Poets A-K Encyclopedia Articles By Title
Joel Barlow was a public official, poet, and author of the mock-heroic poem The Hasty Pudding. A graduate of Yale,......
Lady Anne Barnard was the author of the popular ballad “Auld Robin Gray” (1771). In 1763 she married Sir Andrew......
Barnabe Barnes was an Elizabethan poet, one of the Elizabethan sonneteers and the author of Parthenophil and Parthenophe.......
Djuna Barnes was an avant-garde American writer who was a well-known figure in the Parisian literary scene of the......
William Barnes was an English dialect poet whose work gives a vivid picture of the life and labour of rural southwestern......
Miguel Barnet is a novelist, poet, ethnographer, and expert on Afro-Cuban culture. Barnet came from a prominent......
Natalie Barney was an American-born literary figure and writer who was noted for her international salon, her friendships......
Guillaume de Salluste, seigneur du Bartas was the author of La Semaine (1578), an influential poem about the creation......
Bashō was the supreme Japanese haiku poet, who greatly enriched the 17-syllable haiku form and made it an accepted......
Giorgio Bassani was an Italian author and editor noted for his novels and stories examining individual lives played......
Katharine Lee Bates was a poet, author, and educator who wrote the text of the national hymn “America the Beautiful.”......
János Batsányi was Hungary’s leading political poet during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods in Europe.......
Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov was a Russian elegiac poet whose sensual and melodious verses were said to have......
Henry Bauchau was a Belgian novelist, poet, and playwright who was also a practicing psychoanalyst. Like his contemporary......
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet, translator, and literary and art critic whose reputation rests primarily......
Rudolf Baumbach was a German writer of popular student drinking songs and of narrative verse. A librarian in Meiningen,......
James K. Baxter was a poet whose mastery of versification and striking imagery made him one of New Zealand’s major......
William Baylebridge was a poet and short-story writer considered one of the leading writers of Australia in his......
Hervé Bazin was a French author whose witty and satirical novels often focus on the problems within families and......
Jean-Antoine de Baïf was the most learned of the seven French poets who constituted the group known as La Pléiade.......
James Beattie was a Scottish poet and essayist, whose once-popular poem The Minstrel was one of the earliest works......
Nérée Beauchemin was a French Canadian poet and physician who was a prominent poet of Le Terroir (French: “The......
Francis Beaumont was an English Jacobean poet and playwright who collaborated with John Fletcher on comedies and......
Sir John Beaumont, 1st Baronet was an English poet whose work helped to establish the heroic couplet as a dominant......
Bruce Beaver was an Australian poet, novelist, and journalist noted for his experimental forms and courageous self-examination,......
Francis Bebey was a Cameroonian-born writer, guitarist, and composer, one of the best-known singer-songwriters......
Johannes Robert Becher was a poet and critic, editor, and government official who was among the most important......
Thomas Lovell Beddoes was a poet best known for his haunting dramatic poem Death’s Jest-Book; or, The Fool’s Tragedy.......
Demyan Bedny was a Soviet poet known both for his verses glorifying the Revolution of 1917 and for his satirical......
Ethel Lynn Beers was an American poet known for her patriotic and sentimental verse, particularly the popular Civil......
Nicolaas Beets was a Dutch pastor and writer whose Camera obscura is a classic of Dutch literature. As a student......
Simin Behbahani was an Iranian poet who earned the sobriquet “the lioness of Iran” for eloquently challenging national......
Aphra Behn was an English dramatist, fiction writer, and poet who was the first Englishwoman known to earn her......
Bei Dao is a Chinese poet and writer of fiction who was commonly considered the most influential poet in China......
Conrad Beissel was a hymn writer and founder of the Ephrata religious community (1732). The posthumous son of a......
Rémy Belleau was a Renaissance scholar and poet who wrote highly polished portraits known as miniatures. He was......
Carlos Germán Belli is a Peruvian poet noted for his unique blend of precise classical expression and contemporary......
Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli was a poet whose satirical sonnets present a vivid picture of life in papal Rome in the......
Carl Michael Bellman was an outstanding poet-musician of 18th-century Sweden, whose songs have remained popular......
Andrés Bello was a poet and scholar, regarded as the intellectual father of South America. His early reading in......
Hilaire Belloc was a French-born poet, historian, and essayist who was among the most versatile English writers......
Andrey Bely was a leading theorist and poet of Russian Symbolism, a literary school deriving from the Modernist......
Pietro Bembo was a Renaissance cardinal who wrote one of the earliest Italian grammars and assisted in establishing......
Tahar Ben Jelloun is a Moroccan French novelist, poet, and essayist who wrote expressively about Moroccan culture,......
Mario Benedetti was an Uruguayan writer who was best known for his short stories. Benedetti was born to a prosperous......
Einar Benediktsson was a Neoromantic poet called by some the greatest Icelandic poet of the 20th century. Benediktsson’s......
Frans Gunnar Bengtsson was a poet, biographer, novelist, and writer of numerous informal essays, a genre that he......
Girolamo Benivieni was a poet who was an intimate of several great men of Renaissance Florence. He is important......
Edward Benlowes was an English poet of the metaphysical school and a patron of the arts. Though his family was......
Gottfried Benn was a German poet and essayist whose expressionistic pessimism and conjurations of decay in the......
