Mario Benedetti Farrugia (Paso de los Toros, Tacuarembó, 14 de septiembre de 1920 - Montevideo, 17 de mayo de 2009) fue un escritor, poeta, dramaturgo y periodista uruguayo, integrante de la Generación del 45, a la que pertenecieron, entre otros, los también escritores Idea Vilariño y Juan Carlos Onetti. Su prolífica producción literaria incluyó más de ochenta libros, algunos de los cuales fueron traducidos a más de veinte idiomas. En su testamento dejó creada la Fundación Mario Benedetti, para preservar su obra y apoyar la literatura y la lucha por los derechos humanos en Uruguay (en especial el esclarecimiento del paradero de los detenidos desaparecidos de ese país).

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence.

Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958) was a poet and writer who has often been called "the Bard of the Yukon". He was born in Preston, Lancashire, England and he is best known for his poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee", from his first book, Songs of a Sourdough (1907; also published as The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses).

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850 – October 30, 1919) was an American author and poet. Her best-known work was Poems of Passion. Her most enduring work was “Solitude”, which contains the lines, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone”. Her autobiography, The Worlds and I, was published in 1918, a year before her death. Ella was born on a farm in Johnstown, Wisconsin, east of Janesville, the youngest of four children. The family soon moved north of Madison. She started writing poetry at a very early age, and was well known as a poet in her own state by the time she graduated from high school. Her most famous poem, “Solitude”, was first published in the February 25, 1883 issue of The New York Sun. The inspiration for the poem came as she was travelling to attend the Governor’s inaugural ball in Madison, Wisconsin. On her way to the celebration, there was a young woman dressed in black sitting across the aisle from her. The woman was crying. Miss Wheeler sat next to her and sought to comfort her for the rest of the journey. When they arrived, the poet was so depressed that she could barely attend the scheduled festivities. As she looked at her own radiant face in the mirror, she suddenly recalled the sorrowful widow. It was at that moment that she wrote the opening lines of “Solitude”: Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth But has trouble enough of its own

William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others. Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland and educated there and in London. He spent childhood holidays in County Sligo and studied poetry from an early age when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900, his poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Félix Rubén García Sarmiento, conocido como Rubén Darío (Metapa, 18 de enero de 1867 – León, 6 de febrero de 1916), fue un poeta, periodista y diplomático nicaragüense, máximo representante del modernismo literario en lengua española.

Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sensuality.

Madison Julius Cawein (March 23, 1865 – December 8, 1914) was a poet from Louisville, Kentucky. He was the fifth child of William and Christiana (Stelsly) Cawein. His father made patent medicines from herbs thus, as a child, Cawein became acquainted with and developed a love for local nature.

Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early 20th century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. Frequently honored during his lifetime, Frost is the only poet to receive four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He became one of America’s rare “public literary figures, almost an artistic institution”. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetic works. On July 22, 1961, Frost was named poet laureate of Vermont.

José Julián Martí Pérez (La Habana, Cuba, 28 de enero de 1853 – Dos Ríos, Cuba, 19 de mayo de 1895) fue un político liberal, pensador, periodista, filósofo y poeta cubano, creador del Partido Revolucionario Cubano y organizador de la Guerra del 95 o Guerra Necesaria. Perteneció al movimiento literario del modernismo.

Joaquín Ramón Martínez Sabina (Úbeda, Jaén, 12 de febrero de 1949), conocido artísticamente como Joaquín Sabina, es un cantautor y poeta español de éxito en países de habla hispana. Ha publicado catorce discos de estudio, cuatro en directo y tres recopilatorios y colaborado con distintos artistas cantando dúos y realizando otras colaboraciones. También compone para otros artistas como Ana Belén o Miguel Ríos entre otros.

Antonio Machado Ruiz (Sevilla, 26 de julio de 1875 – Colliure, Francia, 22 de febrero de 1939) fue un poeta español, miembro tardío de la Generación del 98 y uno de sus miembros más representativos. Su obra inicial suele inscribirse en el movimiento literario denominado Modernismo. Fue el segundo de cinco hermanos de una familia liberal; el mayor de ellos, Manuel, trabajó junto a Antonio en varias obras.

Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) (also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as simply The Bard) was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a “light” Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt.

Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on January 6, 1878. His parents, August and Clara Johnson, had emigrated to America from the north of Sweden. After encountering several August Johnsons in his job for the railroad, the Sandburg's father renamed the family. The Sandburgs were very poor; Carl left school at the age of thirteen to work odd jobs, from laying bricks to dishwashing, to help support his family. At seventeen, he traveled west to Kansas as a hobo. He then served eight months in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American war. While serving, Sandburg met a student at Lombard College, the small school located in Sandburg's hometown. The young man convinced Sandburg to enroll in Lombard after his return from the war.

Rabindranath Tagoreα (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was an Indian Bengali polymath who reshaped his region’s literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its “profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse”, he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; his seemingly mesmeric personality, flowing hair, and other-worldly dress earned him a prophet-like reputation in the West. His “elegant prose and magical poetry” remain largely unknown outside Bengal.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy and was one of the five Fireside Poets. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, then part of Massachusetts, and studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former headquarters of George Washington. His first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns from her dress catching fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on his translation. He died in 1882.

Isaac Watts (17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748) was an English Christian minister, hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymn writer, his work was part of evangelization. He was recognized as the “Father of English Hymnody”, credited with some 750 hymns. Many of his hymns remain in use today and have been translated into numerous languages.

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Authorship Around 230 years after Shakespeare’s death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him. Proposed alternative candidates include Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Several “group theories” have also been proposed. All but a few Shakespeare scholars and literary historians consider it a fringe theory, with only a small minority of academics who believe that there is reason to question the traditional attribution, but interest in the subject, particularly the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, continues into the 21st century.

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron FRS; 22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), simply known as Lord Byron, was an English poet and peer. One of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, Byron is regarded as one of the greatest English poets. He remains widely read and influential. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage; many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later travelled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years in Venice, Ravenna, and Pisa after he was forced to flee England due to lynching threats. During his stay in Italy, he frequently visited his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in life Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire and died leading a campaign during that war, for which Greeks revere him as a folk hero. He died in 1824 at the age of 36 from a fever contracted after the First and Second Sieges of Missolonghi.

William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semiautobiographical poem of his early years which he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and published, prior to which it was generally known as the poem "To Coleridge". Wordsworth was Britain's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis, better (known as C. J. Dennis, 7 September 1876– 22 June 1938) was an Australian poet known for his humorous poems, especially “The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke”, published in the early 20th century. Though Dennis’s work is less well known today, his 1916 publication of The Sentimental Bloke sold 65,000 copies in its first year, and by 1917 he was the most prosperous poet in Australian history. Together with Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, both of whom he collaborated with, he is often considered among Australia’s three most famous poets.

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – circa 1914) was an American Civil War soldier, wit, and writer. Bierce’s book The Devil’s Dictionary was named as one of “The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature” by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. His story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge has been described as “one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature”; and his book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (also published as In the Midst of Life) was named by the Grolier Club as one of the 100 most influential American books printed before 1900.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling was one of the most popular writers in England, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: “Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known.”

Luis de Góngora y Argote (Córdoba, 11 de julio de 1561 – ibídem, 23 de mayo de 1627) Poeta español. Nacido en el seno de una familia acomodada, estudió en la Universidad de Salamanca. Nombrado racionero en la catedral de Córdoba, desempeñó varias funciones que le brindaron la posibilidad de viajar por España. Su vida disipada y sus composiciones profanas le valieron pronto una amonestación del obispo (1588). Su fama fue enorme durante el Barroco, aunque su prestigio y el conocimiento de su obra decayeron luego hasta bien entrado el siglo XX, cuando la celebración del tercer centenario de su muerte (en 1927) congregó a los mejores poetas y literatos españoles de la época (conocidos desde entonces como la Generación del 27) y supuso su definitiva revalorización crítica.

