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ROBERT SOUTHEY

Robert Southey was an English poet and writer. He was born in 1774 at Bristol and died in 1843. The son of a linen draper, he was educated at Westminster and Balliol College, Oxford, by the help of relatives. Influenced by the French Revolution, he developed and advanced ideas in politics and religion, and with Samuel Coleridge, whom he met at Oxford in 1794, cherished vain dreams of establishing what they described as a Pantisocracy or communal republic in the New World. Robert Southey's advanced ideas were reflected in his early literature which included the drama 'Wat Tyler' and 'Joan of Arc', an historical epic. A trip to Spain and Portugal from 1795 until 1796 gave him a lasting interest in those countries. By 1803 Robert Southey was earnestly involved in writing and moved to Keswick in the Lake District where he became friends with William Wordsworth. In 1813 he was appointed poet laureate.
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