Henry Kirke White
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Henry Kirke White (March 21, 1785 - October 19, 1806) was an English poet, who died at a young age.
White was born in Nottingham,[1] the son of a butcher, a trade for which he was himself intended. However, he was greatly attracted to book-learning. By age seven, he was giving reading lessons (unbeknownst to the rest of the family, being offered after the household were abed) to a family servant.[2] After being briefly apprenticed to a stocking-weaver, he was articled to a lawyer. While in this position, he excelled in studying Latin and Greek.[3] Seeing the results of White's diligent studies, his master offered to release him from his contract if he had sufficient means to go to college. He received encouragement from Capel Lofft, the friend of Robert Bloomfield, and published in 1803 Clifton Grove, a Sketch in Verse, with other Poems, dedicated to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. The book was violently attacked in the Monthly Review (February 1804), but White was rewarded with a kind letter from Robert Southey.
Through the efforts of his friends, he was able to enter St John's College, Cambridge,[4][5] having spent a year beforehand with a private tutor, the Rev Lorenzo Grainger at Winteringham, Lincolnshire. Close application to study induced a serious illness, and fears were entertained for his sanity, but he went into residence at Cambridge, with a view to taking holy orders, in the autumn of 1805. The strain of continuous study proved fatal.[6] He was buried in the church of All Saints, Cambridge. The genuine piety of his religious verses secured a place in popular hymnology for some of his hymns. Much of his fame was due to sympathy inspired by his early death; but Lord Byron agreed with Southey about the young man's promise.
His Remains, with his letters and an account of his life, were edited (5 vols., 1807–1822) by Robert Southey. See prefatory notices by Sir Harris Nicolas to his Poetical Works (new ed., 1866) in the Aldine Press British poets; by Harry Kirke Swann in the volume of selections (1897) in the Canterbury Poets; and by John Drinkwater to the edition in the "Muses' Library." See also John Thomas Godfrey and J. Ward, The Homes and Haunts of Henry Kirke White (1908).
References
- ^ http://www.proweb.co.uk/~roymat/hkw/hkw.html
- ^ Kacirk, Jeffrey (1997). Forgotten English. New York: William Morrow & Co. ISBN 0-688-15018-7.
- ^ Kacirk, op. cit.
- ^ "White, Henry Kirke (WHT804HK)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ His fondest hopes were realized. In October 1805, he went to Cambridge where, by unexampled industry, he speedily attained distinction . . (Robert Chambers, Book of Days [1864])
- ^ But he had long overtaxed his strength. At the end of one short year . . exhausted nature sank beneath incessant toil and anxiety. (Chambers, op. cit.)
External links
- Papers of Henry Kirke White are held at Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham
- Works by Henry Kirke White at Project Gutenberg
