Conversion: By T.E. Hulme

LIGHTHEARTED I walked into the
valley wood
In the time of hyacinths,
Till beauty like a scented cloth
Cast over, stifled me. I was bound
Motionless and faint of breath
By loveliness that is her own eunuch.

Now pass I the final river
Ignominiously, in a sack, without a sound,
As any peeping Turk to the Bosphorous.

W.H. Auden Biography

Wystan Hugh Auden was born on February 21, 1907 in York, England to George Augustus Auden, a physician, and Constance Rosalie Bicknell Auden, a trained missionary nurse who never served. He became known as W.H. Auden because he signed his works with that name instead of his birth name. Auden, the youngest of three boys, found his style of writing by reading and studying English literarture in Christ Church, Oxford. In 1908, Auden and his family moved to Harborne, Birmingham because his father had been appointed the School Medical Officer and Lecturer of Public Health. It was then that Auden's lifelong interests began inside his father's library. When he was eight, Auden started to attend boarding schools and would only come home for holidays. Auden's first boarding school was St. Edmund's School, Surrey. While there, he met Christopher Isherwood, who later became a famous novelist. At the age of thirteen, he attended Gresham's School in Norfolk in 1922, where his friend Robert Medley suggested that he should write poetry. In 1923, Auden's first published poems appeared in the school magazine. In 1925, Auden went to Christ Church, Oxford with a scholarship in biology. In his second year he had switched to studying English. He left Oxford with a third-class degree in 1928. During his four years at Christ Church, Auden was reunited with Christopher Isherwood. Isherwood became Auden’s mentor. Auden would send his poems to Isherwood for comments, criticism, and feedback. They often collaborated to produce works of literature and they wrote three plays and a travel book by 1939. In the fall of 1928, Auden left Britain for nine months to go to Weimar, Berlin. Part of the reason that Auden left Britain was to rebel against the English government who tried to control people’s sexual tendencies. Auden was homosexual. When he returned to Britain in 1929, he worked briefly as a tutor. In 1930, he published his first book, Poems. After publishing his first book, Auden became a schoolmaster in two different boys' schools until 1935. From 1935 until he left Britain again in 1939, Auden worked as a reviewer, essay writer, and lecturer. He began working with the G.P.O. Film Unit, a documentary filmmaking branch of the post office. This is how he met Benjamin Britten, who he collaborated with on plays, songs, and a libretto in 1935. During the 1930s, most of his poems were inspired by love. In January of 1939, Auden and Isherwood sailed to New York. They entered on temporary visas. Many British people saw their departure as a treacherous act and Auden's reputation in Britain suffered from it. Around April of 1939, after Isherwood moved to California, Auden met Chester Kallman, a poet. They became lovers and lived with each other from 1953 until Auden’s death even though Kallman stopped the relationship in 1941. In 1941 and 1942 he taught English at the University of Michigan. He was drafted for World War II but was rejected for medical reasons. He was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a type of American grant, in 1942, but he didn't take it. Instead he chose to teach at Swarthmore College from 1942 to 1945. In 1945, after the end of World War II, Auden ventured to Germany on a trip that would inspire his work. When he returned to the United States in 1946, he became an American citizen. His life from that point was seemingly simple. He continued to work at various universities and traveled to many parts of Europe. His main source of income was lecture tours or writing for magazines. He continued this lifestyle until he died in Vienna in 1973. Auden’s work includes about 400 poems (seven long poems and two that were book-length) and over 400 essays and reviews about literature. His style was “encyclopedic in scope and method.” When he wrote, it would range from a modern feel to a traditional feel and he had various tones. His main subjects were religion, politics, and love.- BOOMTOWN

