Southey, Robert

(1774-1843)

   Born at Bristol, Somerset, the son of a linen draper, he was educated at Westminster School, from which he was expelled for writing a protest in a school magazine against excessive flogging. He met Samuel Taylor Coleridge (see entry) while at Balliol College, Oxford, and a life-long friendship was formed. Later they married two sisters. In 1803 he settled with the Coleridge family at Greta Hall, Keswick, neighbors of William Wordsworth (see entry). They became known as the Lake Poets. For 30 years from 1808 he augmented his income by contributing over ninety-five articles, mostly on publications of the day, to the Quarterly Review. He was made poet laureate in 1813. His wife died in 1837, and two years later he married Caroline Bowles (see Southey, Caroline Ann Bowles). He is memorialized by a stone in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. Some of his poetry publications: Joan of Arc, 1796. Thalaba the Destroyer, 1801. Wat Tyler: A Dramatic Poem, 1817. The Curse of Kehama, 1810. Some of his other poems: "A Vision of Judgement," "Cataract of Lodore," "Epitaph on King John," "The Battle of Blenheim," "The Inchcape Rock."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Romantic Poetry and Prose. Russell Noyes, ed. Oxford University Press. 1956. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Southey, LL. D.D. Appleton and Company, 1850. Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).