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poet laureate

(Encyclopedia)poet laureate lôˈrēĭt [key], title conferred in Britain by the monarch on a poet whose duty it is to write commemorative odes and verse. It is an outgrowth of the medieval English custom of having...

Akhmadulina, Bella

(Encyclopedia)Akhmadulina, Bella (Izabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina), 1937–2010, Russian poet, b. Moscow, grad. (1960) Gorky Literary Institute, Moscow. Her first poem was published in 1955 and her earliest collecti...

imagists

(Encyclopedia)imagists, group of English and American poets writing from 1909 to about 1917, who were united by their revolt against the exuberant imagery and diffuse sentimentality of 19th-century poetry. Influenc...

Herbert, Zbigniew

(Encyclopedia)Herbert, Zbigniew zbēgˈnyĕf khĕrˈbĕrt [key] 1924–98, Polish poet, essayist, and playwright, b. Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine). Herbert, who had degrees in economics, philosophy, and law, wa...

Hesiod

(Encyclopedia)Hesiod hēˈsēəd, hĕsˈ– [key], fl. 8th cent.? b.c., Greek poet. He is thought to have lived later than Homer, but there is no absolute certainty about the dates of his life. Hesiod portrays hims...

Grieg, Edvard Hagerup

(Encyclopedia)Grieg, Edvard Hagerup ĕdˈvär häˈgəro͞op grēg [key], 1843–1907, Norwegian composer. Grieg developed a strongly nationalistic style which made him known as “the Voice of Norway.” He receiv...

Larkin, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Larkin, Philip, 1922–85, English poet. He graduated from St. John's College, Oxford (B.A., 1943; M.A., 1947) and was for many years librarian at the Univ. of Hull. With an eye for the ordinary and a...

Lasso, Orlando di

(Encyclopedia)Lasso, Orlando di ōrlänˈdō dē läsˈsō [key], 1532–94, Franco-Flemish composer, b. Mons, also known as Orlandus Lassus or Roland de Lassus. Lasso represents the culmination of Renaissance musi...

Bishop, Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Bishop, Elizabeth, 1911–79, American poet, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Vassar, 1934. During the 1950s and 60s she lived in Brazil, eventually returning to her native New England, where she taught at ...

Boeotia

(Encyclopedia)Boeotia bēōˈshə [key], region of ancient Greece. It lay N of Attica, Megaris, and the Gulf of Corinth. The early inhabitants were from Thessaly. A number of small cities scattered over the rough c...