poems, best poetry, quotes, short poems, and more.

William Blake was born on November 28, 1757 in London's West End. Along with being a visual artist, painter, and printmaker, William Blake was one of the greatest poets of the Romantic era. His body of work wasn't widely known while he was alive, but in the year's since his passing, Blake's literary and artistic talents have received positive critical acclaim around the world.

The poet intentionally aimed for his work to eschew reason in favor of imagination and creativity. His most well-known collection of poetry, Songs of Innocence, was published in 1789, and followed with Songs of Experience in 1794. Another famous work of William Blake's is The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which is a satire revolving around religion and philosophy. The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem are other now-popular collections of prose that Blake created during his lifetime. These unconventional works break from the traditional practices of using specified plots, rhyme and characters to tell a story.
William Blake began training as an artist and writer at a young age. After revealing to his parents at the age of 10 that he wanted to become a painter, they sent Blake to art school. There he learned to draw, paint, and become skilled in other visual arts. At 12, William Blake started writing poetry in his spare time. Once attending art school became too expensive for his parents, Blake became an engraver's apprentice at 14 years old. The time he spent apprenticing by sketching tombs in Westminseter Abbey gave William Blake lasting inspiration, which carried through in his art and writing. Once his seven year apprenticeship was completed, Blake studied for a short time at the Royal Academy. He was man who greatly enjoyed learning, and he taught himself Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Italian so that he could read classical works of literature in their original languages.

Blake is known as being a visionary poet, and he did write about having actual visions from God during his lifetime. Blake claimed that a vision from his deceased brother, Robert, aided him in developing the technique he used to print Songs of Innocence. Some of William Blake's pieces are inspired by his visions, while others speak against the political climate of his time. Blake's first book, Poetical Sketches, was published in 1783 with the assistance of his wife, Catherine Blake. The poems contained in Poetical Sketches are criticisms and protests against the actions of King George III. Blake continued to be a nonconformist throughout his adulthood, and he was closely associated with other radical thinkers of the Romantic Age, including Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine.

William Blake died at the age of 69 on August 12, 1827 in London. He had little money or resources, but he did have the admiration of a young group of artists who became Blake's friends and financial supporters during his final years. One of these artists, John Linnell, commissioned William Blake to create illustrations to accompany a printing of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. These particular illustrations, his other paintings and visual works, and his published collections of poetry and writings are all apart of William Blake's enduring legacy.

Written by William Blake

- The Tyger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forest of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – October 6, 1542) was a poet and Ambassador in the service of Henry VIII. He first entered Henry's service in 1516 as 'Sewer Extraordinary', and the same year he began studying at St John's College of the University of Cambridge. He married Elizabeth Brooke (the daughter of Lord Cobham and of royal descent) in 1521 and a year later she gave birth to a son, Thomas Wyatt, the younger, who led Wyatt's rebellion. In 1524 Henry VIII assigned Wyatt to be an Ambassador at home and abroad, and some time soon after he divorced his wife on the grounds of adultery.

Wyatt's sister was one of Anne Boleyn's closest friends, and later chief ladies-in-waiting. Wyatt himself fell violently in love with the young Anne Boleyn in the early-to-mid 1520s. His grandson later recollected that the moment he had seen "this new beauty" on her return from France in winter 1522 he had fallen in love with her. He wrote several love poems and became one of Anne's many suitors; gossips would later allege the two had been lovers. Furthermore, Anne was ambitious and had learnt from her sister Mary Boleyn's example, and was discreet and chaste when it came to handling her male suitors. She unwittingly attracted King Henry VIII's attentions sometime around 1524, and Wyatt was the last of Anne's other suitors to be ousted by the king. After an argument over her during a game of bowls, Wyatt was sent on a diplomatic mission to Italy.

He accompanied Sir John Russell to Rome to help petition Pope Clement VII to grant Henry VIII a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Wyatt was captured by the armies of Emperor Charles V when they captured Rome and imprisoned the Pope in 1527. Wyatt managed to escape however, and made it back to England.

