Biography William Cosmo Monkhouse

Poet Biography

William cosmo Monkhouse was born In London on 18th March 1840.

In 1870-1871 he visited South America in connection with the hospital accommodation for seamen at Valparaiso and, other ports; and he served on different departmental committees, notably that of the Mercantile Marine Fund. He was twice married: first, to Laura, and, secondly, to- Leonora Eliza, He died in London on the 20th of July 1901.William Monkhouse was one of those who not only had a vocation, but an avocation. His first love was poetry, and in 1865 he issued A Dream of Idleness and Other Poems, a collection strong poems coloured by his admiration for Wordsworth and Tennyson. It was marked by exceptional maturity, and scarcely received the recognition it deserved. Owing perhaps to this circumstance, it was not untill 1890 that he published Corn and Poppies, a collection which contained at least one memorable effort in the well-known Dead March. Five years later appeared a limited edition of the striking ballad of The Christ upon the Hill, illustrated with etchings by Mr William Strang. After his death the volume Pasiteles the Elder and other Poems (including The Christ upon the Hill).was published.

"As a poet, his ambition was so wide and his devotion to the art so thorough, that it is difficult not to regret the slender bulk of his legacy to posterity."