Biography of English Poets

1.       Geoffrey Chaucer 
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1342-1400
Family - Father was John Chaucer a wine merchant
Married Phillipa de Roet
Education - St Pauls Almonary
Career - Poet and Translator

Famous Work-The Canterbury Tales 

2.       Sir Philip Sydney 
Nationality - English - Lifespan - 1554 - 1586
Family – Father was Henry Sidney, a courtier and his Godfather was Philip II of Spain
Education – Shrewsbury school and Christ Church college, Oxford
Career - Poet, courtier and diplomat
Famous Works of Sir Philip Sydney – Old Arcadia and the poem ‘Sleep’

3.      Christopher Marlowe

Nationality - British   
Lifespan - 1564-1593
Father - a shoemaker
Educated - Corpus Christi College Cambridge
Career - Poet, Translator and dramatist
Famous book / play : Dr Faustus and Tamburlaine the Great and perhaps many others? See below the Mystery surrounding Marlowe & Shakespeare

4.       William Shakespeare - Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1564 - 1616 (See below for the mystery surrounding Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe - the 'Shakespeare Identity Problem')
Father - John Shakespeare, Merchant and Bailiff and Justice of the Peace Stratford-upon-Avon
Educated - Grammar School (Kings New School)
Career - Poet, playwright, dramatist and actor - First Published – 1593

5.       John Donne
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1572-1631
Family - Father was Robert Donne an ironmonger
Education - Oxford and Cambridge
Career - Poet, essayist, attorney, and minister

6.       John Milton
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1608-1674
Father - John Milton, scrivener, notary and composer
Educated - Christs College Cambridge
Career - Poet, Playwright, Diplomat and Historian

7.       Samuel Butler 
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1612 - 1680
Family - Father was a farmer
Education - Grammar School and perhaps Oxford or Cambridge University
Career - Poet and Satirist
First Published in 1663

8.       John Dryden
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1631 - 1700
Family - Father was John Dryden a minister
Education - Westminster School and Trinity College Cambridge
Career - Poet and Royal Historiographer

9.       Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, 
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1661- 1720
Family - Father was Sir William Kingsmill
Education - Tutored at home
Career - Poet and Maid of Honor in the Stuart Court

10.    Alexander Pope
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1688-1744
Father - Linen merchant
Educated - Tutored at home
Career - Poet critic, satirist and author
First Published – 1712

11.    Thomas Gray 
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1716-1771
Family - Son of Exchange Broker and Milliner
Education - Eton College
Career - Poet, Scholar

12.    William Cowper
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1731 - 1800
Family - Father was Reverand John Cowper
Education - Boarding school then Middle Temple to study Law
Career - Poet and Solicitor

13.    William Blake
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1757-1827
Family - Father was James Blake a merchant. Married Catherine Boucher
Education - Educated by mother at home
Career - Poet, printer, illustrator and engraver
First Published in 1783

14.    William Wordsworth
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1770 - 1850
Father - John Wordsworth, lawyer
Educated - Hawkeshead Grammar School and St John’s College Cambridge
Career - Poet and author
First Published – 1798

15.    Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1772 - 1834
Family - Father was John Coleridge, a vicar and Schoolmaster
Education - Cambridge 
Career - Poet, critic and philosopher
Famous work - Rime of the Ancient Mariner

16.    Lord George Gordon Noel Byron (6th Baron)
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1788 - 1824
Family - Father was John Byron (descendant of Scottish Nobility)
Education - Harrow and Cambridge University
Career - Poet, playwright, and satirist
Lord Byron - First Published in 1816

17.    Percy Bysshe Shelley
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1792 - 1822
Father - Timothy Shelley, Member of Parliament
Educated - Eton College and Oxford
Career - Poet and novelist
First Published – 1810

18.    John Keats
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1795 - 1821
Father - Thomas Keats died in accident in 1804
Education - School in Enfield and St Guys Hospital, London
Career - Poet and apothecary

19.    Thomas Hood 
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1799 - 1845
Father - Novelist and Bookseller
Education - Public School
Career - Poet and Editor

20.    Alfred Lord Tennyson 
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1809 - 1892
Father - Reverand George Clayton Tennyson, Clergyman
Educated - Trinity College , Cambridge
Career - Poet and dramatist
First Published – 1828