George MacDonald (10 December 1824– 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors including W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L’Engle. C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his “master”: “Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later,” said Lewis, “I knew that I had crossed a great frontier.” G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had “made a difference to my whole existence”.

Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's “greatest short story writer”. He was the son of the poet, publisher and feminist Louisa Lawson.

Francisco Gómez de Quevedo Villegas y Santibáñez Cevallos (Madrid, 14 de septiembre de 1580 – Villanueva de los Infantes, Ciudad Real, 8 de septiembre de 1645) fue un noble, político y escritor español del Siglo de Oro. Fue caballero de la Orden de Santiago a partir de 16182​ y señor de Torre de Juan Abad a partir de 1620.3​ Junto con Luis de Góngora, con quien mantuvo una enemistad durante toda su vida, es reconocido como uno de los más notables poetas de la literatura española. Además de su poesía, fue un prolífico escritor de narrativa y teatro, así como de textos filosóficos y humanísticos. Salutación Mi señor don Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas, que con el verso esgrimes y con la esgrima juegas, haciendo –para orgullo del verso y de la esgrima– donaire del acero y acero de la rima: caballero bizarro de las nocturnas bregas, sabias prosas y empresas galantes y andariegas; cuya torcida planta huella la noble cima cortesana y el fondo canalla de la sima plebeya, con la misma genial desenvoltura: hidalgo aventurero de múltiple aventura (amor, poder, intriga, presión, peligro), terso, leal, como tu espada de amigo y de enemigo: en mi siniestra Torre de Juan Abad bendigo tu nombre, Caballero se Santiago y del Verso. —Alfredo Arvelo Larriva

Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first African-American poet to garner national critical acclaim. Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1872, Dunbar penned a large body of dialect poems, standard English poems, essays, novels and short stories before he died at the age of 33. His work often addressed the difficulties encountered by members of his race and the efforts of African-Americans to achieve equality in America. He was praised both by the prominent literary critics of his time and his literary contemporaries. Dunbar was born on June 27, 1872, to Matilda and Joshua Dunbar, both natives of Kentucky. His mother was a former slave and his father had escaped from slavery and served in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and the 5th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regiment during the Civil War. Matilda and Joshua had two children before separating in 1874. Matilda also had two children from a previous marriage.

William Cowper (26 November 1731 – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him “the best modern poet”, whilst William Wordsworth particularly admired his poem Yardley-Oak. He was a nephew of the poet Judith Madan.

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (17 August 1840 – 10 September 1922, sometimes spelled “Wilfred”) was an English poet and writer. He and his wife, Lady Anne Blunt, travelled in the Middle East and were instrumental in preserving the Arabian horse bloodlines through their farm, the Crabbet Arabian Stud. He was best known for his poetry, which was published in a collected edition in 1914, but also wrote a number of political essays and polemics. Blunt is also known for his views against imperialism, viewed as relatively enlightened for his time.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Caprese, 6 marzo 1475 – Roma, 18 febbraio 1564) è stato uno scultore, pittore, architetto e poeta italiano. Protagonista del Rinascimento italiano, già in vita fu riconosciuto come uno dei maggiori artisti di tutti i tempi.

In 1830, Christina Rossetti was born in London, one of four children of Italian parents. Her father was the poet Gabriele Rossetti; her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti also became a poet and a painter. Rossetti’s first poems were written in 1842 and printed in the private press of her grandfather. In 1850, under the pseudonym Ellen Alleyne, she contributed seven poems to the Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ, which had been founded by her brother William Michael and his friends.

James Whitcomb Riley (October 7, 1849 – July 22, 1916) was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively. His poems tended to be humorous or sentimental, and of the approximately one thousand poems that Riley authored, the majority are in dialect. His famous works include "Little Orphant Annie" and "The Raggedy Man". Riley began his career writing verses as a sign maker and submitting poetry to newspapers. Thanks in part to an endorsement from poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, he eventually earned successive jobs at Indiana newspaper publishers during the latter 1870s. Riley gradually rose in prominence during the 1880s through his poetry reading tours. He traveled a touring circuit first in the Midwest, and then nationally, holding shows and making joint appearances on stage with other famous talents. Regularly struggling with his alcohol addiction, Riley never married or had children, and created a scandal in 1888 when he became too drunk to perform.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron. The novelist Mary Shelley (née Godwin) was his second wife. Shelley's unconventional life and uncompromising idealism, combined with his strong disapproving voice, made him a marginalized figure during his life, important in a fairly small circle of admirers, and opened him to criticism as well as praise afterward.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882) was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.

Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. While he regarded himself primarily as a poet who composed novels mainly for financial gain, he became and continues to be widely regarded for his novels, such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far from the Madding Crowd. Hardy's poetry, first published in his fifties, has come to be as well regarded as his novels and has had a significant influence over modern English poetry, especially after The Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s cited Hardy as a major figure.

John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the Fireside Poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Whittier is remembered particularly for his anti-slavery writings as well as his book Snow-Bound.

Amado Ruiz de Nervo y Ordaz​ (Tepic, Distrito Militar de Tepic, Jalisco, República Restaurada, 27 de agosto de 1870 – Montevideo, Uruguay, 24 de mayo de 1919),​ más conocido como Amado Nervo, fue un poeta y escritor mexicano, perteneciente al movimiento modernista. Fue miembro correspondiente de la Academia Mexicana de la Lengua, pero no pudo serlo de número por residir en el extranjero.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Alcalá de Henares, 29 de septiembre de 1547 – Madrid, 22 de abril de 1616) fue un soldado, novelista, poeta y dramaturgo español. Es considerado una de las máximas figuras de la literatura española y universalmente conocido por haber escrito Don Quijote de la Mancha, que muchos críticos han descrito como la primera novela moderna y una de las mejores obras de la literatura universal. Se le ha dado el sobrenombre de «Príncipe de los Ingenios». ...“Yo, que siempre trabajo y me desvelo por parecer que tengo de poeta la gracia que no quiso darme el cielo”...

English Romantic poet John Keats was born on October 31, 1795, in London. The oldest of four children, he lost both his parents at a young age. His father, a livery-stable keeper, died when Keats was eight; his mother died of tuberculosis six years later. After his mother's death, Keats's maternal grandmother appointed two London merchants, Richard Abbey and John Rowland Sandell, as guardians. Abbey, a prosperous tea broker, assumed the bulk of this responsibility, while Sandell played only a minor role. When Keats was fifteen, Abbey withdrew him from the Clarke School, Enfield, to apprentice with an apothecary-surgeon and study medicine in a London hospital. In 1816 Keats became a licensed apothecary, but he never practiced his profession, deciding instead to write poetry.

Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson, CBE (17 February 1864 – 5 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson’s more notable poems include “Waltzing Matilda”, “The Man from Snowy River” and “Clancy of the Overflow”.

George Meredith, OM (12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. Meredith was born in Portsmouth, England, a son and grandson of naval outfitters. His mother died when he was five. At the age of 14 he was sent to a Moravian School in Neuwied, Germany, where he remained for two years. He read law and was articled as a solicitor, but abandoned that profession for journalism and poetry. He collaborated with Edward Gryffydh Peacock, son of Thomas Love Peacock in publishing a privately circulated literary magazine, the Monthly Observer. He married Edward Peacock’s widowed sister Mary Ellen Nicolls in 1849 when he was twenty-one years old and she was twenty-eight.

