Comic and Curious Verse: Argo Classics

Author Bio: Lord Byron

Lord Byron (1788–1824) was a Anglo-Scottish poet and a leading figure in the romanticism movement. His best known poems include “She Walks in Beauty,” “When We Two Parted,” and “So, We’ll Go No More a Roving,” among many others.

Author Bio: Thomas Hood

Thomas Hood (1799–1845) was a British humorist and poet. He entered the English literary society as associate editor of London Magazine, and authored many humorous works on contemporary issues. Known as a humorist, his poetry did not at first fare well in the public eye, though he eventually found great success in this capacity. Nine years after his death, a monument was erected in his memory in the cemetery of Kensal Green.

Author Bio: W. S. Gilbert

W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) was an English dramatist best known as one half of the writing duo Gilbert and Sullivan. He began his career working in burlesques, establishing himself as a tasteful, intelligent writer. He then moved on to various other genres, unhappy with his lack of control over the burlesque form. Among his most famous collaborations with Arthur Sullivan are Pirates of Penzance, Trial by Jury, and H. M. S. Pinafore.

Author Bio: Benjamin King

Author Bio: Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898), English author, mathematician, and photographer. One of eleven children of a scholarly country parson, he studied mathematics at Oxford, obtained a university post, and then was ordained as a deacon but found true success with his masterpiece, Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, now known as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which originated as a story told to a young friend, Alice Liddell, during a boating trip on the Thames. Among his other works are Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, The Hunting of the Snark, and Jabberwocky.

Author Bio: various authors

Author Bio: Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), English poet, dramatist, and novelist, was born on the Egdon Heath in Dorset. He studied in Dorchester and apprenticed to an architect before leaving for London, where he began to write. Unable to find a public for his poetry, which idealized the rural life, he turned to the novel and met with success as well as controversy. The strong public reaction against some of his darker themes turned him back to writing verse. Today several of his novels are considered masterpieces of tragedy.

Author Bio: Matthew Prior

Matthew Prior (21 July 1664 – 18 September 1721) was an English poet and diplomat. He is also known as a contributor to The Examiner.

Author Bio: Hartley Coleridge

Hartley Coleridge (19 September 1796 – 6 January 1849) was an English poet, biographer, essayist, and teacher. He was the eldest son of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Author Bio: William Walsh

William Walsh (6 October 1662 – 15 March 1708) of Abberley Hall, Worcestershire was an English poet and critic and a Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1698 to 1708.

Author Bio: Henry Beeching

Henry Charles Beeching (15 May 1859 – 25 February 1919)[1] was a British clergyman, author and poet, who was Dean of Norwich from 1911 to 1919.

Author Bio: George Canning

George Canning (11 April 1770 – 8 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from April to August 1827. He occupied various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, finally becoming Prime Minister for the last 118 days of his life.

Author Bio: Thomas Grey

Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, classical scholar, and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is widely known for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, published in 1751.

Author Bio: Arthur Hugh Clough

Arthur Hugh Clough (1 January 1819 – 13 November 1861) was an English poet, an educationalist, and the devoted assistant to Florence Nightingale. He was the brother of suffragist Anne Clough and father of Blanche Athena Clough who both became principals of Newnham College, Cambridge.

Author Bio: James Kenneth Stephen

James Kenneth Stephen (25 February 1859 – 3 February 1892) was an English poet, and tutor to Prince Albert Victor, eldest son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.