Background
Charles Stuart Calverley was born on December 22, 1831, in Worcestershire, United Kingdom. His father, the Rev. Henry Blayds, resumed in 1852 the old family name of Calverley, which his grandfather had exchanged for Blayds in 1807.
Charles Stuart Calverley was born on December 22, 1831, in Worcestershire, United Kingdom. His father, the Rev. Henry Blayds, resumed in 1852 the old family name of Calverley, which his grandfather had exchanged for Blayds in 1807.
Charles Stuart Calverley went up to Balliol College, Oxford from Harrow School in 1850, and was soon known in Oxford as the most daring and high-spirited undergraduate of his time.
In 1856 Charles Stuart Calverley took second place in the first class in the Classical Tripos.
He was elected fellow of Christ's (1858), published Verses and Translations in 1862, and was called to the bar in 1865.
His Translations into English and Latin appeared in 1866; his Theocritus translated into English Verse in 1869; Fly Leaves in 1872; and Literary Remains in 1885.
What is left us marks only a small portion of his talent, but his sparkling, dancing verses, which have had many clever imitators, are still without a rival in their own line.
Imbued with the classical spirit, he introduced into the making of light verse the polish and elegance of the great masters, and even in its most whimsical mood his verse is raised to the level of poetry by the saving excellence of style.