Place    From 1559 

Poets' Corner

Categories: Literature

The popular name for the south transept of Westminster Abbey. Geoffrey Chaucer was the first person to be interred here, although it was for his position as Clerk of Works to the Palace of Westminster, rather than for literary merit. It wasn't until the burial of Edmund Spenser that the tradition began. The name was supposed to have been coined by Oliver Goldsmith. Nowadays occupants are commemorated with a wall or floor tablet rather than actual interment.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Poets' Corner

Commemorated ati

Robert Browning - W8

Robert Browning lived in this house 1887 - 1889, from here his body was taken...

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Other Subjects

George Lillie Craik

George Lillie Craik

Born Kennoway, Fife. Literary scholar and writer. Created professor of English literature and history at Queen’s College, Belfast in 1849. Buried at Holywood, near Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Person, Education, History, Literature, Ireland, Scotland

1 memorial
Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine

German poet and essayist. Born Dusseldorf. Died Paris.

Person, Literature, Poetry, France, Germany

1 memorial
Francois Rabelais

Francois Rabelais

Writer and physician. Born France, between 1483 and 1494, but probably November 1494. Became a monk and studied Latin and Greek, then left to study medicine. Died Paris.

Person, Literature, Medicine, Politics & Administration, Religion, France

1 memorial
W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham

Playwright, novelist and short story writer. Born of British parents in Paris. A recent biographer, Selina Hastings, writes that Maugham "liked sex and he liked a lot of it." "Few good-looking youn...

Person, Literature, France

2 memorials
Horizon Magazine

Horizon Magazine

An influential literary and art magazine. From a pdf issued for the unveiling: "... Stephen Spender joined Cyril Connolly and the wealthy patron Peter Watson in 1939 to set up Horizon at 6 Selwyn H...

Media, Journalism / Publishing, Literature

1 memorial