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/120

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/whauden.htm

http://www.notablebiographies.com/An-Ba/Auden-W-H.html

Geoffrey Chaucer Biography - Boza

Geoffrey Chaucer, born in 1343, was a public servant for the majority of his life. Many records indicate that his jobs ranged from page to working for the king. He was a courtier, page, diplomat, and civil servant. Also being a military man he was captured during the siege of Rheims, but King Edward paid his ransom and he was released. He traveled a lot as a messenger and is also believed to have gone on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. He married around 1366 to Phillipa of Hainault, who was a lady in waiting to Edward III’s queen. They had several children but only 4 are actually cited. He then became a member of King Edward III’s Court. Around this time he wrote The Book of the Dutchess in honor of Blanch of Lancaster, the wife of john Gaunt, who died in 1369. Around the year 1374, a time where poetry and other forms of art were generally rewarded, Edward III granted Chaucer a gallon of wine daily for the delivery of one of his works (it is unknown which work it was). He continued to collect the wine until Richard II came to power. In the same year he gained the position of Comptroller of the Customs, which he kept for 12 years. This was a long time for this type of position in that time, but it is during this period that he is believed to have begun his more famous works. His work was the first to be written in English in a time where writing was generally done in more “courtly” languages like French and Latin. Thus garnering him the name “Father of English Literature.” In his position as Comptroller he was appointed a commissioner of peace for Kent, when a French invasion was a possibility. He became of Member of Parliament for Kent and it was during this time that he began work on the Canterbury Tales. He was robbed on June 17, 1391 which caused him to resign from his positions and he began working as a deputy forester days after the incident. Chaucer is believed to have stopped working on Canterbury tales around the end of this decade. After the overthrow of Richard II, Chaucer falls from historical records. Although the new king renewed his grants, his work Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse alludes that these grants were not honored. Chaucer dies of unknown causes on October 25, 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, because of his status as a tenant, but his remains were moved in 1556 making him the first writer to be buried in the Poets’ Corner.

-Boza

Hate to have two of these...William Blake.

William Blake, born November 28^th, 1757, was the third of seven children in his family. Hailing from the Soho District of London, he began school at a young age. However, he only remained in school long enough to learn to read and write. After reaching that stage in his education, he was homeschooled by his mother, Catherine Wright Armitage Blake, due to his unruliness. His father was a hosier, meaning that he sold hosiery for a living. He spent a great deal of his young life around the edges of town and in the countryside of London.

It has been said that around the age of ten, Blake saw his “first vision.” As he gazed upon a tree, he began to see angels. By this time, he stated that he had already begun to read the works of Milton and Isaiah. These were great influences as he began to write not much later in his life.

Soon after his vision, but not related, Blake was sent to an art school in Strand. During his time in Mr. Pars’ Drawing school, he spent most of his time copying plaster molds of ancient sculptures. At the age of 14, he was placed at the apprentice level for an engraver because his father could not afford a lead painter. His master was named James Basire and was an engraver at the London Society of the Antiquaries. Due to this fact, Blake was sent to Westminster Abbey to draw tombs and monuments. After this, he began collecting the works of Michelangelo and the literary works of Elizabethan writers such as Shakespeare.

In August of 1779, Blake was admitted to the Royal Academy. Paying his way by producing art, he eventually ran into a bit of a difference with some of his teachers. Some said that his paintings were “too Michelangelo” or “too extravagant.” After his completion of school, he married Catherine Boucher in 1782. Two years later, Blake’s father died and left the hosiery business to William’s older brother. Later that year, William’s brother, Robert, was struck with illness and eventually died. William, being with Robert when he passed, claimed to have seen Robert’s soul travel through the ceiling.

This was not the only time that William saw his younger brother’s soul. Later, Robert’s came to him as a “vision in the night.” This vision gave him the insight to combine poetry with visual art. By 1789, he had his first copy of his book titled The Songs of Innocence. The entire book, “except the manufacturing of the paper,” was done by Blake and his wife. By 1795, he began printing in full size paintings along with his works.

Blake then moved to Sussex where he began to truly enjoy the true beauty of nature around him. He was hired to paint many pictures of many people, but by 1802, he tired of this trivial task. After a run-in with the military in 1803, Blake moved back to London before he faced trial for sedition. By 1810, Blake had fallen to poverty and paranoia. On August 12, 1827, Blake died. As he began to pass from illness, it is said that he was “singing of the things he saw in heaven.”

http://www.tate.org.uk/learning/worksinfocus/blake/gothic/life_intro.html

PS - I couldn't find this man on Galileo. This site should work though, it was cleared by Dr. Boza.