In 1535 he was knighted, and in 1536 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for quarrelling with the Duke of Suffolk, and also under suspicion of being one of Anne Boleyn's lovers. He was released from the Tower later that year, thanks to his friendship with Thomas Cromwell, and he returned to his duties. During his stay in the Tower he witnessed the execution of Anne Boleyn, and he wrote a poem inspired by the experience V.Innocenti Veritas Viat Fides Circumdederunt me inimici mei

In 1541 he was charged again with treason and the charges were again lifted. However, only thanks to the intervention of Queen Catherine Howard, and upon the condition of reconciling with his adulterous wife. He was granted a full pardon and restored once again to his duties as Ambassador. He became ill not long after, and died in September 1542 around the age of 39. None of Wyatt's poems were published during his lifetime - the first book to feature his verse was printed a full fifteen years after his death. He and Lord Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey were the first poets to use the form of the sonnet in English. One of his sonnets, Whoso list to hunt, thought to be about Anne Boleyn, is posted at Wikisource:Author:Thomas Wyatt (poet).
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They Flee from Me
-------------------------------Written by Sir Thomas Wyatt

They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot stalking in my chamber.

I have seen them gentle tame and meek
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themselves in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range
Busily seeking with a continual change.


Thanked be fortune, it hath been otherwise
Twenty times better; but once in special,
In thin array after a pleasant guise,
When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,
And she me caught in her arms long and small;
And therewithal sweetly did me kiss,
And softly said, Dear heart, how like you this?

It was no dream, I lay broad waking.

But all is turned thorough my gentleness
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
And I have leave to go of her goodness
And she also to use newfangleness.

But since that I so kindely am served,
I would fain know what she hath deserved.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

The biography of John Donne. John Donne (1572 – March 31, 1631) was a Jacobean poet, satirist, lawyer and preacher/cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the founding figure of the so-called metaphysical poetry movement.

The English poet and politician John Donne is considered to the founding figure of the metaphysical poetry movement. He is celebrated for his robust and sensual way of working with words and for his lushly constructed elegies, songs, satires and sermons. He was born in London, in 1572, to a Roman Catholic family at a time when the religion was outlawed. He died, in 1631, after a struggle with what is now thought to have been cancer.

The poet and cleric was a true artist when it comes to the metaphysical conceit and it shows in pieces like The Canonisation, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, and An Anatomy of the World. His early work is admired for its vivacity of language and its playfulness, particularly in comparison to the work of his peers. In fact, Donne was a deeply political poet at heart and he used style and form to rail against tradition.

The young Donne was brought into the world in the midst of great theological conflict throughout Europe. The near constant clashes between Catholics and Protestants could hardly have escaped him, because Donne was born to a family still practising an illegal religion. It is no surprise then that his future work would repeatedly return to spiritual issues and his own personal interactions with God.

During his teens, Donne spent time studying at Cambridge and Oxford. However, he felt both without formal qualifications, because in order to be awarded a degree, he had to subscribe to the Thirty Nine Articles – the doctrine which governed Anglicanism. In 1593, his brother Henry Donne was arrested for hiding a Catholic priest and later died in prison of the plague.

Following the brutal treatment and eventual death of his sibling, Donne started to assess the value of such devotion to the Catholic Church – he certainly started to wonder if it was worth his life. After a great deal of emotional turmoil, he gave in and subscribed to the Anglican Church. He wrote the majority of his romantic lyrics, erotic poetry, and religious works during this period (1590s) – two key anthologies were published, Satires and Songs and Sonnets.

In 1598, Donne was made private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton. It was here that he would fall in love, becoming taken with the sixteen year old niece of his employer. In 1601, the pair wed in secret, but life would not be kind to Donne and Anne Moore. At first, Thomas Egerton so deeply abhorred the marriage that he actually had Donne jailed – naturally, he refused to pay a dowry for the nuptials either.

This meant that the couple started their life as newlyweds with very little money. Once Donne was released from prison, he and his wife moved to Surrey and into the home of his cousin Sir Francis Wolley. This was an extremely kind thing for Wolley to do, because even though Donne was earning a small wage as a lawyer, the couple produced a remarkable amount of children in a relatively short space of time (twelve in sixteen years).

The family lived within a state of near constant anxiety about money and there was at least one occasion, following a second stillborn delivery, after which Donne talked of suicide. In fact, he wrote (but did not publish) a critical defence of the act of suicide in Bianthanatos. In 1617, Anne Donne died – the 17th Holy Sonnet tells of his grief for her passing.

