Clough

Clough, Arthur Hugh (1819-1861), an English poet, born at Liverpool of a Welsh family. His father, a cotton merchant, took him to Charleston, where he lived for some years, but was brought back to England and sent to school at Rugby, where Dr. Arnold thought much of him. In 1836 he passed on to Oxford, and in 1842 was chosen one of that charmed circle, the Fellows of Oriel, and tutor the year after. But he did not escape the religious fermentation of the time, and the sceptical habit of thought that he had developed forced him to resign his position. He first went to Italy, where he was present at the siege of Rome in 1849, and in 1852 he went to America, soon after returning to become an examiner in the Education Office. Made ill by overwork, he again travelled to Greece and Constantinople, and in 1861 he started again for the south, dying at Constantinople. Of his poems, perhaps the most widely known is the Bothic of Tober-na-Vuolich, written before he left Oxford. Another favourite is Dipsychus (1850). His lyrics also are much admired, and throughout his works there reigns the same sincerity, search after truth, and humour. Matthew Arnold has eulogised him in Thyrsis.