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asphodel

(Encyclopedia)asphodel ăsˈfədĕlˌ [key], name for plants of several genera of the family Lilaceae (lily family). The true asphodels belong to two small and very similar genera (Asphodelus and Asphodeline) of th...

Yang Kuei-fei

(Encyclopedia)Yang Kuei-fei yäng gwā-fā [key], 719–56, concubine of the T'ang emperor Hsüan-tsung. The most famous beauty in Chinese history, in legend she is said to have captivated the emperor who then negl...

Southey, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Southey, Robert souˈᵺē, sŭᵺˈē [key], 1774–1843, English author. Primarily a poet, he was numbered among the so-called Lake poets. While at Oxford he formed (1794) a friendship with Coleridg...

Ryan, Kay

(Encyclopedia)Ryan, Kay, 1945–, American poet, b. San Jose, Calif., grad. Univ. of California at Los Angeles (B.A., 1967; M.A., 1968). She taught remedial English in a Marin co. community college for more than 30...

Carducci, Giosuè

(Encyclopedia)Carducci, Giosuè kärdo͞otˈchē [key], 1835–1907, Italian poet and teacher. He was professor of literature at the Univ. of Bologna from 1860 to 1904. He was a scholar, an editor, an orator, a cr...

Quasimodo, Salvatore

(Encyclopedia)Quasimodo, Salvatore sälvätôˈrā kwäzēˈmōdō [key], 1901–68, Italian poet and translator, b. Sicily. Quasimodo worked first as a technical designer and civil engineer. His five volumes of ve...

Peele, George

(Encyclopedia)Peele, George, 1558?–1597?, English playwright, educated at Oxford. He experimented in a variety of forms, including the pageant, history, pastoral, comedy, and melodrama, but his best-known work is...

Gupta

(Encyclopedia)Gupta go͝opˈtə [key], Indian dynasty, a.d. c.320–c.550, whose empire at its height encompassed much of N India. Ancient Indian culture reached a high point during this period. Gupta paintings ado...

Whitehead, Alfred North

(Encyclopedia)Whitehead, Alfred North, 1861–1947, English mathematician and philosopher, grad. Trinity College, Cambridge, 1884. There he was a lecturer in mathematics until 1911. At the Univ. of London he was a ...

Greek literature, modern

(Encyclopedia)Greek literature, modern, literature written in Greek in the modern era, primarily beginning during the period of rebellion against the rule of the Ottoman Empire. In general, 20th-century Greek lit...