Gwendolyn Bennett was an African-American poet, essayist, short-story writer, and artist who was a vital figure......
Benoît de Sainte-Maure was the author of the Old French poem Roman de Troie. Benoît’s poem, consisting of about......
Isaac de Benserade was a minor French poet of the courts of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. Benserade began visiting......
E.C. Bentley was a British journalist and man of letters who is remembered as the inventor of the clerihew and......
Eric Bentley was a British-born American critic, translator, and stage director responsible for introducing the......
Stephen Vincent Benét was an American poet, novelist, and writer of short stories, best known for John Brown’s......
Gonzalo de Berceo was the first author of verse in Castilian Spanish whose name is known. Berceo was a secular......
John Berger was a British essayist and cultural thinker as well as a prolific novelist, poet, translator, and screenwriter.......
Bo Bergman was a Swedish lyrical poet whose early pessimistic and deterministic view of life gave way to a militant......
Bernard de Cluny was a monk, poet, and Neoplatonic moralist whose writings condemned humanity’s search for earthly......
Bernard de Ventadour was a Provençal troubadour whose poetry is considered the finest in the Provençal language.......
Francesco Berni was a poet and translator important for his Tuscan version of Matteo Boiardo’s epic poem Orlando......
Daniel Berrigan was an American writer, Roman Catholic priest, and antiwar activist whose poems and essays reflect......
Wendell Berry is an American author whose nature poetry, novels of America’s rural past, and essays on ecological......
John Berryman was a U.S. poet whose importance was assured by the publication in 1956 of the long poem Homage to......
Jean de Caen Bertaut was a French poet notable as a writer of polished light verse. As a young man Bertaut was......
Attilio Bertolucci was an Italian poet, literary critic, and translator. His verse is noted for its lyric accessibility,......
Bertran De Born was a French soldier and celebrated medieval troubadour. Viscount of Hautefort and lord of vast......
Aloysius Bertrand was a writer whose Gaspard de la nuit (“Gaspard of the Night”) introduced the prose poem into......
Ryszard Wincenty Berwiński was a Polish poet, folklorist, and politician, best known for his Poezje (1844; “Poems”),......
Dániel Berzsenyi was a poet who first successfully introduced classical metres and themes in Hungarian poetry.......
John Betjeman was a British poet known for his nostalgia for the near past, his exact sense of place, and his precise......
Ugo Betti was the foremost internationally known Italian playwright, after Luigi Pirandello, in the first half......
Theodore Beza was an author, translator, educator, and theologian who assisted and later succeeded John Calvin......
Petr Bezruč was one of the finest and most individual Czech poets. Bezruč studied in Prague and became a postal......
Subramania Bharati was an Indian writer of the nationalist period who is regarded as the father of the modern Tamil......
Bharavi was a Sanskrit poet who was the author of Kiratarjuniya (“Arjuna and the Mountain Man”), one of the classical......
Bhartrihari was a Hindu philosopher and poet-grammarian, author of the Vakyapadiya (“Words in a Sentence”), on......
Bhatti was a Sanskrit poet and grammarian, author of the influential Bhattikavya, which is a mahakavya (“great......
Bhavabhuti was an Indian dramatist and poet, whose dramas, written in Sanskrit and noted for their suspense and......
Haim Naḥman Bialik was a leading Hebrew poet, esteemed for expressing in his verse the yearnings of the Jewish......
Bian Zhilin was a Chinese poet and translator especially noted for his highly evocative poetry. Bian left home......
Michel Bibaud was the author of French Canada’s first volume of poetry and of a pioneering history of French Canada.......
Frank Bidart is an American poet whose introspective verse, notably dramatic monologues by troubled characters,......
Willem Bilderdijk was a Dutch poet who had considerable influence not only on the poetry but also on the intellectual......
Bingxin was a Chinese writer of gentle, melancholy poems, stories, and essays that enjoyed great popularity. Bingxin......
Kazys Binkis was a poet who led the “Four Winds” literary movement, which introduced Futurism into Lithuania. From......
Laurence Binyon was an English poet, dramatist, and art historian, a pioneer in the European study of Far Eastern......
Bion was a minor Greek bucolic poet. The Lament for Bion, written by an Italian pupil of the poet, suggests that......
Adolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentine writer and editor, known both for his own work and for his collaborations......
Earle Birney was a Canadian writer and educator whose contributions to Canadian letters—especially to poetry—reveal......
Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet known for her polished, witty, descriptive verse. Her short stories and her......
John Peale Bishop was an American poet, novelist, and critic. He was a member of the "lost generation" and a close......
Jens Bjørneboe was a Norwegian novelist, dramatist, essayist, and poet whose work was generally inspired by a sense......
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, editor, public speaker, theatre director,......
Thomas Blackburn was an English poet, novelist, and critic whose verse is notable for haunted self-examination......
Sir Richard Blackmore was an English physician and writer, physician in ordinary to King William III (who knighted......
John Blackwell was a poet and prose writer, regarded as the father of the modern Welsh secular lyric. While an......
Robert Blair was a Scottish poet remembered for a single poem, The Grave, which was influential in giving rise......
William Blake was an English engraver, artist, poet, and visionary, author of exquisite lyrics in Songs of Innocence......