Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Fenton, Elijah

(Encyclopedia)Fenton, Elijah, 1683–1730, English poet. A graduate of Cambridge, he was a schoolmaster for a time and later was a tutor in several noble families. He is chiefly remembered for his share in Pope's t...

Sittingbourne

(Encyclopedia)Sittingbourne sĭtˈĭngbôrn [key], town (1991 pop. 35,893), Kent, SE England, on the ancient Watling Street and on the old route of pilgrimage to Canterbury. It is an agricultural market with paper,...

lyric

(Encyclopedia)lyric, in ancient Greece, a poem accompanied by a musical instrument, usually a lyre. Although the word is still often used to refer to the songlike quality in poetry, it is more generally used to ref...

West, Paul Noden

(Encyclopedia)West, Paul Noden, 1930–2015, British-American writer, b. Eckington, Derbyshire, England, B.A. Univ. of Birmingham (1950), M.A. Columbia (1953). After serving in the Royal Air Force and teaching at M...

Uriel

(Encyclopedia)Uriel yo͞oˈrēəl [key]. 1, 2 Two descendants of Kohath. 3 Man whose daughter became mother of King Abijah of Judah. The name appears in the pseudepigrapha for an archangel. He is introduced in Milt...

Roscommon, Wentworth Dillon, 4th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Roscommon, Wentworth Dillon, 4th earl of rŏskŏmˈən [key], 1633?–1685, English poet and scholar, b. Ireland. He was one of the first to praise Milton's genius. Besides making a blank-verse transl...

crabgrass

(Encyclopedia)crabgrass, name for any of several grass species of the genera Digitaria, Eleusine, and Panicum, especially the species D. sanguinalis. Crabgrass is a common lawn weed, especially in the S and E Unite...

orchard grass

(Encyclopedia)orchard grass or cocksfoot, widely distributed perennial grass (Dactylis glomerata) native to Eurasia and N Africa and extensively naturalized in the United States. It is cultivated as a hay grass mor...

Arne, Thomas Augustine

(Encyclopedia)Arne, Thomas Augustine ärn [key], 1710–78, English composer. Arne composed the song Rule, Britannia, based on an ode by James Thomson. He composed new music for an adaptation of Milton's masque Com...

Knight, George Wilson

(Encyclopedia)Knight, George Wilson, 1897–1985, English writer and critic, grad. Oxford (B.A., 1923; M.A., 1925). He wrote numerous books and essays on English literature, including The Wheel of Fire (1930), The ...