Category: Poetry

Birth of James Henry Leigh Hunt

19/10/2018

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou? The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

James Henry Leigh Hunt, who wrote these wonderful lines was born on this day in 1784. Better known as Leigh Hunt he was a successful critic, essayist and journalist. Remembered not only for his beautiful poems, Jenny Kiss'd me being one, but for his work on magazines and the founding of the newspaper The Examiner. He is also remembered for his friendship with Percy Shelley, John Keats and other poets who favoured political reform.

For their writings in the aforementioned Examiner, both Leigh and John Hunt spent two years in prison after being found guilty on a libel charge after publishing an article criticising the Prince Regent. Following his release from prison Hunt accompanied his friends Lord Bryon and Shelley to Italy.

Hunt married Marianne Kent with whom he had seven children, the eldest being journalist Thornton Leigh Hunt who worked on such famous newspapers as the Spectator and the Daily Telegraph.

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Alfred, Lord Tennyson

6/8/2016

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Nestling quietly in the Lincolnshire Wolds is the village of Somersby, it was here that poet Alfred Tennyson
was born on the 6th of August in 1809.

The fourth of twelve children, he was tutored by his father, the Reverend George Tennyson in classical and modern
languages. Tennyson attended Louth Grammar School but was eager to leave home due to family problems.
He left Lincolnshire in 1827 to attend Trinity College, Cambridge and by 1830 he had published a few poems, in 1832
he published a second volume of work that were not received well. Shocked by so negative reviews Tennyson
would not publish another book for nine years.

In 1836, he became engaged to Emily Sellwood but financial troubles caused his Emily's family to call off the engagement. The year 1842, was a turning point for Tennyson, his work received great praise and had become popular, by 1850 with the
publication of In Memoriam A H H, our local poet became one of Britain’s most popular poets. Tennyson was named Poet Laureate
in succession to Wordsworth and in that same year he married Emily Sellwood by whom he had two sons,
Hallam and Lionel. By the age of forty one, Tennyson had established himself as the most popular poet of the
Victorian era culminating in 1884 with a peerage, after which he was known as Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Statue of Tennyson outside Lincoln Catheral (Own Photograph)

Tennyson died on October 6, 1892, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Today he is the second most frequently quoted writer in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations after Shakespeare.

Tennyson wrote a number of phrases that we use all the time today one being 'Better to have loved and lost, than never to
have loved at all' from his In Memoriam and "Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die' from his poem
The Charge of the Light Brigade.

We must not forget my favourtie work of his The Lady of Shallot.

On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

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Birth of James Henry Leigh Hunt

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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