Charles Baudelaire est un poète français. Né à Paris le 9 avril 1821, il meurt dans la même ville le 31 août 1867. Baudelaire naît le 9 avril 1821 au 13 rue Hautefeuille à Paris. Sa mère, Caroline Dufaÿs, a vingt-sept ans. Son père, Joseph-François Baudelaire, né en 1759 à La Neuville-au-Pont, en Champagne, est alors sexagénaire. Quand il meurt en 1827, Charles n’a que six ans. Cet homme lettré, épris des idéaux des Lumières et amateur de peinture, peintre lui-même, laisse à Charles un héritage dont il n’aura jamais le total usufruit. Il avait épousé en premières noces, le 7 mai 1797, Jeanne Justine Rosalie Janin, avec laquelle il avait eu un fils, Claude Alphonse Baudelaire, demi-frère de Charles. « Dante d’une époque déchue » selon le mot de Barbey d’Aurevilly, « tourné vers le classicisme, nourri de romantisme », à la croisée entre le Parnasse et le symbolisme, chantre de la « modernité », il occupe une place considérable parmi les poètes français pour un recueil certes bref au regard de l’œuvre de son contemporain Victor Hugo (Baudelaire s’ouvrit à son éditeur de sa crainte que son volume ne ressemblât trop à une plaquette…), mais qu’il aura façonné sa vie durant : Les Fleurs du mal.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He was also an important medical reformer. In addition to his work as an author and poet, Holmes also served as a physician, professor, lecturer, inventor, and, although he never practiced it, he received formal training in law.

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 26 most translated authors in the world. He has been greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Marcel Schwob, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he “seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins”.

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language. A number of phrases from Tennyson’s work have become commonplaces of the English language, including “Nature, red in tooth and claw”, “'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all”, “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die”, “My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure”, “Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers”, and “The old order changeth, yielding place to new”. He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

Lope de Vega Carpio​ (Madrid, 25 de noviembre de 1562 – Madrid, 27 de agosto de 1635)​ fue uno de los poetas y dramaturgos más importantes del Siglo de Oro español y, por la extensión de su obra, uno de los autores más prolíficos de la literatura universal. El llamado Fénix de los ingenios​ y Monstruo de la Naturaleza (por Miguel de Cervantes) renovó las fórmulas del teatro español en un momento en el que el teatro comenzaba a ser un fenómeno cultural de masas. Máximo exponente, junto a Tirso de Molina y Calderón de la Barca, del teatro barroco español, sus obras siguen representándose en la actualidad y constituyen una de las cotas más altas alcanzadas en la literatura y las artes españolas. Fue también uno de los grandes líricos de la lengua castellana y autor de varias novelas y obras narrativas largas en prosa y en verso.

Dora Maria Sigerson Shorter (16 August 1866 – 6 January 1918) was an Irish poet and sculptor, who after her marriage in 1895 wrote under the name Dora Sigerson Shorter. She was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of George Sigerson, a surgeon and writer, and Hester (née Varian), also a writer. She was a major figure of the Irish Literary Revival, publishing many collections of poetry from 1893. Her friends included Katharine Tynan, Rose Kavanagh and Alice Furlong, writers and poets. In 1895 she married Clement King Shorter, an English journalist and literary critic. They lived together in London, until her death at age 51 from undisclosed causes.

Robert Laurence Binyon (10 August 1869– 10 March 1943) was an English poet, dramatist and art scholar. His most famous work, For the Fallen, is well known for being used in Remembrance Sunday services. Laurence Binyon was born in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. His parents were Frederick Binyon, and Mary Dockray. Mary’s father, Robert Benson Dockray, was the main engineer of the London and Birmingham Railway. The family were Quakers. Binyon studied at St Paul’s School, London. Then he read Classics (Honour Moderations) at Trinity College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1891.

Robert Browning was born on May 7, 1812, in Camberwell, England. His mother was an accomplished pianist and a devout evangelical Christian. His father, who worked as a bank clerk, was also an artist, scholar, antiquarian, and collector of books and pictures. His rare book collection of more than 6,000 volumes included works in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish. Much of Browning's education came from his well-read father. It is believed that he was already proficient at reading and writing by the age of five. A bright and anxious student, Browning learned Latin, Greek, and French by the time he was fourteen. From fourteen to sixteen he was educated at home, attended to by various tutors in music, drawing, dancing, and horsemanship.

