Celebrity Graveland

June 02, 1840 – January 11, 1928

You can take the boy out of Wessex, but you can’t take the Wessex out of the boy.

Victorian novelist, poet and lover of old buildings, Thomas Hardy, wrote often about the fantasized English county of Wessex in his works. Though the places he referenced were real (including his home county of Dorset,) he recalled the archaic name “Wessex” to incorporate it all into an idealized whole. The themes and arcs of his stories played heavily on the country life of his youth. When he relocated to London in his 20s, the stark difference between the metropolitan privilege of the capital and the struggles of his beloved rural stomping grounds became a central tenant in his writings.

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August 06, 1809 – October 06, 1892

‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In Memoriam A.H.H”

Drawing on his interests in medieval legend and mythology and the lush imagery championed by the Romantic poets of his youth, Alfred Tennyson became one of the most successful poets of the Victorian era. The musicality of his rhyming and his valiant and sometimes mournful subject matter made him popular in his native England. His celebrity and talent led to his appointment in 1850 as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom after the death of the previous appointee, William Wordsworth. He held the post for more than 4 decades. His most well-known poems like “Ulysses”, “Break Break Break”, “Crossing the Bar” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” have lent phrases and expressions to the English lexicon that are still used to this day. Continue reading →