Hood, Thomas

Hood, Thomas

▪ British poet
born May 23, 1799, London
died May 3, 1845, London
 English poet, journalist, and humorist whose humanitarian verses, such as “The Song of the Shirt” (1843), served as models for a whole school of social-protest poets, not only in Britain and the United States but in Germany and Russia, where he was widely translated. He also is notable as a writer of comic verse, having originated several durable forms for that genre.

      The son of a London bookseller, Hood became a “sort of sub-editor” of the London Magazine (1821–23) during its heyday, when its circle of brilliant contributors included Charles Lamb, Thomas De Quincey, and William Hazlitt. He later went on to edit The Gem, the Comic Annual, and Hood's Magazine. In 1827 he published a volume of poems strongly influenced by Keats, The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies. Several of the poems in it suggest that Hood might possibly have become a poet of the first rank, and it is known for the touching lyric "I Remember, I Remember." However, the success of his amusing Odes and Addresses to Great People (1825), written in collaboration with his brother-in-law, J.H. Reynolds, virtually obliged him to concentrate on humorous writing for the rest of his life. His most considerable comic poem, "Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg," first appeared in the New Monthly Magazine from October 1840 to February 1841. There is something sinister about Hood's sense of humour, a trait that was to reappear in the “black comedy” of the latter 20th century. His pages are thronged with comic mourners and undertakers, and a corpse is always good for a laugh. He was famous for his punning, which appears at times to be almost a reflex action, serving as a defense against painful emotion. Of his later poems, “The Song of the Shirt,” “The Lay of the Labourer” (1844), and “The Bridge of Sighs” (1844) are moving protests against social evils of the day—sweated labour, unemployment, and the double sexual standard.

Additional Reading
John Clubbe, Victorian Forerunner: The Later Career of Thomas Hood (1968); Laurence Brander, Thomas Hood (1963); John Cowie Reid, Thomas Hood (1963).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Hood,Thomas — Hood, Thomas. 1799 1845. British poet and editor who wrote comic and topical verse, including “The Dream of Eugene Aram” (1829) and “The Song of the Shirt” (1843). * * * …   Universalium

  • Hood, Thomas — (1799 1845)    Poet and comic writer, s. of a bookseller in London, where he was b., was put into a mercantile office, but the confinement proving adverse to his health, he was sent to Dundee, where the family had connections, and where he… …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • Hood, Thomas The Elder and Younger — (1799 1874)    • Thomas, the father, 1799 1845    Born in London, the son of a bookseller, he spent the years 1815 1818 with his father s relatives in Dundee, Scotland, recuperating from what could have been rheumatic fever. Being apprenticed to… …   British and Irish poets

  • HOOD, THOMAS —    poet and humourist, born in London; gave up business and engraving, to which he first applied himself, for letters, and commencing as a journalist, immortalised himself by the Song of the Shirt and his Dream of Eugene Aram ; edited the Comic… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Thomas Hood — (23 May 1799 ndash; 3 May 1845) was a British humorist and poet. His son, Tom Hood, became a well known playwright and editor.BiographyHe was born in London to Thomas Hood and Elizabeth Sands in the Poultry (Cheapside) above his father s bookshop …   Wikipedia

  • Thomas Hood — (23 de mayo, de 1799 3 de mayo, de 1845) fue un humorista y poeta inglés. Vida Hijo de Thomas Hood, un librero de origen escocés, nació en Lo …   Wikipedia Español

  • Thomas Hood — (* 23. Mai 1799 in London; † 3. Mai 1845 in London) war ein englischer Schriftsteller und Humorist. Thomas Hood war kurze Zeit Kaufmann, dann Kupferstecher, seit 1821 ausschließlich Schriftsteller. Nachdem er früh schon …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Thomas Carlyle — Thomas Carlyle, Stahlstich, 1902 Thomas Carlyle (* 4. Dezember 1795 in Ecclefechan, Dumfries and Galloway; † 5. Februar 1881 in London) war ein schottischer Essayist und Historiker, der im viktorianischen Großbritannien sehr einflussrei …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Hood [2] — Hood, Thomas, geb. 1798, gest. 1845, engl. Humorist, dessen Satire seine vornehmen Landsleute nicht schonte; am bekanntesten durch das »Lied vom neuen Hemde«, in welchem er das Elend der engl. Nähmädchen schilderte. »Gedichte«, 4. Aufl. London… …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • Thomas Hood — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Hood. Thomas Hood Thomas Hood, poète anglais, (23  …   Wikipédia en Français

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