James Henry Leigh Hunt (October 19, 1784 – August 28, 1859) was an English essayist, poet and writer. He was born at Southgate, London, Middlesex, where his parents had settled after leaving the USA. His father, a Philadelphia lawyer, and his mother, a merchant's daughter and a devout Quaker, had been forced to come to Britain because of their loyalist sympathies during the American War of Independence. Leigh Hunt's father took holy orders, and became a popular preacher, but was unsuccessful in obtaining a permanent living. He was employed by James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos as tutor to his nephew, James Henry Leigh, after whom Leigh Hunt was named. Leigh Hunt was educated at Christ's Hospital, a period which is detailed in his autobiography. As a boy, he was an ardent admirer of Thomas Gray and William Collins, writing many verses in imitation of them. A speech impediment, later cured, prevented his going to university. "For some time after I left school," he says, "I did nothing but visit my school-fellows, haunt the book-stalls and write verses." His poems were published in 1801 under the title of Juvenilia, and introduced him into literary and theatrical society. He began to write for the newspapers, and published in 1807 a volume of theatre criticism, and a series of Classic Tales with critical essays on the authors.
jenny kissed me
Jenny kiss'd me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who lov...[read poem]
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Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who lov...
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