Carolina Coronado Romero de Tejada (Almendralejo, Badajoz, 12 de diciembre de 1820 - Lisboa, 15 de enero de 1911, enterrada en el Cementerio de Badajoz), escritora española, considerada como la equivalente extremeña de otras autoras románticas coetáneas como Rosalía de Castro, y autora de tal notoriedad que llegaría a ser calificada con el título de "El Bécquer femenino". Fue tía de Ramón Gómez de la Serna. Nació en el seno de una familia acomodada de Almendralejo (Badajoz), pero de ideología progresista, lo que provocó que su padre y su abuelo fueran perseguidos. Tras mudarse a la capital de provincia, Badajoz, Carolina sería educada de la forma tradicional para las niñas de la época: costura, labores del hogar... pese a lo cual, ya desde pequeña mostró su interés por la literatura, y comienza a leer, robando horas al sueño, cualquier género u obra que puede conseguir.

Gustavo Adolfo Domínguez Bastida (Sevilla, 17 de febrero de 1836 – Madrid, 22 de diciembre de 1870), más conocido como Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, fue un poeta y narrador español, perteneciente al movimiento del Romanticismo, aunque escribió en una etapa literaria perteneciente al Realismo. Por ser un romántico tardío, ha sido asociado igualmente con el movimiento posromántico. Aunque, mientras vivió, fue moderadamente conocido, sólo comenzó a ganar verdadero prestigio cuando, tras su muerte, fueron publicadas muchas de sus obras. Nació en Sevilla el 17 de febrero de 1836, hijo del pintor José Domínguez Insausti, que firmaba sus cuadros con el apellido de sus antepasados como José Domínguez Bécquer. Sus más conocidos trabajos son sus Rimas y Leyendas. Los poemas e historias incluidos en esta colección son esenciales para el estudio de la Literatura hispana, siendo ampliamente reconocidos por su influencia posterior. Gustavo Adolfo por Mercedes de Velilla En la margen del Betis murmurante, donde expira, entre flores, la onda inquieta, en monumento digno del poeta, su hermosa estatua se alzará triunfante. El sol le ofrecerá nimbo radiante; sus perfumes, la rosa y la violeta; la aurora, el beso de su luz discreta; el crepúsculo, brisa refrescante. Traerá la noche espíritus y hadas, visiones de Leyendas peregrinas que poblarán las verdes enramadas. La alondra y las obscuras golondrinas cantarán, al lucir las alboradas, las Rimas inmortales y divinas.

Carilda Oliver Labra (Matanzas, Cuba, el 6 de julio de 1924 – Ibidem, 29 de agosto de 2018) fue una poeta cubana. A lo largo de su vida, Carilda se convirtió en una figura icónica en la literatura cubana y una de las voces más influyentes en la poesía lírica contemporánea. Miguel Barnet, amigo e investigador de la obra de Carilda Oliver, señala que ella "ha experimentado todos los registros y formas, es una de las pocas que todavía hace sonetos, silvas, redondillas, cuartetas, décimas y además un verso libre extraordinario". Afirma el escritor, además, que "es una transgresora, una mujer que hizo de su vida lo que le dio la gana. Le dio una patada a la clase media-alta a la que pertenecía, se casó con quien quiso, tuvo los amores que quiso y escribió los poemas eróticos más osados". La misma Carilda dijo en una de sus entrevistas en los años noventa que ella llevó su vida con franqueza y espontaneidad; que, aunque intentó ser autocrítica, nunca intentó ser otra mujer. Carilda se mostró fiel a sus ideales, a su identidad y a su poesía, sin importarle que la conservadora sociedad cubana de la época se escandalizase. Cuando ganó el Premio Nacional de Poesía en 1950, por su poemario Al sur de mi garganta, la poetisa se defendió contra quienes trataban de criticarla y encasillar poesía, afirmando ella que “no es puramente erótica”, y reconociendo que sí presenta “cierto desenfado formal”.

Alfred Austin DL (30 May 1835 – 2 June 1913) was an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, after an interval following the death of Tennyson, when the other candidates had either caused controversy or refused the honour. It was claimed that he was being rewarded for his support for the Conservative leader Lord Salisbury in the General Election of 1895. Austin’s poems are little-remembered today, his most popular work being prose idylls celebrating nature.

Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television.

