Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson of Aldworth and Freshwater, was Born August 6, 1809, in Lincolnshire, England, to George Clayton Tennyson, an Anglican clergyman, and Elizabeth Fytche. Tennyson was the fourth of 12 children and had a rather difficult childhood. His father was often cruel and had known mental issues, and several of Alfred's siblings were committed to mental institutions for various addictions and outbursts. 

Tennyson had a form of Epilepsy, but that didn't stop him from writing poetry and emulating his favorite authors- such as Alexander Pope, John Milton, and Sir. Walter Scott. 

Tennyson attended the King Edward VI Grammar School in Louth from 1816 to 1820 but dropped out to pursue his writing. In 1827, he joined the Trinity College of Cambridge and became a member of the Cambridge Apostles. He also published his first volume of poetry, which he called "Poems by Two Brothers," and included poems by his brothers Frederick and Charles. 

In 1829, at 20 years old, Tennyson received Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for his poem, "Timbuktu, making him one of the youngest recipients of the time. That encouraged his career, and he published his first solo collection of poems in 1830, titled "Poems Chiefly Lyrical." 

In 1833, he had to return to the parish after his father's death. Tennyson used that time to publish his second book of poetry, but it met heavy criticism and discouraged him so much that he didn't publish anything for ten years. He was also dealing with the death of a close friend, his father's financial ruin, and his sister's illness- a dark time in Tennyson's life. 

In 1842, Tennyson published two volumes of poetry and found almost immediate success. In 1850, he published "In Memoriam A.H.H.," a tribute to his lost friend, and it skyrocketed his career. He soon succeeded William Wordsworth as the poet laureate of the United Kingdom and held the position until his death. 

Tennyson also married his childhood friend Emily in 1850, and they had two children, Hallam and Lionel. Hallam became an aristocrat and the eventual Governor-general of Australia, while Lionel became a wanderer and author like his father. 

In 1862, Tennyson met Queen Victoria, who became an admirer of his work thanks to her husband, the Prince Consort. He met her once more in 1883 when she told him his poems were a comfort after the late Prince Consort's death. 

Alfred Tennyson died on October 6, 1892, at 83 and is buried at Westminster Abbey. His last recorded words were: "Oh, that press will have me now!"

To learn more, visit the link above or check out his Wikipedia page. 

The Early Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson is a collection of poems compiled by John Churton Collins and released on Project Gutenberg in 2003. Poems in this episode are The Poet's Mind, The Goose, Deserted House, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Lady of Shalott. 

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, to English-born actress Elizabeth Arnold Poe and Baltimore Actor David Poe Jr. but he was taken in by his alleged godfather, John Allen, after his parents' deaths around 1811. From 1815-1820, Poe went to Scotland and England to begin his classical education, which he continued upon his return and acceptance into the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. However, his love of gambling incurred a heavy debt, and Poe was expelled after a year. He moved to Boston and joined the military around 1827 under the alias Edgar A. Perry, and he received an honorable discharge after achieving the rank of regimental sergeant major in 1829.

During that time, Poe released his first collection of works, Tamerlaine, and other Poems, but it remained unnoticed until 1829, when he re-released it under Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and other poems. He published his third collection, Poems, in 1831, and spent the next few years writing stories that appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier and the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. 

In 1834, Poe accepted an editorship at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, the first of several journals that Poe would direct over the next ten years and which would launch him into society as a man of letters. 

In 1836, Poe married his cousin Virginia, who was 14 at the time. They remained married until her death in 1847, after which Poe enjoyed many romantic affairs. He was eventually engaged once more, but it wouldn't last because, on October 3, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe was found wandering Baltimore in a state of semi-consciousness, and he never regained enough lucidity to explain what happened to him. He died on October 7th, 1849, and his cause of death is unknown to this day. 

To learn more about this author and his works, check out the link above, or visit The Poetry Foundation. 

Poems read in this podcast are Eldorado, Spirits of the Dead, Annabel Lee, Alone, and The Raven

Erynn Crittenden was born in August of 1989 to Dr. James Campbell and Ramona Owens and grew up in the small town of Vian, Oklahoma. Homeschooled for most of her education, Erynn soon developed a love of reading and writing, and she used journals and poems to pass the time and record the events around her. 

In 2007, she began studying at Northeastern State University and switched majors between journalism, photography, and English. However, financial issues forced her to drop out before she could complete the process. 

Still, Erynn never gave up on her dreams and continued to write poetry and other stories while bouncing between jobs. Then, in 2010, she got married and began spinning plans of working for herself. 

She achieved momentary success with a photography business but quit that endeavor to open a bookstore. It only lasted a year, but Erynn used that time to introduce herself to the writing community through blogging, writing book reviews, and taking on freelance editing and copywriting jobs for Indi Authors. 

However, her life changed dramatically in 2016 when she was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. That diagnosis forced Erynn to endure a year of chemotherapy treatments, and while she is now cancer-free, that year plays a heavy role in her newer writings. 

In 2018, Erynn had the opportunity to return to NSU to finish her degree, and she graduated in 2019 with a bachelor's in creative writing and a minor in communication. Now, she's enjoying life by working part-time as a copywriter, writing articles and poems for her website, working on books, and being the mother to an incredible little girl. 

To learn more about this author, visit the link above or connect with her through Facebook or Twitter.

