(marked explicit for the usage of old slang words that may be offensive)

John Keats was born on October 31, 1795, in Moorgate. His parents were Thomas and Francis Keats, and John was the eldest of four children.

While attending the Clarke's School, Keats enjoyed the classics and history, but he left to study medicine after his mother passed in 1810. However, his love of writing never wavered, and Keats became a full-time poet in 1816.

He wrote around 150 poems during his life, many of which are considered to be masterpieces.

Keats died of tuberculosis on February 28, 1821. He was 25. His headstone reads:

"This Grave contains all that was Mortal, of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET, Who, on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart, at the Malicious Power of his Enemies, Desired these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone: Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water."

To learn more about this author and his works, visit the link above or check out his Wikipedia page.

If you write poetry, I want to read it!!! That's why Present Poetry Podcast offers this OPEN SUBMISSION CALL for poets of all ages, types, and genres! 

Submit a biography, links you want to share, and five (5) poems to [email protected] or through the form at LadyErynn.com/Present-poetry-podcast. 

Any length, style, genre, and subject are welcome, but please include a content warning for anything graphic. 

Evaleen Stein was born on October 12, 1863, in Lafayette, Indiana, where she remained for her entire life.

In 1886, Evaleen wrote her first poem and sent it to the Indianapolis Journal for publication. They loved it, and she contributed to the journal (and other newspapers) for several years.

This was only the beginning of Evaleen's writing career, and she published eleven volumes of stories and three books of verse.

Aside from her writing career, Evaleen was also an accomplished artist who did decorative work for Chicago and New York societies as an illuminator.

Like her poetry, her artwork was sentimental but true to technique and featured a floral or natural theme.

Evaleen Stein passed on December 11, 1923, in her "little house of Dreams" and was interred in Lafayette's Greenbush Cemetery. She was 60 years old.

We are reading poems from her second book of poetry, Among the Trees Again, which she published in 1902.

To learn more about this author and their works, click the link above or check out their Wikipedia page!

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was born in La Celle Saint Cloud, France, on July 27, 1870. His father was Louis Belloc, a French lawyer, and his mother was renowned English writer and women's advocate Bessie Rayner Parks.

Hilaire married Elodie Hogan, his long-time love, on June 15, 1896, after his graduation from Oxford. The two had five children before her death in 1914.

During his distinguished career, Hilaire wrote over 150 books on poetry, warfare, religion, and other prevalent topics. He was also one of the big four of Edwardian Letters, putting him in the ranks of HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and GK Chesterton.

Hillaire Belloc died on July 16, 1953, at Mt. Alvernia Nursing Home in Guilford, Surrey. However, his legacy in writing, history, and politics lives on.

His most acclaimed book, and the one we are reading from, is The Cautionary Tales for Children. Published in 1907, this book of poems describes humorous situations with a stark moral lesson.

To learn more about this poet, click the link above or check out his Wikipedia page!

Virna Sheard was born Virna Stanton on April 12, 1860, just after the Vernal Equinox. She lived in Cobourg, Ontario, with her aunt as her parents- photographer Eldridge Stanton and his wife Elizabeth- traveled through the US taking war pictures.

She later moved to Toronto to attend school and remained there for the rest of her life.

In 1884, she married Dr. Charles Sheared, Toronto's first chief medical officer, and began the journey to motherhood. Unfortunately, her first set of twins were stillborn, but Virna never gave up hope and ended up with four sons: Charls Jr., Paul, Joseph, and Terence.

In 1889, Virna composed her first poems and submitted them to a popular children's magazine. With the editor's encouragement, she regularly contributed poems and short stories to several magazines across Canada and the US- including St. Nicholas, the Globe, Saturday Night, New England Magazine, and more.

Her first novel, Trevelyan's Little Daughters, came out in 1898 and displayed a rare sensitivity to a child's perspective. However, as her children grew, so did her writing, and she began writing for more mature audiences when her sons entered school.

Her first volume of poetry, The Miracle and Other Poems, came out in 1913 and was dedicated to her younger brother, Eldridge Jr., who died during the Niagra Falls Ice Bridge incident in 1912.

Despite her husband's reluctance to support Vina's writing, she produced seven novels and six collections of poetry before her death. She was regarded as one of Canada's best-known poets and authors.

Virna Sheard passed on February 22, 1943, in her hometown of Toronto. She was 83.

We are reading from Carry On, a collection of poems published in 1917 under the Distinguished Patronage of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire in Aid of the Red Cross.

James William Foley was born on February 4th, 1874, in St. Louis, Mo. He moved to Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota in the late 1870s, following his father's career as a military man. There, James attended school until the family moved to Bismark, where he eventually graduated from high school in 1888.

He then moved to Medora for a year to attend the University of South Dakota before spending several years in the Badlands.