Andrew Lang (31 March 1844– 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him. Lang was born in Selkirk. He was the eldest of the eight children born to John Lang, the town clerk of Selkirk, and his wife Jane Plenderleath Sellar, who was the daughter of Patrick Sellar, factor to the first duke of Sutherland. On 17 April 1875, he married Leonora Blanche Alleyne, youngest daughter of C. T. Alleyne of Clifton and Barbados.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as for his major prose work Biographia Literaria. His critical work, especially on Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture. He coined many familiar words and phrases, including the celebrated suspension of disbelief. He was a major influence, via Emerson, on American transcendentalism. Throughout his adult life, Coleridge suffered from crippling bouts of anxiety and depression; it has been speculated by some that he suffered from bipolar disorder, a condition as yet unidentified during his lifetime. Coleridge suffered from poor health that may have stemmed from a bout of rheumatic fever and other childhood illnesses. He was treated for these concerns with laudanum, which fostered a lifelong opium addiction.

Edmund Spenser (c. 1552 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and is considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.

Robert Herrick (baptized 24 August 1591 – buried 15 October 1674) was a 17th-century English poet. The Victorian poet Swinburne described Herrick as the greatest song writer ever born of English race. It is certainly true that despite his use of classical allusions and names, his poems are easier for modern readers to understand than those of many of his contemporaries. The over-riding message of Herrick’s work is that life is short, the world is beautiful, love is splendid, and we must use the short time we have to make the most of it. This message can be seen clearly in To the Virgins, to make much of Time, To Daffodils, To Blossoms and Corinna going a-Maying, where the warmth and exuberance of what seems to have been a kindly and jovial personality comes over strongly. The opening stanza in one of his more famous poems, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time", is as follows: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower that smiles today, Tomorrow will be dying.

