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Edward Dowden

I lived from 1843-1913. I was from Ireland, and am in the English category.

I was influenced by poets William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman.

he was born in  Cork, County Cork, Ireland.



Irish critic, biographer, and poet, noted for his critical work on Shakespeare.

Educated at Queen's College, Cork, and Trinity College, Dublin, Dowden became professor of English literature at Trinity in 1867 and lectured at Oxford (1890-93) and Cambridge (1893-96).



His Shakespeare: A Critical Study of His Mind and Art (1875) was the first book in English to attempt a unified and rounded picture of Shakespeare's development as an artist, studying him in terms of successive periods. His other works on Shakespeare include the primer Shakspere (1877), which was written for a nonacademic audience, and several edited collections of sonnets. He also provided the text to accompany the illustrations in Shakespeare Scenes and Characters (1876).



Dowden is also remembered for his Life of Shelley (1886) and was among the first to appreciate Walt Whitman, becoming his good friend

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  • Awakening
    With brain o’erworn, with heart a summer clod,
    With eye so practised in each form around,—
    14 lines
  • Durer's 'Melencholia'
    Nor ebbing Time vexes Eternity,
    Where that lone thought outsoars the mortal bar.
    14 lines
  • In The Garden III: An Interior
    The day flows in and floats; a calm retreat
    Of temper'd light where fair things fair things meet;
    14 lines, 4 comments
  • Leonardo's 'Monna Lisa'
    Thy delicate tyranny, the inviolate
    Poise of thy folded hands, thy fallen hair.
    14 lines
  • In July
    Or 'mid the coolness of dim lighted caves
    Sway in a trance of vague deliciousness;
    14 lines
  • In September
    Finds motionless white mists out on the leas.
    Dear chance it were in some rough wood-god's lair
    14 lines
  • In The Garden IV: The Singer
    Voiceful to hear how round thyself alone
    The enriched silence drops for thy delight
    14 lines
  • Deus Absconditus
    Or sought, will not be found through joy or fear;
    If still Thou claimst me, seek me. I am here.
    22 lines
  • In The Garden VII: Early Autumn
    Where'er they fell; the tir'd wind hither call
    Her gentle fellows; shining beetles stray
    14 lines
  • By the Window
    STILL deep into the West I gazed; the light
    Clear, spiritual, tranquil as a bird
    57 lines
1 - 10 of 23  Show all by written, popularity, title, first line

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