Leigh Hunt

James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 1784 28 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an
English critic, essayist, poet and writer.
Early life
Leigh Hunt was born at Southgate, London, where his parents had settled after leaving the United
States. His father Isaac, a lawyer from Philadelphia, and his mother, Mary Shewell, a merchant's
daughter and a devout Quaker, had been forced to come to Britain because of their loyalist sympathies
during the American War of Independence. Hunt's father took holy orders and became a popular
preacher, but he was unsuccessful in obtaining a permanent living. Hunt's father was then employed by
James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos as tutor to his nephew, James Henry Leigh (father of Chandos
Leigh), after whom the boy was named.
Education
Leigh Hunt was educated at Christ's Hospital from 1791 to 1799, a period which is detailed in his
autobiography. He entered the school shortly after Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Charles Lamb had
both left; Thomas Barnes, however, was a school friend of his. One of the current boarding houses at
Christ's Hospital is named after him. As a boy, he was an ardent admirer of Thomas Gray and William
Collins, writing many verses in imitation of them. A speech impediment, later cured, prevented his
going to university. "For some time after I left school," he says, "I did nothing but visit my schoolfellows, haunt the book-stalls and write verses." His poems were published in 1801 under the title of
Juvenilia, and introduced him into literary and theatrical society. He began to write for the newspapers,
and published in 1807 a volume of theatre criticism, and a series of Classic Tales with critical essays
on the authors.
Hunt's early essays were published by Edward Quin, editor and owner of The Traveller.
Poetry: In 1816 he made a mark in English literature with the publication of Story of Rimini, based on
the tragic episode of Francesca da Rimini told in Dante's Inferno. Hunt's preference was decidedly for
Chaucer's verse style, as adapted to modern English by John Dryden, in opposition to the epigrammatic
couplet of Alexander Pope which had superseded it. The poem is an optimistic narrative which runs
contrary to the tragic nature of its subject. Hunt's flippancy and familiarity, often degenerating into the
ludicrous, subsequently made him a target for ridicule and parody.
In 1818 appeared a collection of poems entitled Foliage, followed in 1819 by Hero and Leander, and
Bacchus and Ariadne. In the same year he reprinted these two works with The Story of Rimini and The
Descent of Liberty with the title of Poetical Works, and started the Indicator, in which some of his best
work appeared. Both Keats and Shelley belonged to the circle gathered around him at Hampstead,

which also included William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Bryan Procter, Benjamin Haydon, Charles
Cowden Clarke, C.W. Dilke, Walter Coulson and John Hamilton Reynolds.
One of Hunt's most popular poems is "Jenny Kissed Me". Another is "Abou Ben Adhem".
Death
He died in Putney on 28 August 1859, and is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. In September 1966
Christ's Hospital named one of its Houses in memory of him.
William Wordsworth: William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 23 April 1850) was a major English
Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English
literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads.
Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semiautobiographical poem
of his early years which he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and
published, prior to which it was generally known as "the poem to Coleridge". Wordsworth was
Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.
Autobiographical work and Poems in Two Volumes: In 1807, his Poems in Two Volumes was
published, including "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood". Up to
this point Wordsworth was known publicly only for Lyrical Ballads, and he hoped this collection
would cement his reputation. Its reception was lukewarm, however. For a time (starting in 1810),
Wordsworth and Coleridge were estranged over the latter's opium addiction. Two of his children,
Thomas and Catherine, died in 1812. The following year, he received an appointment as Distributor of
Stamps for Westmorland, and the 400 per year income from the post made him financially secure. His
family, including Dorothy, moved to Rydal Mount, Ambleside (between Grasmere and Rydal Water) in
1813, where he spent the rest of his life.
The Poet Laureate and other honours: Wordsworth received an honorary Doctor of Civil Law
degree in 1838 from Durham University, and the same honour from Oxford University the next year. In
1842, the government awarded him a civil list pension amounting to 300 a year. With the death in
1843 of Robert Southey, Wordsworth became the Poet Laureate. He initially refused the honour, saying
he was too old, but accepted when Prime Minister Robert Peel assured him "you shall have nothing
required of you". He became the only laureate to write no official poetry. When his daughter, Dora,
died in 1847, his production of poetry came to a standstill.
Death: William Wordsworth died by aggravating a case of pleurisy on 23 April 1850, and was buried
at St. Oswald's church in Grasmere. His widow Mary published his lengthy autobiographical "poem to
Coleridge" as The Prelude several months after his death. Though this failed to arouse great interest in
1850, it has since come to be recognised as his masterpiece.