Celebrating the Birthday of English Poet, Robert Southey

Image Credit: knarf.english.upenn.edu

Robert Southey (August 12 1774 – March 21, 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843. Although his fame has long been eclipsed by that of his contemporaries and friends William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey's verse still enjoys some popularity.

His most enduring contribution to literary history is the children's classic The Story of the Three Bears, the original Goldilocks story, first published in Southey's prose collection The Doctor. Many of his poems are still read by British schoolchildren, the best-known being The Inchcape Rock, God's Judgement on a Wicked Bishop, After Blenheim (possibly one of the earliest anti-war poems) and Cataract of Lodore.

In celebration of Robert Southey's birthday, we present his poem, Ariste for your enjoyment!

Ariste

By Robert Southey

Let ancient stories round the painter's art, 

Who stole from many a maid his Venus' charms, 

Till warm devotion fired each gazer's heart 

And every bosom bounded with alarms. 

He culled the beauties of his native isle, 

From some the blush of beauty's vermeil dyes, 

From some the lovely look, the winning smile, 

From some the languid lustre of the eyes. 

Low to the finished form the nations round 

In adoration bent the pious knee; 

With myrtle wreaths the artist's brow they crowned, 

Whose skill, Ariste, only imaged thee. 

Ill-fated artist, doomed so wide to seek 

The charms that blossom on Ariste's cheek!