Frederick Locker-Lampson (1821-95)

English man of letters and poet, born at Greenwich Hospital, London, which was founded in 1694 as the Royal Naval Hospital for sailors, and of which his father was a Civil commissioner. He is remembered for his light verse, included in London Lyrics (1857), Lyra Elegantiarum (1867, an anthology), and Patchwork (1879, a miscellany of prose and verse). Locker-Lampson is one of those English writers, including Matthew Prior (1664-1721), Oliver Goldsmith (?1730-74), Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1802-39), Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-84), and Henry Austin Dobson (1840-1921), who are noted for their vers de société, a form of light verse dealing with events in polite society, usually in a satiric or playful tone, sometimes conversational, sometimes employing intricate forms such as the villanelle (a poem, usually of a pastoral or lyrical nature, consisting of five three-lined stanzas and a final quatrain, with only two rhymes throughout) or the rondeau (a French verse form consisting of ten or thirteen lines, having only two rhymes throughout, and with the opening words used twice as a refrain). (M. Y.)