Houghton, Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Lord

(1809-1885)

   Poet, s. of Robert (known as "single-speech") M., b. in London, and ed. privately and at Camb. He sat in the House of Commons for Pontefract from 1837-63, when he was raised to the Peerage. His interests were, however, mainly literary and philanthropic, and it was said of him that he "knew everybody worth knowing at home and abroad;" and his sympathies being of the widest, he was able to bring together the most opposite extremes of life and opinion. He championed the cause of oppressed nationalities, and of the slave. He pub. many vols. of poetry, among which were Poetry for the People (1840), and Palm Leaves (1848). He also wrote a Life of Keats, and various books of travels. Though he had not the depth of mind or intensity of feeling to make a great poet, his verse is the work of a man of high culture, graceful and refined, and a few of his shorter poems--such as The Beating of my own Heart, and Strangers Yet, strike a true note which gained for them wide acceptance.