English poet and essayist some of whose verse associates him with the Graveyard School. He began publishing his works by the age of 15; by 18 he had published his first volume of poems. They were not well received critically, although Robert Southey (who, in a Gothically appropriate coincidence, died on the same date on which Kirke was born) was supportive and encouraging. Kirke died of consumption (tuberculosis) at the age of 21 and Southey became his literary executor, publishing a collection of White's work in 1807. That volume proved quite popular, and cemented White's reputation as a poet — like Burns and Chatterton — whose untimely death was a seen as a tragic loss for poetry, an instance of promising genius cut off before its time. White, for some reason, has been virtually ignored since the later 19th century, and even today rarely figures in discussions of the Romantic period or in Romantic anthologies.
Sites:
The Poet Henry Kirke White
Brief biographical note
[Nottinghamshire History]
Biographical note
[Wikipedia]
Brief note
[U Nottingham]