In later years, Foley worked as a writer and editor for the Bismarck Tribune. He also became interested in state politics and for many years served as a stringer for several national newspapers.

In 1902, Foley published Prairie Breezes, his first book and the namesake for the Bismark High School Yearbook.

When Roosevelt traveled through North Dakota in 1903, Foley wrote a poem celebrating his return. He also wrote a poem entitled “Theodore & Joe,” about the friendship between Roosevelt and his first hunting guide Joe Ferris.

Later, in 1906, Roosevelt spoke highly of Foley in the introduction to Foley's book, Voices of Song. In it, he called Foley "one of the comparatively few men of that time and region who was devoted to reading and to books." He also claimed that "Now and then, after six or eight weeks on the range with valued friends who were of distinctly non-literary type, I would come in to spend an evening with Mr. Foley for the especial purpose of again listening to speech about books."

Foley wrote prose for the New York Times and the Saturday Evening Post. He also produced more than a dozen books of poetry and was regarded as the unofficial Poet Laureate of North Dakota. In 1926 the Superintendent of Public Instruction for North Dakota, Minnie J. Nielson, invited Foley to write lyrics for a song about North Dakota. Foley’s song, “North Dakota Hymn,” was officially adopted as the North Dakota State Song in 1947.

Sadly, he wouldn't live to see it become Dakota's state song because James William Foley passed away on May 19, 1939, at 65.

He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park of Glendale, California, where he and his wife lived at the time.

We are reading from Boys and Girls, a poetry collection published in 1905.

James Parkerson is a tragic example of a poet lost to history because, despite my research, there are very few facts about this poet to offer you.

I do know that he was English-born and lived in Norwich for most of his life. He's also the eldest son, as indicated by his full name of James Parkerson Junior, and was possibly a religious or spiritual type.

He published nine collections of poetry in the early 1800s, and all of them reference the current events of the time, explore the morality of the people, and offer advice on how to transform your life for the better.

Today, we are reading from Characters of Life (Or Moral Hints in Verse) and his Poetical Works and it's my hope that Present Poetry can breathe some life into this forgotten poet and give him a taste of the influence he may have enjoyed in the past.

Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa was born on June 13, 1888, in Lisbon, Portugal.

In 1896, Fernando sailed to South Africa with his mother to join his stepfather, a consul in Durban. There, he received his education at the St. Joseph Convent School, run by Irish and French nuns. In 1899, Fernando moved to the Durban High School and quickly became fluent in English. He also developed an appreciation for English literature- so much so that he was awarded the Queen Victoria Memorial Prize for best paper in English during his university exam.

In 1904, the Natal Mercury published his poem "Hillier did first usurp the realms of rhyme" under the pseudonym C.R. Anon. In December of that same year, the Durban High School Magazine published his poem, Macaulay.

In 1905, The Natal Mercury published four of his sonnets, all under anonymous pseudonyms, giving him a taste for publication.

However, Fernando returned to Lisbon in 1905 to study diplomacy, but a combination of illness and political unrest ended his formal education.

In 1907, he was a practitioner at R.G. Dun & Company, an American mercantile information agency. When his grandfather died that September, Fernando used his inheritance to set up his own publishing house, the Empreza Ibis, but it wasn't successful and closed down in 1910.

In 1912, Fernando Pessoa entered the literary world with a critical essay that triggered one of the most important literary debates of the Portuguese intellectual world.

He founded an art journal, Athena, in 1924, where he published verses under the pseudonyms Alberto Caeiro and Ricardo Reis. He also worked as a freelance commercial translator while diving into life as a writer, literary critic, and political analyst. During this time, Fernando contributed to 32 journals and newspapers

In 1925, he wrote an English guidebook to Lisbon, but it went unpublished until 1992.

In 1935, Fernando Pessoa entered the hospital complaining of abdominal pain and fever. He then wrote his last words- "I know not what tomorrow will bring."

He died the next day, on November 30, 1935, at the young age of 47. Critics dispute the cause of death, but the two most common ideas are cirrhosis of the liver or pancreatitis- both caused by Fernando's love of drink.

Fernando Pessoa contributed hundreds of works to the Portuguese and English literary scene, and he remains an influential figure in Lisbon culture. We are reading from 35 Sonnets, a collection of English poetry published in 1918.

To learn more about this author and his works, click the link above or visit his Wikipedia page!

Brandon Nguyen was born in California where he continues to live. Following the nationwide pandemic, he would often write his thoughts down in the form of poetry. Flowers, sunsets, and whatever else he saw helped inspire what he writes today.

When he's not writing poetry, Brandon enjoys reading, making coffee, cooking, and video games.

Vibha Kashyap is a high school student interested in the creative arts, and they're eager to share their talents with the world. They enjoy expressing themselves through art (especially poetry) and use it to navigate their inner pains and joys. Their greatest goal in life is to reach someone they don't know and connect with them through their emotional poetry.