Southey, Robert. (1774 - 1843).
W o r k
- once admired for a radical plainness and frankness of style x now criticized for narrative dullness and flatness of expression
> appointed Poet Laureate (1813 - 1843)
D r a m a :
The Fall of Robespierre. An Historic Drama (1794):
- a radical historical play in collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Wat Tyler (1817):
- a republican play written in his short-lived radical phase
P o e t r y :
Joan of Arc (1795):
- a radical pro-revolutionary epic poem
“The Battle of Blenheim” (1798):
- one of the earliest anti-war poems
Thalaba the Destroyer (1801):
- a long oriental verse epic based on a Mohamedan legend
The Curse of Kehama (1810):
- an ambitious long poem based on Hindu mythology
“The Inchcape Rock” (1820):
- a successful ballad poem, once much loved by reciters
A Vision of Judgement (1821):
- a toadying poem on the death of George III
Quote
"'And everybody praised the Duke / Who this great fight did win.' / 'But what good came of it at last?' / Quoth little Peterkin. / 'Why, that I cannot tell,' said he, / 'But 'twas a famous victory.'"
From "The Battle of Blenheim" (1798).
Basics
(Sketch: Wikimedia Commons).
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Author
Robert Southey. (1774 - 1843). British. -
Work
Poet. Playwright. Poet Laureate (1813 - 1843). -
Genres
Romantic poetry and drama.
Literature
Abrams, Meyer Howard, ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W. W. Norton, 1993.
Barnard, Robert. Stručné dějiny anglické literatury. Praha: Brána, 1997.
Baugh, Albert C. ed. A Literary History of England. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967.
Coote, Stephen. The Penguin Short History of English Literature. London: Penguin, 1993.
Sampson, George. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1946.
Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. New York: Clarendon Press, 1994.