Biography Joseph Blanco White

Poet Biography

Born in Seville. A Catholic priest, he came to England in 1810 following Napoleon's conquest of Spain and took on the surname White.

Studying at Oxford, he became an Anglican cleric and wrote various ecclesiastical poetry. To Night was described by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as 'the finest sonnet in the English language'.

Blanco White's last 6 years were spent in Liverpool where he was a member of the city's Unitarian Church. He was buried in the Renshaw Street chapels cemetery, which is now the site of the Roscoe Memorial Gardens in Mount Pleasant.