Thomas Malory (1449-1471) He grew up in the finest ideals of chivalry.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) He wrote The Canterbury Tales.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) He was both a poet and a playwright, but his greatest work was in the field of the drama and his finest lyrics are those that adorn his plays.

Ben Jonson (1573-1637) He was the most prestigious of the contemporaries of Shakespeare.

Edmund Waller (1606-1687) He wrote poetry celebrated for elegance and polish at a time when these points got little attention.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) He had a gay and devil-may-care disposition. His poems are notable for their graceful melodious expression

Sir John Suckling (1609-1642) He was a brilliant wit in court. Most of his poems are light and most trivial.

Sir Richard Lovelace (1618-1657) He wrote a volume of love lyrics.

Thomas Carew (1595-1639) He belonged to a group of poets who called themselves Cavalier poets- poets whose verses praised beautiful women.

Thomas Dekker (1570-16410 He Was essentially a dramatist and wrote some very popular plays which included lovely lyric poems.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) He was the most significant philosopher and prose writer of his age.

John Milton (1608-1674) He was the poet of steadfast will and purpose, He was chiefly concerned with the soul, he also represents the religious consciousness of the Puritans of England.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) He was a versatile writer and wrote various kinds of verses on a variety of subjects.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) He was a man of cheerful and amiable disposition.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771) He was a minor figure in English Literature but he has the reputation of having written one of the best loved elegies in the English Language.

William Blake (1754-1827) He wrote exquisite lyrics which means more than what lies on the surface.

Robert Burns (1759-1796) He is called the songwriter of Scotland because many of his poems have been set to music.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) He spent his boyhood storing his mind with Scottish songs,ballads an legends.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) He was a great nature lover and he dwelt on natures beauty.

George Gordon. Lord Byron (1788-1824) He was widely misunderstood by his contemporaries, he got two sides of poetry one cynical and pessimistic.

John Keats (1795-1821) His first poems were bitterly attacked by the literary reviewers, but this did not prevent Keats from continuing to write.

Alfred. Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

He was the voice of people expressing in exquisite poetry their doubts and their faith.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) He won distinctions both as a poet and as an essayist.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) Her best known poems are Sonnets from the Portuguese.

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) He is well known for the careful workmanship and exquisite melody of her poems.

Arthur Bugh Clough (1819-1861) He expresses a philosophy that governed his life.

William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) He had one of his feet amputated because of tuberculosis of the bone. He lived on to be a newspaper editor and literary critic.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) His long and fruitful life was typical of the American Nation.

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) His love of nature is deep and sincere.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) He was a doctor of medicine and man of letters. He is well known for his poems and essays