The Poetry: "The same people who can deny others everything are famous for refusing themselves nothing."

Leigh Hunt was born in Southgate, London, where his parents had settled after leaving the United States. Educated at Christ's Hospital from 1791 to 1799 but 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 first poems were published in 1801 under the title of Juvenilia, and introduced him into literary and theatrical society. He began to ...