Thomas Gordon Hake (
March 10,
1809 -
January 11,
1895),
English poet, was born at
Leeds, of an old
Devon family. His mother was a
Gordon of the
Huntly branch. He studied medicine at St George's hospital and at
Edinburgh and
Glasgow, but had given up practice for many years before his death and had devoted himself to a literary life. In 1839, he published a prose epic
Vales, republished in Ainsworth's magazine as
Valdarno, which attracted the attention of
DG Rossetti.
In after years, he became an intimate member of the circle of friends and followers gathered round Rossetti, who so far departed from his usual custom as to review Hake's poems in the
Academy and
Fortnightly Review. In 1871, he published
Madeline; in 1872,
Parables and Tales; in 1883,
The Serpent Play; in 1890,
New Day Sonnets; and, in 1892, his
Memoirs of Eighty Years.
Dr Hake's works had much subtlety and felicity of expression, and were warmly appreciated in a somewhat restricted literary circle. In his last published verse, the
sonnets, he shows an advance in facility on the occasional harshness of his earlier work. He was given a
Civil List literary pension in 1893.
He saw much value in the use of snuff, which (he wrote to a critic of his habit), "not only wakes up that torpor so prevalent between the nose and the brain, making the wings of an idea uncurl like those of a newborn butterfly, but while others sneeze and run at the eyes my scheiderian membrane is impervious to the weather or, to be more explicit, I never take a cold in the head."
Category:1809 birthsCategory:1895 deathsCategory:People from LeedsCategory:English medical doctorsCategory:English poetsCategory:Alumni of the University of EdinburghCategory:Alumni of the University of Glasgow
