Arguably one of the first real modern poets of the twentieth century, T.S. Eliot’s poetry came to define the both the restlessness of the Jazz Age and the disillusionment of the “lost generation” that followed the First World War.

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in Missouri in 1888. He lived in St. Louis until he left to attend Harvard at age 18. After graduating from Harvard with undergraduate and masters’ degrees, Eliot traveled to Paris, then returned to work on doctorate studies at his alma mater. However, he soon relocated to England, where he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood and worked as a teacher and a banker.

Poet Ezra Pound discovered Eliot in London, and began to encourage Eliot’s poetry. With Pound’s assistance, Eliot published “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” and soon became one of the foremost contemporary poets in …

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry made him the first African-American poet to reach national prominence while also assuring him a place in American literature.

Born in 1872 to former slaves, Paul Laurence Dunbar overcame a childhood marked by poverty and discrimination. Dunbar’s mother, Matilda, had no formal education but instilled an appreciation for education and literature, particularly poetry, into her children, resulting in Paul Laurence Dunbar memorizing and writing poetry by the age of 6.

After finishing school as the only African-American in his school, Dunbar began writing, going so far as to publish an African-American newsletter. However, early in his career, he was forced to support himself as an elevator operator, unable to support himself through his writing alone.

Dunbar’s poetry was a mixture of dialect writing that attempted to portray African-American life with a realism not-yet heard of at the time and …

Perhaps better known by her pseudonym “H.D.,” the poet Hilda Doolittle’s spare, emotionally-disconnected poetry helped to usher in the modern aesthetic in poetry, despite the fact that her work was little read or appreciated in its day. However, she became a feminist icon when rediscovered by scholars during the 1970s women’s movement.

Hilda Doolittle was born in 1886 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to an astronomer father and Moravian mother, whose family influence on Hilda was strong.

While attending Bryn Mawr, Doolittle befriended poets Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, and Ezra Pound, whom would be an especially important influence on her career as a poet, as Pound, to whom Doolittle was engaged for a time, would be the first to champion her poetry by placing it in Poetry magazine.

Doolittle traveled to Europe in 1909, ostensibly on vacation, but she would remain for the rest …

John Donne’s poetry has transcended both time and language, speaking to readers across ages and continents, as fresh and meaningful today as it was when written.

John Donne’s life was as interesting and controversial as his poetry. Born in London in 1572 to a well-to-do Catholic family at a time when Catholicism was unpopular in England, John Donne, along with his siblings, was raised by his mother, Elizabeth, after his father died in 1576.

Education was a central aspect of Donne’s life. He was enrolled at the University of Oxford at 11, then at the University of Cambridge, although he took no degree.

Donne’s first book of poetry, Satires was written after his brother Henry died in prison, charged with giving sanctuary to a Catholic priest. Not surprisingly, the poems reflect Donne’s questioning of his own faith. Shortly thereafter, …

Almost unknown as a poet in her own lifetime in the Victorian era, Emily Dickinson came to be known as one of the foremost of American poets after her work was rediscovered in the 20th century. Modern readers were able to appreciate what 19th century readers were not; Dickinson’s short, often untitled poems, with their unusual rhyming schemes and non-standard capitalization and punctuation were considered too abstract and jarring for the gentler Victorian tastes, but for the modern reader, remain refreshing, despite the recurring themes of death and despair.

Born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson’s family was well-known and widely respected within the community. Dickinson herself also became well-known to the community; however, she became nearly infamous for her bizarre behavior – such as dressing only in white – and her refusal to leave home or even her …