William Blake was an engraver, a painter and a poet. A self-taught man, he wrote poetry which he himself painted and illustrated. As a mystic and a visionary, he expressed himself in simple language so that readers could feel the depth of common everyday things.
William Stafford was born in the U.S.A in 1914. The eldest of three children, Stafford grew up with an appreciation for nature and books. During the Depression the family moved from town to town as Earl Stafford searched for jobs. William helped to support the family also, by delivering papers, working in the sugar beet fields, raising vegetables, and as an electrician's mate.
William Stanley Merwin is an American poet, essayist and literary translator who has written nearly 50 books of poetry, translations and essays. He is best known for his unique style of writing in indirect and unpunctual narration. He was greatly influenced by the philosophy of Buddhism in 1980s.
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a prosperous leather merchant in the village of Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire England. He is not only regarded as the father of English drama, but also known as the greatest English poet, and actor. He is also famous as England’s national poet and the Bard of Avon.
William Wordsworth, English poet and worshipper of nature and simplicity, was born in the Lake District. He spent some time in France, where he became an enthusiastic republican until disillusioned by the Terror which followed the French Revolution.
Wole Soyinka, whose real name is Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, was born in a Yoruba family in West Nigeria in 1934. He is a well-known playwright, novelist, essayist and poet whose literary excellence was awarded in 1986 when he was rewarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature. He became the first African to receive this award in that category.
Wystan Hugh Auden, the son of a doctor, was born in York and educated at Gresham School, Holt and Christ Church, Oxford. After leaving the University, he visited Germany and worked as a school teacher for a short time in England and Scotland. By the beginning of the thirties he became the leader of a group of left-wing poet in London, including Stephen Spender, Louis Mac Neice and C. Day Lewis.
James Ingram Merrill was a famous poet of America, especially well known for his craftsmanship in wit, lyric, moral sensibilities, and stylish elegance. He was born in a wealthy family of the investor Charles E. Merrill as a son. His childhood was spent with all the comforts and luxuries. His interest in language was heightened by his governess Mademoiselle, who was excellent in German and French. He got his formal education from private schools and did his B.A. from Amherst College in 1947.
Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, is an American poet, whose work is known for its savage imagery and themes of self-destruction, and for the violent protest of a feminist persona generalizing male as the agent of all sorts of oppression upon women and humanity.
Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats was one of the foremost writers of the 20th century. The Nobel laureate and leader of the Irish Renaissance was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865. He went to school in London and Dublin, where he studied painting.