TNPSC English Exam - Poem Author Information

 

 Poem Author Details

 

Henry Van Dyke

  

         Henry Van Dyke (1852 – 1933) was an American author, poet,

educator, and clergyman. He served as a professor of English literature

at Princeton University between 1899 and 1923. He was elected to

the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received many other honours.

 

Rakhi Nariani Shirke

 

   Author Notes Rakhi Nariani Shirke is an academician with a passion for writing poems as a medium of self-expression. She is a post graduate, with a Bachelor's degree in Education.

 

Rudyard Kipling

    

   Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865, in Bombay,

India. He was educated in England but returned to India in 1882.

A decade later, Kipling married Caroline Balestier and settled in

Brattleboro, Vermont, where he wrote The Jungle Book (1894), among

a host of other works that made him hugely successful. Kipling was the recipient of the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 1936.

 

Adapted from Aesop’s fables

  

     ‘Aesop’s fables’ is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and a story teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 B.C.E. These fables became popular when they emerged in print. Several stories are attributed to Aesop even today. The process of inclusion is continuous and new stories are being added. Collections of Aesop’s fables were among the earliest books to be printed in many languages.

 

James Falconer Kirkup

       

           James Falconer Kirkup (1918-2009)born James Harold Kirkup,

was an English poet, translator and travel writer. He wrote over 30 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays. Kirkup wrote his first book of poetry, The Drowned Sailor at the Downs, which was published in 1947. His home town of South Shields now holds a growing collection of his works in the Central Library, and artefacts from his time in Japan are housed in the nearby Museum. His last volume of poetry was published during the summer of 2008 by Red Squirrel Press, and was launched at a special event at Central Library in South Shields.

 

Robert Frost

    Robert Frost (1874-1968) was an American poet noted for his realistic  descriptions of rural life. Born on 26 March 1874, he spent his first 40 years as an unknown entity. He received four Pulitzer prizes for poetry and was a special guest at President John F. Kennedy‘s inauguration. Frost became a poetic force and the unofficial Poet Laureate of the United States. Some of his famous works are The Road Not Taken, West Running Brook, Mending Wall, After Apple Picking etc.

 

 William Blake

 

       William Blake (1757 – 1827) was an English Poet, painter and print maker. Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of  English poetry. He was born in London. He was a boldly imaginative rebel in both his thought and his art. Some of his famous poems are “The Lamb” and “The Tiger”.

 

  Gieve Patel

 

       Dr. Gieve Patel is one of the prominent Indian poets. His famous works include Evening, Forensic Medicine, and From Bombay Central. He has also penned three plays. He has been conducting a poetry workshop in Rishi Valley School for more than a decade. This poem is taken from his poetry collection ‘Poems’ published in 1966.

 

 Mary Botham Howitt

 

        Mary Botham Howitt (1799-1888) was an English poet. She was born at Coleford, in Gloucestershire. She was educated at home and read widely. She commenced writing verses at a very early age. Together with her husband William Howitt, she wrote over 180 books

 

 Caroline Ann Bowles

 

          Caroline Ann Bowles (1786-1854) was an English poet and the wife of Robert Southey, the poet laureate of Britain. She was a poet of great merit and produced some of the best work at the threshold of the Victorian era. She wrote various other works including ‘The Little Ladybird’, ‘Chapter on Churchyard’ and ‘Tales of the Factories’.

 

 Norman Littleford

      

       Norman Littleford (18 May 1889 - 20 May 1947) was an American poet, born in Maryland, USA. Most of his works focused on life and nature. His poems are simple but deep in thought and provoke the readers to absorb the ideas beyond the usual.

George Eliot

       Mary Ann Evans (1819 – 1880), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrote seven novels.

 

 John Keats

       

        John Keats (1795 – 1821) was a British Romantic poet. Although trained to be a surgeon, Keats decided to devote himself wholly to poetry. Keats’ secret, his power to sway and delight the readers, lies primarily in his gift for perceiving the world and living his moods and aspirations in terms of language. "A Thing of Beauty' is an excerpt from his poem ‘Endymion: A Poetic Romance’. The poem is based on a Greek legend, in which Endymion, a beautiful young shepherd and poet who lived on Mount Latmos, had a vision of Cynthia, the Moon Goddess. The enchanted youth resolved to seek her out and so wandered away through the forest and down under the sea.

 

Shanthini Govindan

 

             Shanthini Govindan is a widely published, award-winning author of children's literature in English in India, who has written over 50 books for children including poetry, picture books and short stories for children of all ages.

 

John Masefield

    

      John Masefield (1878–1967) was an English Poet and writer. He was appointed poet laureate of the United Kingdom in 1930.

 

Edgar Albert Guest

           Edgar Albert Guest (1881–1959) was a prolific England-born American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th century and became known as the People’s Poet. His poems often had an inspirational and optimistic view of everyday life.                     Edgar Albert Guest began his illustrious career in 1895 at the age of fourteen when his work first appeared in the Detroit Free Press. His column was syndicated in over 300 newspapers, and he came to be known as “The Poet of the People”. Guest was made Poet Laureate of Michigan, the only poet to have been awarded the title. His poems often had an inspirational and optimistic view of everyday life.

 

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson

 

          Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 Nov 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a

Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, musician and travel writer. His famous works are

‘Treasure Island’, ‘Kidnapped’, ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde’ and ‘A Child’s

Garden of Verses’.

 

 

 

William Makepeace Thackeray

   

          William Makepeace Thackeray was one of the great novelists of the English Victorian Age. His 'Vanity Fair' is one of the finest and best-known novels in English literature. Thackeray wrote in a colorful, lively style, with a simple vocabulary and clearly- structured sentences. These qualities, combined with his honest view of life, give him an important place in the history of realistic literature.