Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

scale, in music

(Encyclopedia)scale, in music, any series of tones arranged in a step-by-step rising or falling order of pitch. A scale defines the interval relationship of each tone to the others upon which the composition depend...

Firdausi

(Encyclopedia)Firdausi or Ferdowsi both: fərdouˈsē [key], c.940–1020, principal Persian poet, author of the Shah Namah [the book of kings], the great Persian epic. His original name was Abul Kasim Mansur; he i...

Adonis, in Greek mythology

(Encyclopedia)Adonis ədōˈnĭs, ədŏnˈĭs [key], in Greek mythology, beautiful youth beloved by Aphrodite and Persephone. He was born of the incestuous union of Myrrha (or Smyrna) and Cinyras, king of Cyprus. A...

Ady, Endre

(Encyclopedia)Ady, Endre ĕnˈdrĕ ŏˈdē [key], 1877–1919, Hungarian poet. He abandoned his studies in law for a career in journalism and literature. His first volume of poetry, Versek, appeared in 1899. After ...

Régnier, Mathurin

(Encyclopedia)Régnier, Mathurin rānyāˈ [key], 1573–1613, French poet. He wrote 16 vigorous, realistic, and often licentious verse satires in the manner of Latin authors, first published as a whole in 1613. ...

Oxford, Edward de Vere, 17th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Oxford, Edward de Vere, 17th earl of, 1550–1604, English poet, b. Castle Heddingham, Essex, educated at Queens' and St. John's colleges, Cambridge. He traveled in Italy, acted in and produced plays,...

Olson, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Olson, Charles, 1910–70, American critic and poet, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1932; M.A., 1933). His literary reputation was established with Call Me Ishmael (1947), a study of the in...

Oña, Pedro de

(Encyclopedia)Oña, Pedro de pāˈᵺrō ᵺā ōˈnyä [key], 1570?–1643, Chilean poet. Having been born in Latin America, he is considered Chile's first national poet. His poetry is both epic and religious. Ins...

Voznesensky, Andrei Andreyevich

(Encyclopedia)Voznesensky, Andrei Andreyevich əndrāˈ əndrāˈəvĭch vəznyəsyānˈskē [key], 1933–2010, Russian poet, b. Moscow. Voznesensky studied at the Moscow Architectural Institute and later became a...

Dionysius Periegetes

(Encyclopedia)Dionysius Periegetes pĕˌrēəjēˈtēz [key], fl. c.300? b.c., Greek poet. He wrote the poem Description of the Inhabited Earth, which was popular in antiquity. ...