Clough , Arthur Hugh , 1819-1861 , poet

Arthur Hugh Clough was born in Liverpool and brought up partly in South Carolina and partly in England, where he was educated at Rugby School and later at Balliol College, Oxford. He became a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, in 1842 and taught there until 1848, the same year that his first major poem, The Bothie, was published. From 1848 until 1851 he was head of University Hall, a collegiate residence for students attending lectures at University College London, and in 1850 he was appointed professor of English language and literature at University College, andhe later becme an examiner in the Education Office. Clough was deeply influenced by the conflicting movements within Victorian religion, though he had ceased to accept Christian dogma by the late 1840s, and by radical ideas in politics. His poetry was critically acclaimed during his lifetime and continued to be so for many years after his death.