Robert Southey (1774 – 1843) was one of the three renowned ‘Lake Poets’ associated with the Romantic school (the other two being William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge). He was ‘Poet Laureate’ of England for around three decades, starting from 1813 until his death in 1843. Joan of Arc, My days among the Dead are past, After Blenheim, English Eclogues and The Inchcape Rock are some of his best-known poems.
Besides being a poet, Southey was also a prolific letter writer, literary scholar, essay writer, historian, a polyglot-translator and biographer. His biographies include the life and works of John Bunyan, John Wesley, William Cowper, Oliver Cromwell and Horatio Nelson.