In 1621, he was appointed Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. Yet, Donne continued to be wracked by guilt, grief, and a fear of his own mortality and his later works make this very clear. The collection Devotions upon Emergent Occasions was penned during a time of serious sickness. In 1631, Donne passed away (probably of stomach cancer) in London.
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Written by John Donne

Death Be Not Proud

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

The biography of John Greenleaf Whittier. An American Quaker poet and forceful advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States.. American poet... One of the best poets of all time.

John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and forceful advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States.

He was born to John and Abigail (Hussey) Whittier at the rural Whittier homestead in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He grew up on the farm in a household with his parents, a brother and two sisters, a maternal aunt and paternal uncle, and a constant flow of visitors and hired hands for the farm. During the winter term, he attended the district school, and was first introduced to poetry by a teacher. He remained an active Quaker all his life, although there is no record of him ever speaking in meeting, and, unlike some others who were Orthodox, he found time to engage in politics and championed abolitionism. Whittier became editor of a number of newspapers in Boston and Haverhill, as well as the New England Weekly Review in Hartford, Connecticut, the most influential Whig journal in New England. In 1838, a mob burned Whittier out of his offices in the antislavery center of Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia.

Highly regarded in his lifetime and for a period thereafter (several New England states had holidays in his honor, and Whittier, California, was named for him), he is now remembered largely for the patriotic poem Barbara Frietchie, as well as for a number of poems turned into hymns, some of which remain exceedingly popular. Although clearly Victorian in style, and capable of being sentimental, his hymns exhibit both imagination and universalism of spirit that set them beyond ordinary 19th century hymnody. Best known is probably Dear Lord and Father of Mankind taken from his poem The Brewing of Soma, but Whittier's Quaker thought is better illustrated by the hymn that begins:

O Brother Man, fold to thy heart thy brother:
Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there;
To worship rightly is to love each other,
Each smile a hymn, each kindly word a prayer.
It also shows in his poem "To Rönge" in honour of Johannes von Rönge the German Religious figure and Protestant rebel leader of the 1848 rebelion in Germany:

Thy work is to hew down. In God's name then:
Put nerve into thy task. Let other men;
Plant, as they may, that better tree whose fruit,
The wounded bosom of the Church shall heal.
His words still reverberate today, particularly through his poem "Maud Muller" with its famous line: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"

Whittier died at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, and is buried in Amesbury, Massachusetts. His birthplace, the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead in Haverhill, is now a museum open to the public, as is the John Greenleaf Whittier Home in Amesbury, his residence for 56 years. Cheese was said to be his favorite food, along with applesauce and beer.

A bridge named for Whittier, built in the style of the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges spanning Cape Cod Canal, carries Interstate 95 from Amesbury to Newburyport over the Merrimack River. The city of Whittier, California and the town of Greenleaf, Idaho were named in his honor. Both Whittier College and Whittier Law School are also named in his honor.

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Written by John Greenleaf Whittier

Burning Drift-Wood

Before my drift-wood fire I sit,
And see, with every waif I burn,
Old dreams and fancies coloring it,
And folly's unlaid ghosts return.


O ships of mine, whose swift keels cleft
The enchanted sea on which they sailed,
Are these poor fragments only left
Of vain desires and hopes that failed?

Did I not watch from them the light
Of sunset on my towers in Spain,
And see, far off, uploom in sight
The Fortunate Isles I might not gain?

Did sudden lift of fog reveal
Arcadia's vales of song and spring,
And did I pass, with grazing keel,
The rocks whereon the sirens sing?

Have I not drifted hard upon
The unmapped regions lost to man,
The cloud-pitched tents of Prester John,
The palace domes of Kubla Khan?

Did land winds blow from jasmine flowers,
Where Youth the ageless Fountain fills?
Did Love make sign from rose blown bowers,
And gold from Eldorado's hills?

Alas! the gallant ships, that sailed
On blind Adventure's errand sent,
Howe'er they laid their courses, failed
To reach the haven of Content.


