HENRY

See also:

• KIRKE, PERCY (c. 1646-1691)

KIRKE

See also:

• WHITE
• WHITE, ANDREW DICKSON (1832– )
• WHITE, GILBERT (1720–1793)
• HENRY KIRKE WHITE (1785-1806)
• WHITE, HUGH LAWSON (1773-1840)
• WHITE, JOSEPH BLANCO (1775-1841)
• WHITE, RICHARD GRANT (1822-1885)
• WHITE, ROBERT (1645-1704)
• WHITE, SIR GEORGE STUART (1835– )
• WHITE, SIR THOMAS (1492-1567)
• WHITE, SIR WILLIAM ARTHUR (1824--1891)
• WHITE, SIR WILLIAM HENRY (1845– )
• WHITE, THOMAS (1628-1698)
• WHITE, THOMAS (c. 1550-1624)

WHITE (1785-1806)  , English poet, was born at Nottingham, the son of a butcher, on the 21st of March 1785 . He was destined at first for his father's trade, but after a short apprenticeship to a stocking-weaver, was eventually articled to a lawyer . Meanwhile he studied hard, and 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 in some degree compensated by a kind letter from Robert Southey . Through the efforts of his friends, he was entered as a sizar at St John's College, Cambridge, spending a year beforehand with a private tutor . 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 18o5 . The strain of continuous study proved fatal, and he died on the 19th of October 18o6 . 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 it is noteworthy that Byron agreed with Southey in forming a high estimate of the young man's promise . His Remains, with his letters and an account of his life, were edited ( vols., 1807-1822) by Robert Southey .

See prefatory notices by

Sir Harris Nicolas to his Poetical Works (new ed., 1866) in the " Aldine Edition " of the British poets; by H . K . Swann in the volume of selections (1897) in the Canterbury Poets; and by John Drinkwater to the edition in the " Muses' Library." See also J . T . Godfrey and J . Ward, The Homes and Haunts of Henry Kirke White (1908) .