Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Walafrid Strabo

(Encyclopedia)Walafrid Strabo (Walafrid the Squinter), c.809–849, German scholar, b. Swabia. Educated at the abbey of Reichenau, he wrote, at 18, a Latin verse account of a journey to the hereafter, Visio Wettini...

Castillejo, Cristóbal de

(Encyclopedia)Castillejo, Cristóbal de krēstōˈbäl dā kästēlyāˈhō [key], c.1490–1550, Spanish poet of the Renaissance. As secretary to the king of Bohemia, Castillejo visited Vienna and other European c...

Yosano, Akiko

(Encyclopedia)Yosano, Akiko äˈkēˈkō yōˈsäˈnō [key], 1878–1942, Japanese poet, activist, and critic. Best known for passionately romantic verse, she infused the classic tanka poetic form with new life an...

Butler, Samuel, 1612–80, English poet and satirist

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Samuel, 1612–80, English poet and satirist. During the Puritan Revolution he served Sir Samuel Luke, a noted officer of Cromwell. After the restoration of Charles II, he wrote his famous moc...

Brooks, Maria Gowen

(Encyclopedia)Brooks, Maria Gowen gouˈən [key], 1795?–1845, American poet, b. Medford, Mass. Her first collection of verse, Judith, Esther, and Other Poems (1820), was praised by Southey, who named her “Maria...

Cernuda, Luis

(Encyclopedia)Cernuda, Luis lo͞oēsˈ thārno͞oˈᵺä [key], 1904–63, Spanish poet. Cernuda fled Spain after the Spanish civil war and taught abroad. His works include La realidad y el deseo [reality and desir...

Berners, Juliana

(Encyclopedia)Berners, Bernes, or Barnes, Juliana bŭrˈnərz, bärnz [key], supposed early 15th-century author of a popular verse treatise on hunting. The treatise is included in The Book of St. Albans (1486), a c...

Omar Khayyam

(Encyclopedia)Omar Khayyam kīämˈ [key], fl. 11th cent., Persian poet and mathematician, b. Nishapur. He was called Khayyam [tentmaker] probably because of his father's occupation. The details of his life are mos...

Vondel, Joost van den

(Encyclopedia)Vondel, Joost van den yōst vän dĕn vônˈdəl [key], 1587–1679, Dutch poet and dramatist, b. Cologne. He is generally considered the greatest Dutch writer. During the emergence of the Dutch natio...

Berryman, John

(Encyclopedia)Berryman, John bĕrˈēmən [key], 1914–72, American poet and critic, b. McAlester, Okla., as John Allyn Smith, Jr., grad. Columbia, 1936, also studied at Cambridge. His father committed suicide whe...