Walter John De La Mare was born April 25, 1873, in London to James Edward de la Mare, a principal at the Bank of England, and Lucy Sophia, James' second wife and the daughter of Scottish naval surgeon and author Dr. Colin Arrott Browning.

He was educated at the St. Paul Cathedral School before getting a job in the statistics department of the London office of Standard Oil, where he worked from 1890 to 1908. However, he still found time to write, and through the efforts of Sir Henry Newbolt, La Mare eventually received a Civil List pension which enabled him to quit his job and write full time. 

De la Mare was a notable writer of ghost stories and other supernatural tales, and those horror writings were a favorite of H. P. Lovecraft, who, in his classic study Supernatural Horror in Literature, remarked that "He [De La Mare] is able to put into his occasional fear-studies a keen potency which only a rare master can achieve."

De La Mare has since been touted as one of modern literature’s chief exemplars of the romantic imagination. He's also labeled as an "escapist who retreats from accepted definitions of reality and the relationships of conventional existence."

His approach to reality, however, is not escapist; rather, it profoundly explores the world he considered most significant—that of the imagination

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

Poems used in this episode are The Ghost, The Disguise, The Marionnettes, Dust to Dust, and Motley. Find them all on Project Gutenberg!

Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) Was the youngest of four children born to Italian poet Gabriele Rossetti and his wife, Frances Polidori- the sister of Lord Byron's friend and physician John William Polidori. Her siblings were Maria Francesca, a writer and a Nun with the Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor; Gabriel Charles Dante (known as Dante Gabriel), an influential painter and co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, along with their brother, writer and literary critic William Michael. 

Rossetti's family supported and encouraged her endeavors, and her poetry is never far from the literary world. After Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s death in 1861, readers and critics saw Rossetti as the older poet’s rightful successor. However, critics saw her poetry as less intellectual, political, and varied than Browning’s, but they acknowledged that Rossetti had a greater lyrical gift. She was lauded as the "foremost female poet of her time," and her works still inspire poets, authors, and painters today. 

To learn more about Christina Rossetti, check out the link above, or visit her Wikipedia page. 

Poems used in this episode are: Dreamland, No, Thank you, John, Fata Morgana, and Goblin Market. Find them all on Project Gutenberg!

TRIGGER WARNING! These poems reference sex, self-harm, and suicide. 

Colin Pope grew up in the Adirondacks of New York and has a long list of writing accomplishments. His poetry, essays, and criticism have appeared in journals such as Slate, Best New Poets, Los Angeles Review, Rattle, Willow Springs, and Denver Quarterly. His manuscript Prayer Book for an American God was named a finalist for the 2018 Louise Bogan Award, and Pope also received two Academy of American Poets prizes, as well as various residencies and scholarships from The Vermont Studio Center, Gemini Ink, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, Round Top Poetry Festival, and others. 

Colin holds an MFA from Texas State University. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where he works on the editorial staff of Cimmaron Review and Nimrod International.

Why I Didn't Go To Your Funeral is a collection of poems that explores what it means to be left behind after someone you love commits suicide. Today's podcast features Bliss, Elegy for a Drive-In, The Necessary, If You Ever Became a Paper Doll, and Why I Didn't Go To Your Funeral. Buy your copy at the link above! 

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830–1886) is a staple of American literature and culture. However, her life was one of seclusion and eccentricities that prevented her from being recognized in her lifetime. 

Her work didn't become public until 1809- four years after Dickinson’s death, when her sister, Lavinia, discovered forty handbound volumes of nearly 1,800 poems in Dickinson's room. Now, Emily Dickinson is known as an innovative, proto-modernist poet whose work remains a crucial part of literature classes across the united states. Her family home, the Evergreens, was purchased by Amhurst college and now stands as a museum to Dickinson's life and accomplishments. 

To learn more about this esteemed author, visit the link above or check out her Wikipedia Page. 

The poems in this episode are In a Library, Secret, The Lonely House, A Book, and The Chariot. 

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was arguably France's most acclaimed author and playwright. He enjoyed writing about France, the working people, and the underlying politics that ran the country. He is the author of Les Miserables, one of the greatest historical novels of the 19th century, as well as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Toilers of the Sea, and many others. 

However, life wasn't always simple for Hugo, and he suffered the loss of his eldest (and favorite) daughter when she drowned at 19- a death that devastated Hugo and haunted him for the rest of his life. He also lived in exile from his beloved Paris for several years, missing the funeral of his first wife and her interment alongside their daughter. 

Then, there's the mental health aspect. Along with a family history of schizophrenia, historians speculate that Hugo also suffered from graphomania and erotomania. 

For more information about this renowned author, check out the link above, or visit his Wikipedia Page for a Bibliography of his works. 

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001) was an American writer and aviator who flew around the world with her husband (famous aviator Charles Lindbergh) and wrote books and poems about their adventures. Throughout her life, she received numerous awards for her contributions to literature and aviation, several honorary degrees, and landed a spot in three different halls of fame.

However, their life wasn't without scandal. Anne suffered through the tragic kidnapping and murder of her eldest son, the discovery of her husband's secret life, and a public fall from grace in WWII.

But she never stopped writing.

The Unicorn and Other Poems is one of 14 published works and was last published in 1956. The poems read in this episode are- The Man and The Child, The Little Mermaid, Security, Broken Shell, and The Unicorn in Captivity.

To learn more, visit her Wikipedia page, or check out her biography at the link above.

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