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HENRY KIRKE WHITE (1785-1806)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 600 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HENRY KIRKE WHITE (1785-1806)  ,
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English poet, was born at Nottingham, the son of a
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butcher, on the 21st of March 1785 . He was destined at first for his
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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
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Clifton Grove, a Sketch in Verse, with other Poems, dedicated to Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire . The
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book was violently attacked in the Monthly Review (
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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
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sizar at St John's College, Cambridge, spending a
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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
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holy orders, in the autumn of 18o5 . The strain of continuous study proved fatal, and he died on the 19th of
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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
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hymns . Much of his fame was due to sympathy inspired by his early
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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
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life, were edited ( vols., 1807-1822) by Robert Southey .

See prefatory notices by

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Sir Harris Nicolas to his Poetical
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Works (new ed., 1866) in the " Aldine Edition " of the
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British poets; by H . K . Swann in the
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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) .

End of Article: HENRY KIRKE WHITE (1785-1806)
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