Jean Ingelow

Born in Boston, Lincolnshire, on March 17, 1820, Jean Ingelow became one of the most widely read English poets of the Victorian period. She was also a novelist and a writer for children, and her popularity rose sharply in 1863 with the publication of a volume of poems that brought her a large audience.

Her best-known work is often identified as The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire, 1571, a dramatic narrative poem remembered for its strong feeling and vivid sense of place. Alongside poetry, she published fiction and children's stories, building a career that reached well beyond a single genre.

Although her reputation changed after her lifetime, she remains an interesting figure in nineteenth-century literature: a writer who spoke to a broad public and showed how poetry could be both accessible and deeply felt. She died in London on July 20, 1897.