White, Henry Kirke

(1785-1806)

   Born in Nottingham, where his father was a butcher, he worked briefly as a stocking weaver before being articled to a lawyer. He had some poems published in the Monthly Preceptor and the Monthly Mirror. To raise money to go to university, in 1803 he published Clifton Grove, a sketch in verse, dedicated to the Duchess of Devonshire. Various people helped him and he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1805 with the aim of becoming a priest. He distinguished himself in classics, being top at the general college examination at the end of the first term and first of his year at the end of the summer term of 1806. But his health was failing; consumption threatened and he died in his college rooms in October. Robert Southey (see entry) compiled The Remains of Henry Kirke White-With an Account of His Life into two volumes in 1807. Some of his poems: "A Hymn for Family Worship," "Addressed to H. Fuseli," "Christmas Day," "Solitude," "The Christiad: A Divine Poem," "The Wandering Boy," "To Contemplation," "To the Harvest Moon."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Five Sonnets of Henry Kirke White: Sonnet Central (http://www.sonnets.org/white.htm). 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 National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White and James Grahame. Nichol, 1856.