And of my ventures, those alone
Which Love had freighted, safely sped,
Seeking a good beyond my own,
By clear-eyed Duty piloted.


O mariners, hoping still to meet
The luck Arabian voyagers met,
And find in Bagdad's moonlit street,
Haroun al Raschid walking yet,

Take with you, on your Sea of Dreams,
The fair, fond fancies dear to youth.

I turn from all that only seems,
And seek the sober grounds of truth.


What matter that it is not May,
That birds have flown, and trees are bare,
That darker grows the shortening day,
And colder blows the wintry air!

The wrecks of passion and desire,
The castles I no more rebuild,
May fitly feed my drift-wood fire,
And warm the hands that age has chilled.


Whatever perished with my ships,
I only know the best remains;
A song of praise is on my lips
For losses which are now my gains.


Heap high my hearth! No worth is lost;
No wisdom with the folly dies.

Burn on, poor shreds, your holocaust
Shall be my evening sacrifice!

Far more than all I dared to dream,
Unsought before my door I see;
On wings of fire and steeds of steam
The world's great wonders come to me,

And holier signs, unmarked before,
Of Love to seek and Power to save,—
The righting of the wronged and poor,
The man evolving from the slave;

And life, no longer chance or fate,
Safe in the gracious Fatherhood.

I fold o'er-wearied hands and wait,
In full assurance of the good.


And well the waiting time must be,
Though brief or long its granted days,
If Faith and Hope and Charity
Sit by my evening hearth-fire's blaze.


And with them, friends whom Heaven has spared,
Whose love my heart has comforted,
And, sharing all my joys, has shared
My tender memories of the dead,—

Dear souls who left us lonely here,
Bound on their last, long voyage, to whom
We, day by day, are drawing near,
Where every bark has sailing room.


I know the solemn monotone
Of waters calling unto me;
I know from whence the airs have blown
That whisper of the Eternal Sea.


As low my fires of drift-wood burn,
I hear that sea's deep sounds increase,
And, fair in sunset light, discern
Its mirage-lifted Isles of Peace.
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A TRULY GREAT POEM BUT I FAVOR ANOTHER POEM HE WROTE OVER THIS.. -TYR

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

The biography of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. American poet and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is one of the greatest poets in American history. Born in Portland, Maine, He became professor of Modern Languages in Harvard University; wrote "Hyperion," a romance in prose, and a succession of poems as well as lyrics, among the former "Evangeline," "The Golden Legend," "Hiawatha," and "Miles Standish"

This page has biographical information on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of the best poets of all time.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the greatest poets in American history. He was alive during the 19th century and his work inspired a generation of people in America and abroad. Wadsworth was born in Portland, Maine on February 7, 1807. His father was named Stephen Longfellow and his mother was named Zilpah Longfellow. He died on March 24, 1882 at the age of 75.

During his lifetime he translated Dante Alighieri's the Divine Comedy and he wrote some highly influential poetry books such as Paul Revere's Ride and the Song of Hiawatha. Longfellow's poems were mostly inspired by mythology and legend. These two theme dominated his works. His poems were also well received because they had a musical quality. His poetry was an American staple that appealed to the masses.

Longfellow's poetic works were so popular and compelling during his day that they influenced American and European culture. People did not have TVs or radios in 19th century. One way that they kept each other entertained was by reciting poetry around campfires. Longfellow's poems were often used by the average American and Englishman in this way. Since it was, this helped him to earn the reputation of being a fireside poet.

Major Achievements

Longfellow wrote his first poetry book in 1939 and it was called Voices of the Night. He wrote Ballads and Other Poems in 1841. His first two books were commercial successes because he managed to connect with the American people. Both of these books showed how the average person overcame adversity. His books were important to American people in those days because the nation was still being formed.

His next great work was presented in 1847 and it was titled Evangeline. This particular book of poetry was a love story about two people who were separated for many years due to a war before finding each other again. Many people in England and in the States enjoyed this book as well.

In 1854 Longfellow stopped teaching and dedicated himself to writing poetry. After making this decision he published Hiawatha and the Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems. These two books were also best sellers with the public. Longfellow was now a certified poetry star and author. Around this time the Civil War was looming over the nation. This coming event had influenced Longfellow to release Paul Revere's Ride. This poetry book encouraged people to be strong so that they would be able to endure what was about to happen.