21.    Robert Browning
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1812 - 1889
Family - Father was Robert Browning ran a sugar plantation and then a Clerk at the Bank of England
Married Elizabeth Barratt in 1846
Education - Peckham School and University of London
Career - Poet
First Published in 1833

22.    Charlotte Bronte
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1816 - 1857
Family - Parents Patrick and Maria Bronte
Education - Tutored at home and Haworth parsonage
Career - Poet, governess and novelist
Famous Work by Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre

23.    Emily Jane Bronte
Nationality - English
Lifespan 1818 - 1848
Family - Father was Reverend Patrick Bronte
Education - Roe Head English Boarding School
Career - Poet and school teacher
Famous book by Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights

24.    Anne Bronte
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1820 - 1849
Family - Parents Patrick and Maria Bronte
Education - Tutored at home and Haworth parsonage
Career - Poet and novelist
Famous Works by Anne Bronte - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)

25.    Matthew Arnold
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1822 - 1888
Family - Father was Thomas Arnold a Headmaster of Rugby School
Education - Rugby and Oxford University
Career - Poet, teacher and critic
First Published in 1849

26.    Christina Georgina Rossetti
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1830-1894
Family - Father was the poet Gabriele Rossetti
Education - Tutored at home
Career – Poet - Pseudonym Ellen Alleyne 
Famous Works – A Birthday

27.    Charles Dickens
Nationality - English - Lifespan  1832 - 1888
Family - Father was Charles Dickens a naval clerk 
Education - Wellington House Academy, London
Career - Poet, novelist, and journalist 
Famous works by Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist, Hard Times, The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Tale of Two Cities & A Christmas Carol

28.    Lewis Carroll (Pseudonym) Charles Lutwich Dodgson
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1832 - 1898
Family - Father was Charles Dodgson, Archdeacon of Richmond Cathedral
Education - Rugby and Oxford
Career - Poet, mathematician, lecturer and lay -preacher (he was ordained)

29.    Thomas Hardy
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1840 - 1928
Father - Stonemason
Education - Local School and apprenticed to an architect
Career - Poet, novelist, literary scholar, and architect

30.    Oscar Wilde
Nationality - Irish
Lifespan - 1854 - 1900
Father - Sir William Wilde, surgeon
Educated - Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford
Career - Poet, author and dramatist
First Published – 1887

31.    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Nationality - British
Lifespan - 1859- 1930
Family - Father was Charles a civil servant
Education - Edinburgh University
Career - Poet, novelist, and editor
Famous works - Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles

32.    Alfred Edward Housman 
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1859 - 1936
Father - Merchant
Education - Bromsgrove School and St. Johns College, Oxford
Career - Poet and Professor of Latin at Cambridge University

33.    Joseph Rudyard Kipling
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1865 - 1936
Father - John Lockwood Kipling, principal of the School of Art in Lahore
Education - United Services College, England
Career - Poet , novelist
Famous books by Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book, Kim

34.    Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1874 - 1936
Family - Father was Edward Chesterton an Auctioneer
Education - University College
Career - Poet and Journalist - First Published in 1896

35.    John Edward Masefield 
Nationality - English
Lifespan - 1878 - 1967
Father - a solicitor
Educated - Warwick School, England
Career - Poet Playwright, Journalist and Vagabond

36.    David Herbert Lawrence
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1883 - 1930
Father - Arthur Lawrence a miner
Education - Nottingham University College, England
Career - Poet , novelist - First Published - 1909
Famous books : Lady Chatterleys Lover, Sons and Lovers

37.    T. S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot)
Nationality - English American
Lifespan - 1888-1965
Pseudonyms - Charles Augustus Conybeare, Reverend Charles James Grimble, Gus Krutzch, Muriel A. Schwartz, and Helen B. Trundlett 
Education - Harvard, Sorbonne and Oxford University
Career - Poet, playwright, critic, banker, educator, and editor

38.    Aldous Huxley
Nationality - British
Lifespan - 1894-1963
Education - Eton and Oxford University
Career - Poet and novelist
First Published in 1920
Most Famous work - Brave New World (1932)

39.    Robert Graves
Nationality - English 
Lifespan - 1895 - 1985
Father - Alfred Perceval Graves a Gaelic scholar and Irish poet
Education - St John’s College Oxford

Career - Poet, novelist, literary scholar, military and translator
Famous for the book I Claudius