William Blake Biography

William Blake was born to James and Catherine Blake on November 28, 1757. During his early childhood, Blake encountered God in many visions. First he was inspired to become an artist at the age of ten. His parents sent him to drawing school. Admiring many famous artists such as Raphael, Giulio, and others caused him to stay in drawing school for five years. Two years later, he started to write poetry.
At the age of 14, Blake apprenticed with an engraver due to the fact that art school was too expensive for his family. In his seven years there, Blake sketch tombs with variety of Gothic styles. After those seven years, he started back his of art at Royal Academy of Art. William married Catherine Boucher in 1782 and then opened a print shop in 1784. Even though the business didn’t last long, Blake did manage to complete “Island in the Moon”.
Blake return to engraving tombs and tested the waters in illustrating books and magazines. During this time Blake taught his brother Robert how to draw, paint, and engrave. Then Robert fell ill during the winter of 1787 and died. As he died, William saw his brother’s sprit rise up through the ceiling. In 1788, Blake completed his illuminated book “Songs of Innocence”. William believed Robert helped him in learning the printing method of illuminated works and in his book. Then in 1794, he published “Songs of Experience”. “Songs of Innocence” was considered a children’s book due to its illustrating.
Living during the revolutionary times, Blake’s main influences came from his society. Being a nonconformist, many of Blake friends were radical thinkers. Over some time, he became disgusted with the society he lived in. Blake’s religion and political ideas became radical. In 1800, Blake moved to Felpham. While living there, Blake taught himself Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Italian. His religious beliefs became stronger. This prepared him to write more mature writings and paint more mature art.
Blake believed his poetry could be read and understood by common people. But Blake wanted him and his writings to become popular pieces. Before pasting away, Blake final years were spent in poverty but with admiring friends of artists who called themselves “the Ancients”. Dying at the age of 69 in 1827, his family name died with him. Leaving a legacy as a complex man with many artistic talents will remain strong now and in centuries to come.

-http://www.poemhunter.com/william-blake/biography/

Lewis Carroll Biography!

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, was born in Cheshire, England on January 27, 1832 and died on January 14, 1898. He was the eldest son and the third born of a family of seven girls and four boys. His mother, Frances Jane Lutwidge, was the wife of Rev. Charles Dodgson. His mother was a gentle and caring soul, very patient with all of her children. Lewis’s father was the children’s tutors and he raised them very well.

Lewis and his family lived in a little country village and had few acquaintances outside of their family but had no problem entertaining themselves. At the age of 12, Carroll created a magazine named “The Rectory Magazines”, that his family was supposed to contribute to for fun. He also made up games, wrote poems and stories for his brothers and sisters.

In his early years of education, Lewis attended Richmond School, Yorkshire in 1844 to 1845 then switched to Rugby School through 1850. During this time, he got very sick and went deaf in his left ear. After Rugby School, his father tutored him for a year, during his enrollment in Christ Church, Oxford. Carroll excelled in his mathematical studies, coming out at the head of his class. He then preceded a Bachelor of Arts degree that same year. Carroll graduated in 1854, and in 1855 he became a mathematical lecturer at the college. In the year 1861, Lewis became a deacon because of the permanence of the job and he needed to remain unmarried.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson had a frustrating love for little girls throughout his whole life and this love, some say, contributed with his poetry. Some people feel that Carroll never attained real adult love. If he would have tried to grow up and marry, some say that he was not psychologically ready for anything pertaining to adult love. As said in one of my sources, The Many Lives of Lewis Carroll, “He loved little girls, but, like Peter Pan, he had no intention of marrying them.”

While being a deacon, Lewis was a reserved, fussy bachelor who refused to get caught up in the political and religious storms that troubled England. Lewis Carroll, however, was a delightful, lovable companion to the children for whom he created his nonsense stories and poems.

One solution is that he had two personalities: "Lewis Carroll" and "the Deacon Mr. Dodgson," with the problems that go along with having a split personality. There were peculiar things about him—he stammered ever since he was a child, he was extremely fussy about his possessions, and he walked as much as twenty miles a day. But another solution seems more nearly correct: "Dodgson" and "Carroll" were parts of one personality. This personality, because of happiness in childhood and unhappiness in the years thereafter, could blossom only in a world that resembled the happy one he knew while growing up.