After the death of wife in 1863, Longfellow translated Dante's Divine Comedy and he produced Tales of a Wayside Inn in the same year. He was the first person to translate Dante's Divine Comedy for American audiences and it was one of his most important work. By this time, Longfellow was a huge commercial success. Longfellow was so popular during his day that by the time he reached his 75th birthday in 1882, the whole entire country had a huge birthday celebration for him.

Education and Work History

Longfellow spent a great deal of his life teaching inside of educational institutions. He attended a school called Portland Academy at a very young age. He later went to Bowdoin College in Maine and even taught oversees in England. After he completed his assignments in England he went back to America and taught at Harvard. Longfellow had also translated many works during his time as a professor and most of his life was centered on teaching, learning, translating books and writing poetry.

The Significance of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The poetry of Longfellow was so outstanding that great figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Charles Dickens were admires of his work. If Longfellow's works were released today he would literally be considered a highly rated book seller or a top entertainer. The fact is that his poems had connected with the average person and captured the spirit and essence of his era. Millions of people all over America and in Europe found his work to be idea inspiration, dramatic and even fun. In a time when books, stories and the spoken word were all that people had to entertain themselves; Longfellow's poetry was influential
because it spoke directly to the life that people experienced in 19th century America.
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Written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Tide Rises the Tide Falls

The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveller hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.


Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.


The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveller to the shore,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Rupert Brooke Biography
English poet Rupert Chawner Brooke was born in 1887. The son of the Rugby School's housemaster, Brooke excelled in both academics and athletics. He entered his father's school at the age of fourteen. A lover of verse since the age of nine, he won the school poetry prize in 1905. A year later, he attended King's College, Cambridge, where he was known for his striking good looks, charm, and intellect. While at Cambridge, he developed an interest in acting and was president of the University Fabian Society. Brooke published his first poems in 1909; his first book, Poems, appeared in 1911. While working on his dissertation on John Webster and Elizabethan dramatists, he lived in the house that he made famous by his poem "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester." Popular in both literary and political circles, he befriended Winston Churchill, Henry James, and members of the Bloomsbury Group, including Virginia Woolf. Although he was popular, Brooke had a troubled love life. Between 1908 and 1912 he fell in love with three women: Noel Olivier, youngest daughter of the governor of Jamaica; Ka Cox, who preceded him as president of the Fabian Society; and Cathleen Nesbitt, a British actress. None of the relationships were long lasting. In 1912, after his third romance failed, Brooke left England to travel in France and Germany for several months.

Upon his return to England, Brooke received a fellowship at King's College and spent time in both Cambridge and London. In 1912 he compiled an anthology entitled Georgian Poetry, 1911-12, with Edward Marsh. The Georgian poets wrote in an anti-Victorian style, using rustic themes and subjects such as friendship and love. While critics viewed Brooke's poetry as too sentimental and lacking depth, they also considered his work a reflection of the mood in England during the years leading up to World War I.

After experiencing a mental breakdown in 1913, Brooke traveled again, spending several months in America, Canada, and the South Seas. During his trip, he wrote essays about his impressions for the Westminster Gazette, which were collected in Letters From America (1916). While in the South Seas, he wrote some of his best poems, including "Tiare Tahiti" and "The Great Lover." He returned to England at the outbreak of World War I and enlisted in the Royal Naval Division. His most famous work, the sonnet sequence 1914 and Other Poems, appeared in 1915. Later that year, after taking part in the Antwerp Expedition, he died of blood poisoning from a mosquito bite while en route to Gallipoli with the Navy. He was buried on the island of Skyros in the Aegean Sea. Following his death, Brooke, who was already famous, became a symbol in England of the tragic loss of talented youth during the war.


Biography from: Poets.org
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Pine-Trees and the Sky: Evening----- by Rupert Brooke

I'd watched the sorrow of the evening sky,
And smelt the sea, and earth, and the warm clover,
And heard the waves, and the seagull's mocking cry.

And in them all was only the old cry,
That song they always sing -- "The best is over!
You may remember now, and think, and sigh,
O silly lover!"
And I was tired and sick that all was over,
And because I,
For all my thinking, never could recover
One moment of the good hours that were over.
And I was sorry and sick, and wished to die.

