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MacBeth, George

(Encyclopedia)MacBeth, George, 1932–92, Scottish poet, grad. Oxford, 1955. He was until 1976 a producer for the BBC. His best poetry, such as The Broken Places (1963), often treats violent subjects in a combinati...

Cavalier poets

(Encyclopedia)Cavalier poets, a group of English poets associated with Charles I and his exiled son. Most of their work was done between c.1637 and 1660. Their poetry embodied the life and culture of upper-class, p...

Treece, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Treece, Henry, 1912–66, English poet and novelist. He served as an intelligence officer in the Royal Air Force during World War II, after which he taught school for many years. He is noted chiefly f...

Tottel, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Tottel, Richard tŏtˈəl [key], c.1530–1594?, London publisher. He is chiefly remembered as the compiler of the poetry anthology The Book of Songs and Sonnets (1557), known as Tottel's miscellany. ...

Verlaine, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Verlaine, Paul pōl vĕrlĕnˈ [key], 1844–96, French poet. He gained some notice with the Parnassian poetry of Poèmes saturniens (1866) and Fêtes galantes (1869) and became a figure in the bohemi...

Adonis, Syrian poet

(Encyclopedia)Adonis or Adunis, pen name of Ali Ahmad Said Esber, 1930–, Syrian poet and essayist, generally considered the Arab world's greatest living poet. He began writing poetry in the 1950s. After being jai...

Read, Sir Herbert

(Encyclopedia)Read, Sir Herbert, 1893–1968, English poet and critic. His studies at the Univ. of Leeds were interrupted by World War I, in which he served with a Yorkshire regiment. After the war he completed his...

Bowra, C. M.

(Encyclopedia)Bowra, C. M. (Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra) bouˈrə [key], 1898–1971, English classical scholar, b. China. Associated with the Univ. of Oxford throughout his adult life, he was warden of Wadham College ...

Zeyer, Julius

(Encyclopedia)Zeyer, Julius yo͝oˈlĭo͝os zāˈĕr, tsīˈər [key], 1841–1901, Czech writer. Restless, nostalgic, and mystical, Zeyer wrote ornate, almost decadent epic poetry based on ancient and medieval leg...

versification

(Encyclopedia)versification, principles of metrical practice in poetry. In different literatures poetic form is achieved in various ways; usually, however, a definite and predictable pattern is evident in the langu...