Themes that weave in and out of his poetry are: looking through an eye of a child, love, reality and nonsense, life and death, heroic quests, and the tragic and inevitable loss of childhood innocence. Not all of these themes co-exist is all of his poems, but all of these are a lot of themes that weave in and out of his awesome peotry.

http://library.thinkquest.org/10977/carroll/

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ca-Ch/Carroll-Lewis.html

http://web.ebscohost.com/lrc/pdf?sid=0af6d54a-3bb5-4048-8b92-88b827898f4a%40sessionmgr4&vid=2&hid=10

T.E. Hulme Biography

It all began at hip London café called where one of the founders of modern poetry began setting his place in poetic history. T.E. Hulme was part of the poetry group known as the “School of Images”. Although he only published six works of poetry before his death- called the Complete Poetical Works- Hulme and his fellow poets, like F.S. Flint, and Edward Storer, rebelled against the set themes, rhythms and meters of the Romantic era and created poetry based off day-to-to images at the start of the twentieth- century.

Thomas Ernest Hulme was born on September 16, 1883 to a wealthy household in Endon, Staffordshire England. At an early age he took much interest in questioning and rebelling society around him. He attended St. Johns College, at Cambridge where he first studied Mathematics but did not finish because he was thrown out not once, but twice for multiple occasions of outlandish behavior. Hulme was quite a character who enjoyed heckling actors on stage at plays and kept a set of brass knuckle duster near him at all times for leisurely or emergency use. Many of Hulme’s close friends and colleagues say “his charm was his straightforwardness”, as said in the British publication of the Guardian. After being thrown of St. Johns he began attending the University College of London where he took up philosophy and later he worked and studied in Canada and Brussels.

While teaching in Brussels around 1907, Hulme’s became closely familiar with contemporary works of French philosophy and poetry. One in particular whom he met and developed a close relationship with was Henri Bergson. It was he who influenced Hulme’s deep interest and inspection of nineteenth- century French psychologists, which led to the development of his idea of “imagist theory and thought” as labeled in an article from the Poetry Foundation. Accompanying Hulme in his deep interest in French philosophy to create a literary movement was his disdain for Romanticism. In several instances he expresses his whole hate for it in saying that, “romanticism is dead in reality” or in his definition of romanticism and the movement that came before it classicism:

"Here is the root of all romanticism: that man, the individual, is an infinite reservoir of possibilities; and if you can so rearrange society by the destruction of oppressive order then these possibilities will have a chance and you will get progress." Classicism is precisely the opposite: "Man is an extraordinarily fixed and limited animal whose nature is absolutely constant. It is only by tradition and organization that anything decent can be got out of him."

Hulme believed that image, “was the untouched material of experience”, and the analysis of the works of his mentor Henri Bergson further set Hulme in his new way of understanding art imagery. Bergson specialized in the forms of awareness in which he believed there were only two different types: awareness is intuition and awareness is based in intellect which applies its knowledge to action. In 1913 a translation of Bergson’s book by Hulme Introduction to Metaphysics was released.

Hulme was inspired by another French great, poet Gustave Kahn who resisted following strict modes of poetry that included writing with exact rhythms, meters, and rhymes, but instead letting the authors thoughts wander freely. In 1908 Hulme returned to England , where he established the Poets Club he and other philosophers and poets convened to discuss and debate ideas of image and modern poetry. But this group soon faded when in 1909 the Poets Club was discontinued and the Café Tour D’Eiffel group began. It was in this group where Hulme is now accredited with influencing great American poet Ezra Pound and later T.S. Eliot.

Robert Ferguson the author of the book The Short Sharp Life of T.E. Hulme summarizes Hulme’s writing style as, “overhearing someone in the process of thinking”. Hulme set out to revolutionize an entire era of thinking and writing and depending on how you view the world , he succeeded. In August 1914 , Hulme entered the military where he served with the Royal Marine Artillery in France and Belgium. He was killed on the frontlines in at the age of thirty-four in1917, but his ideas, thoughts, and works still credit him with creation of modern poetry.

Sources

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/t-e-hulme

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/dec/08/biography.poetry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/25/hulme-modern-poetry-ezra-pound-imagists

http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/4499/T-E-Hulme-%28Thomas-Ernest-Hulme%29.html