Archives: Poets
Cowley
1618-1667
Largely forgotten today, Cowley was a very famous English poet in his day and is buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.
Dante Alighieri
c. 1265 - 1321
One of the greatest Italian (and European) poets of the middle ages and successor to Virgil as a poet of the afterworld.
Inferno Canto 1 lines 61 - 85
Dante and Virgil meet
Mentre ch' io rovinava in basso loco
Dante and Virgil meet
Goethe
1749-1832
In addition to his great work founded on the traditions of German culture and folklore, he was strongly influenced by Latin poets and poetry, especially following a visit to Rome which made a deep impression on him in the 1780s.
Gottfried Keller
1819 - 1890
Nineteenth-century Swiss novelist, author of short stories and poet, writing in German.
Waldlied (Forest Song)
Arm in Arm und Kron' an Krone steht der Eichenwald verschlungen,
A fine Swiss poet uses ancient myth.
Gray
18th Century
Eighteenth century poet and scholar
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College
Eton College in the gateway to Orcus
Vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci
Virgil's traces are visible in this eighteenth-century poet
Hardy
1840-1928
An unflinching chronicler of an unforgiving century in his novels, Hardy's compassion and humanity perhaps show through more clearly in his poems.
Proud songsters
The thrushes sing as the light is going
Hardy shares his sadness and his flair for nature
Henley
1849 - 1902
W E Henley, poet, critic and friend of R L Stevenson and J M Barrie
“A late lark” and “Madam Life”
Madam Life's a Piece in Bloom
Contrasting takes on death by the Victorian W E Henley
Homer
Eighth or seventh century BCE?
Author of the Iliad and the Odyssey and accepted in the ancient world as the greatest writer of epic.
Odyssey Book 1, lines 1-10
The Odyssey begins
ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον,
Tell me, Muse, of the resourceful Odysseus
Iliad Book 1, lines 1-21
The Iliad begins
μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
Sing O Muse of the wrath of Achilles
Iliad Book 6, lines 441 - 473
Andromache and Hector
Ἀνδρομάχη δέ οἱ ἄγχι παρίστατο δάκρυ χέουσα
Don't take risks, begs Andromache
Odyssey, Book 9, lines 182 - 215
The Cave of the Cyclops
ἔνθα δ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἐσχατιῇ σπέος εἴδομεν ἄγχι θαλάσσης
Odysseus and his companions find the cave of the Cyclops
Odyssey Book 9, lines 216-249
Enter the Cyclops
καρπαλίμως δ᾽ εἰς ἄντρον ἀφικόμεθ᾽, οὐδέ μιν ἔνδον
The wait for Polyphemus's arrival
Odyssey Book 9 , lines 250-335
The Ordeal in the Cave
αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ σπεῦσε πονησάμενος τὰ ἃ ἔργα
The Cyclops shows his true colours
Odyssey Book 9, lines 336-414
The Blinding
ἑσπέριος δ᾽ ἦλθεν καλλίτριχα μῆλα νομεύων
Odysseus and his men fight back
Odyssey Book 9, lines 415-463
The Escape from the Cave
Κύκλωψ δὲ στενάχων τε καὶ ὠδίνων ὀδύνῃσι
Odysseus has blinded the Cyclops, but remains trapped in the cave
Odyssey, Book 9, lines 464-535
Polyphemus’s prayer
καρπαλίμως δὲ τὰ μῆλα ταναύποδα, πίονα δημῷ
Odysseus's fateful mistake
Odyssey, Book 9, lines 536-564