Then from the sad west turning wearily,
I saw the pines against the white north sky,
Very beautiful, and still, and bending over
Their sharp black heads against a quiet sky.
And there was peace in them; and I
Was happy, and forgot to play the lover,
And laughed, and did no longer wish to die;
Being glad of you, O pine-trees and the sky!

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Lascelles Abercrombie Poems, Quotes, Biography & More

Lascelles Abercrombie (also known as the Georgian Laureate) (January 9, 1881 – October 27, 1938) was a British poet and literary critic, one of the "Dymock poets". He was born in Ashton-on-Mersey and educated at the University of Manchester.

Top 5 Poems

1
Emblems of Love
2
From Vashti
3
Hymn to Love
4
The Sale of Saint Thomas
5
Song from Judith 3
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1. Emblems of Love

She

ONLY to be twin elements of joy
In this extravagance of Being, Love,
Were our divided natures shaped in twain;
And to this hour the whole world must consent.

Is it not very marvellous, our lives
Can only come to this out of a long
Strange sundering, with the years of the world between us?

He

Shall life do more than God? for hath not God
Striven with himself, when into known delight
His unaccomplisht joy he would put forth,—
This mystery of a world sign of his striving?
Else wherefore this, a thing to break the mind
With labouring in the wonder of it, that here
Being—the world and we—is suffered to be!—
But, lying on thy breast one notable day,
Sudden exceeding agony of love
Made my mind a trance of infinite knowledge.

I was not: yet I saw the will of God
As light unfashion’d, unendurable flame,
Interminable, not to be supposed;
And there was no more creature except light,—
The dreadful burning of the lonely God’s
Unutter’d joy.
And then, past telling, came
Shuddering and division in the light:
Therein, like trembling, was desire to know
Its own perfect beauty; and it became
A cloven fire, a double flaming, each
Adorable to each; against itself
Waging a burning love, which was the world;—
A moment satisfied in that love-strife
I knew the world!—And when I fell from there,
Then knew I also what this life would do
In being twin,—in being man and woman!
For it would do even as its endless Master,
Making the world, had done; yea, with itself
Would strive, and for the strife would into sex
Be cloven, double burning, made thereby
Desirable to itself.
Contrivèd joy
Is sex in life; and by no other thing
Than by a perfect sundering, could life
Change the dark stream of unappointed joy
To perfect praise of itself, the glee that loves
And worships its own Being.
This is ours!
Yet only for that we have been so long
Sundered desire: thence is our life all praise.
—
But we, well knowing by our strength of joy
There is no sundering more, how far we love
From those sad lives that know a half-love only,
Alone thereby knowing themselves for ever
Sealed in division of love, and therefore made
To pour their strength always into their love’s
Fierceness, as green wood bleeds its hissing sap
Into red heat of a fire! Not so do we:
The cloven anger, life, hath left to wage
Its flame against itself, here turned to one
Self-adoration.
—Ah, what comes of this?
The joy falters a moment, with closed wings
Wearying in its upward journey, ere
Again it goes on high, bearing its song,
Its delight breathing and its vigour beating
The highest height of the air above the world.


She

What hast thou done to me!—I would have soul,
Before I knew thee, Love, a captive held
By flesh.
Now, inly delighted with desire,
My body knows itself to be nought else
But thy heart’s worship of me; and my soul
Therein is sunlight held by warm gold air.

Nay, all my body is become a song
Upon the breath of spirit, a love-song.


He

And mine is all like one rapt faculty,
As it were listening to the love in thee,
My whole mortality trembling to take
Thy body like heard singing of thy spirit.


She

Surely by this, Beloved, we must know
Our love is perfect here,—that not as holds
The common dullard thought, we are things lost
In an amazement that is all unware;
But wonderfully knowing what we are!
Lo, now that body is the song whereof
Spirit is mood, knoweth not our delight?
Knoweth not beautifully now our love,
That Life, here to this festival bid come
Clad in his splendour of worldly day and night,
Filled and empower’d by heavenly lust, is all
The glad imagination of the Spirit?