Gutierre de Cetina (Sevilla, 1520 - México, ¿1557?) Poeta español que fue una de las figuras más significativas del Renacimiento. Su lírica, inspirada esencialmente en Petrarca, se desarrolla en torno al refinado artificio del amor visto en su más típica abstracción. Entre los poetas españoles italianizantes, Cetina es, después de Garcilaso de la Vega, el más notable y el más perfecto, y no se le puede negar el derecho de ocupar el lugar más destacado del parnaso español después de la media docena de celebridades de su época. Descendiente de una ilustre familia de la nobleza, Gutierre de Cetina vivió mucho tiempo en Italia, donde sirvió en las tropas de Carlos V y entabló amistad con los ingenios más insignes de la época, por los cuales estuvo evidentemente influida su orientación poética. Además de Petrarca, le inspiraron Tansillo, Ariosto y Bembo, y entre los españoles, Garcilaso de la Vega en particular. Pasó la mejor parte de su existencia en el refinado ambiente que rodeaba al príncipe de Ascoli, a don Luis de Leyva y al insigne humanista Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, todos ellos amigos íntimos de Cetina. Gutierre de Cetina volvió a España en 1554 y hasta algún tiempo después no encontró nuevas aventuras en las que desahogar su espíritu inquieto. Atraído por la fascinación de la empresa americana, marchó en 1556 a México (donde había estado ya entre 1546 y 1548, aproximadamente) con su tío Gonzalo López, quien se dirigía allí como procurador general. En aquella región de América se pierden las huellas de su vida, y a partir de entonces sólo perdura en el tiempo la leyenda forjada en torno al poeta. La naturaleza americana debió de imprimirse profundamente en la sensibilidad de Gutierre de Cetina, al propio tiempo que la seducción bárbara de aquella civilización. También en México halló el poeta otra inspiradora amorosa: doña Leonor de Osma, de la cual parece haberse enamorado locamente y bajo cuyo balcón, en Puebla de los Ángeles, fue herido por Hernando de Nava, un rival celoso. A partir de 1557 nada se sabe ya acerca de él, por lo que se le cree muerto en tal fecha. La obra poética de Gutierre de Cetina es conocida o a través de fragmentos sacados de manuscritos, o por ejemplos y testimonios, o, finalmente, formando parte de antologías. Bartolomé J. Gallardo, en su conocido Ensayo de una biblioteca de libros raros y curiosos, presentó abundantes muestras de la obra poética de Cetina; pero hasta que el erudito sevillano Hazañas y La Rúa no publicó sus poesías en 1895, puede decirse que faltó la verdadera base para estudiarlas, al igual que ocurrió con su biografía, acerca de la cual carecemos de datos seguros, a pesar de que muchos investigadores han dedicado a ello sus esfuerzos. Sus obras poéticas están constituidas por madrigales (cinco en total, entre ellos el conocidísimo "A unos ojos", al que debe buena parte de su popularidad), sonetos, canciones, diecisiete epístolas y quince composiciones varias, todas ellas en la línea de la manera italianizante inaugurada por Juan Boscán y Garcilaso de la Vega. Es quizás el único poeta español de su época del que no se conoce ninguna composición de carácter castellano en versos cortos, excepto una anacreóntica de cuya paternidad se duda; es preciso subrayar que no todas las poesías publicadas por Hazañas son de atribución segura. Teniendo en cuenta que debió escribir tales composiciones entre los veinte y los veintiséis años, podemos considerar que se trata de una producción abundante; parece seguro que Cetina partió a los veintiséis años para México y que allí ya no escribió nada más. Pero, a pesar de que esa producción sea esencialmente de juventud, raras veces ocurre que produzca tal impresión, y esto, indudablemente, se debe a la preocupación constante de Cetina por seguir los grandes modelos clásicos e italianos. Entre los primeros figuran Marcial, Juvenal y Ovidio; de éste es probable que Cetina tradujera algún fragmento de las Heroídas, si las traducciones que se le atribuyen son en verdad de Cetina. Entre los autores italianos, en primer lugar se halla Petrarca y luego, en orden decreciente de importancia, Tansillo, Bembo y Ariosto. Entre otras influencias importantes se aprecia en Cetina, como en muchos contemporáneos suyos, la de Ausiàs March, que quizás sea la más importante si prescindimos de Petrarca. Todo ello contribuyó a formar la personalidad de Cetina, y justifica un juicio muy acertado del gran poeta sevillano del siglo XVI Fernando de Herrera: "si se hubiese preocupado de la fuerza como lo hizo por la dulzura y la pureza, nadie le habría superado; en cuanto a número, lengua, dulzura y sentimiento, nadie podría negarle un lugar entre los primeros". Ciertamente la admiración y emulación de sus modelos restó a Cetina la espontaneidad que debiera ser natural por su juventud, y acaso también la energía a que se refiere Herrera. Sus epístolas a don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza tienen el contenido moral que se espera del género. Escribió además unos pocos, pero selectos, versos dictados por una inspiración heroica, como el soneto a Cartago o el dedicado a los soldados caídos en Castelnovo. Pero su poesía es casi exclusivamente amorosa, y precisamente en este tema han de buscarse sus más logrados éxitos, sobre todo en sus sonetos, llenos de sorpresas que saltan por doquier a los ojos del lector, y en sus madrigales. En sus composiciones de mayor empeño, las bellezas no son menores que en las breves, pero con notables diferencias a pesar de que en cada caso posean auténticos valores poéticos. Las amadas a las que el poeta alude en sus obras amorosas son principalmente tres. Una va designada con el nombre de Amarilis; por ciertas alusiones geográficas que figuran en los pasajes en que habla de ella, se puede colegir que el poeta la conoció en España. Otra dama, que también debió conocer en España y a la que cortejó unos diez años, si hemos de creer sus palabras, aparece con el nombre de Dórida. Pero el enigma más interesante es el de la tercera dama, que algunos estudiosos han creído identificar con la ilustre Laura Gonzaga. El uso constante de la palabra "lauro", que aparece a menudo y con diversos sentidos, y la certidumbre de que el poeta tuvo familiaridad con la bellísima mujer, ha inducido a algunos eruditos a formular esta hipótesis. A la tal dama estaría dedicado el celebérrimo madrigal que empieza con los versos "Ojos claros, serenos...", composición sobre la que se halla cimentada la popularidad del autor. Referencias Biografías y Vidas - www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/c/cetina.htm