Beddoes, Thomas Lovell

(1803-1849)

   Gifted poet of the late Romantic Elizabethan revival period, educated at Charterhouse School and Oxford University. He qualified as a doctor in Germany in 1832 and lived the rest of his life on the Continent. The death of his father when he was five years old may have contributed to his obsession with death in his life and work. His life ended with his committing suicide by poisoning. His major works are: Bride's Tragedy, 1822. Death's Jest-Book or Fool's Tragedy, 1850. Many of his other poems do not reflect his preoccupation with death, rather they are tender and poignant. One such is "Dream-Pedlary" (1835), in which he poses the question: If there were dreams to sell, what would you buy? Some of his other poems: "A Beautiful Night," "A Fantastic Simile," "A Lake," "Ballad of Human Life," "Death's Jest Book," "Doomsday," "Lines Written in Switzerland," "Lines, Written at Geneva, July, 1824," "Lord Alcohol," "Song of Thanatos," "Song of the Stygian Naiades," "Sonnet: To Tartar, a Terrier Beauty," "The Lily of the Valley," "The Tree of Life."

   Sources: Carcaent Books (www.carcanet.co.uk). Confucius to Cummings: An Anthology of Poetry. Ezra Pound and Marcella Spann, ed. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1964. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Oldpoetry (www.oldpoetry.com). Oxford Book of English Verse. Christopher Ricks, ed. Oxford University Press, 1999. 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 Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.