He

Were it not so, Love could not be at all:
Nought could be, but a yearning to fulfil
Desire of beauty, by vain reaching forth
Of sense to hold and understand the vision
Made by impassion’d body,—vision of thee!
But music mixt with music are, in love,
Bodily senses; and as flame hath light,
Spirit this nature hath imagined round it,
No way concealed therein, when love comes near,
Nor in the perfect wedding of desires
Suffering any hindrance.


She

Ah, but now,
Now am I given love’s eternal secret!
Yea, thou and I who speak, are but the joy
Of our for ever mated spirits; but now
The wisdom of my gladness even through Spirit
Looks, divinely elate.
Who hath for joy
Our Spirits? Who hath imagined them
Round him in fashion’d radiance of desire,
As into light of these exulting bodies
Flaming Spirit is uttered?

He

Yea, here the end
Of love’s astonishment! Now know we Spirit,
And Who, for ease of joy, contriveth Spirit.

Now all life’s loveliness and power we have
Dissolved in this one moment, and our burning
Carries all shining upward, till in us
Life is not life, but the desire of God,
Himself desiring and himself accepting.

Now what was prophecy in us is made
Fulfilment: we are the hour and we are the joy,
We in our marvellousness of single knowledge,
Of Spirit breaking down the room of fate
And drawing into his light the greeting fire
Of God,—God known in ecstasy of love
Wedding himself to utterance of himself
-------------------------------------------------
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[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Wystan Hugh (W H) Auden Biography
The biography of Wystan Hugh (W H) Auden. Wystan Hugh Auden, known more commonly as W. H. Auden was an English poet, often considered one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. He was one of the greatest Anglo American poets. Born in England, he later obtained an American citizenship.

This page has biographical information on Wystan Hugh (W H) Auden, one of the best poets of all time. We also provide access to the poet's poems, best poetry, quotes, short poems, and more.



Wystan Hugh Auden, known more commonly as W. H. Auden was an English poet, often considered one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. He was one of the greatest Anglo American poets. Born in England, he later obtained an American citizenship.

His early life and education

Wystan Hugh Auden was born in February 21 1907 and died in September 29 1973. He was the finest English poet of his era. Most of his early life was spent in the United Kingdom, though he travelled to other European countries. He moved to the US during the turbulent era of 1939 and it was assumed he obtained his American citizenship this period. By the time he died in 1973, he was already an American citizen. He spent his childhood in Harbone, Birmingham. This was because his father was based in that city. His father was a renowned medical professional. He started his school at the age of eight. He was sent straight into boarding schools. He attended different schools such as St Edmunds school as well as Gresham’s School, Christ Church school as well as the Oxford University, where he graduated with a third class degree. He left the country to Germany where he was touched by the homosexuality that was prevalent in the area he stayed in the country. He was very critical about this in some of his works.

He came back to the country where he worked as a teacher, he taught at two boys schools and then in other schools across the country. He taught at Helensburgh in Scotland, and this is where he wrote some of his poems. Most of the volumes he wrote n 1932 were written here. He also wrote the Out on the Lawn I Lie in Bed while teaching at the Larchfield. He also published such other books such as the Vision of Agape.

He also worked as a freelancer and that was after he left the Downs School in the year 1935. This gave him the opportunity to tour other lands and write poems about what he observed.

His Work

His works were famous for different reasons. First, is that his work was noted for his stylistic approach, and for his technical achievements. He was positively engaged with moral and political matters in most of his works. This is why his work appeared in different content, forms, and tones. You can always single out different themes in his work, and that includes religion and morals, politics, love as well as citizenship. He was occupied by the unique relationship that should exist between humans and nature.

His work covered many areas. He wrote poems, prose, as well as reviews on many subjects. His work covers all subjects and that was why most of his works were controversial and at the same time influential. Many of the works were published after his death and some of them include Refugees Blues, Musee des, The Unknown Citizen, as well as the September 1 1939.

He controversially rewrote and even discarded some his famous poems. His reasons for rejecting the poems were because they were boring and that most of them were dishonest. He believed that most of them were prepared out of falsehood because he never believed on those views. It was believed that his newfound love for his religion led him into rewriting and discarded his influential works. That notwithstanding, he was the greatest poet of his era.