Roden Noel
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
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The son of Charles Noel, Lord Barham, afterwards 1st Earl of Gainsborough
Earl of Gainsborough
Earl of Gainsborough is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation ended in extinction when the sixth Earl died without heirs...
, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, where he obtained his M.A. in 1858. He then spent two years travelling in the East. In 1863, he married Alice de Broë, daughter of the director of the Ottoman Bank in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
. Their third child, Eric, who died aged five, is commemorated in Roden Noel's best-known book of verse, A Little Child's Monument (1881).
His other volumes are:
- Behind the Veil, and other Poems (1863), not included in his collected works
- Beatrice, and other Poems (1868)
- The Red Flag (1872)
- Livingstone in Africa (1874)
- Songs of the Heights and Deeps (1885)
- A Modern Faust, and other Poems (1888)
- Poor People's Christmas (1890)
- My Sea, and other Poems (1896).
The latter part of his life was spent at Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, but he died in the train station of Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
in Germany. His son Conrad Noel
Conrad Noel
Conrad le Despenser Roden Noel was an English priest of the Church of England. Known as the "Red Vicar" of Thaxted, he was a prominent British Christian Socialist...
became a Christian Socialist, famous as the "turbulent priest of Thaxted".
Roden Noel's versification was unequal and sometimes harsh, but he has a genuine feeling for nature, and the work is permeated by philosophic thought.
His other works include a drama in verse, The House of Ravensburg (1877), an epic on David Livingstone's
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...
expedition in Africa, a Life of Byron (1890, Great Writers series), an edition of Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
's poems, a selection of Thomas Otway
Thomas Otway
Thomas Otway was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd .-Life:...
's plays (1888) for the Mermaid series
Mermaid Series
The Mermaid Series was a major collection of reprints of texts from English Elizabethan, Jacobean and Restoration drama. It was published in the years around 1900 by the London firm of T. Fisher Unwin, with many well-known literary figures editing or introducing the texts...
, and critical papers on literature and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
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His Collected Poems were edited (1902) by his sister, Victoria Buxton, with a notice by John Addington Symonds
John Addington Symonds
John Addington Symonds was an English poet and literary critic. Although he married and had a family, he was an early advocate of male love , which he believed could include pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships. He referred to it as l'amour de l'impossible...
, which had originally appeared in the Academy (January 19, 1899) as a review of The Modern Faust. The selection (1892) in the series of Canterbury Poets has an introduction by Robert Buchanan
Robert Williams Buchanan
Robert Williams Buchanan was a Scottish poet, novelist and dramatist.- Early life and education :He was the son of Robert Buchanan , Owenite lecturer and journalist, and was born at Caverswall, Staffordshire, England...
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His poem "Sea Slumber Song
Sea Slumber Song
"Sea Slumber Song" is a poem by the Hon. Roden Noel set to music by Sir Edward Elgar as the first song in his song-cycle Sea Pictures.-Lyrics:The poem here is as sung in Sea Pictures....
" was set to music by Sir Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
as the first song of his song-cycle Sea Pictures
Sea Pictures
Sea Pictures, Op. 37 is a song cycle by Sir Edward Elgar consisting of five songs written by various poets. It was set for contralto and orchestra, though a distinct version for piano was often performed by Elgar...
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