POET'S COBNER 284 POINCARE 39, 40, xlix: 2-27, and Exodus xv: 1-18, 21. It reached its highest development in the books of Job and of Psalms. The poetry of the Greeks began with Homer and Hesiod, and continued till about 500 B. C. The chief poets of Rome came late on the scene, Vergil be- ing born 70 B. C, and Homer 65 B. c. Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, died A. D. Oct. 25, 1400; John Barbour, author of the "Bruce" (1373), was the first Scotch ^oet. Of the English poets of high genius were Chaucer in the 14th, Shakespeare and Spenser in the 16th century, Milton and Dry den in the 17th, Pope and Cowper in the 18th, Byron, Keats, Shelley, Tennyson, etc., in the 19th. Of Scotch poets, Burns in the 18th century. Of American poets, Longfellow, Poe, Bryant, Whittier and many others, all living in the 19th cen- tury. For poetry of the 20th century, in the United States see the works of Amy Lowell, Untermeyer, Forest, Pound, Sandburg, etc. POETS' CORNER, THE, in Westmin- ster Abbey, the S. corner. This is mere- ly a popular name. The poets repre- sented are: Addison, Beaumont, S. But- ler, Campbell, Cowley, Davenant, Dray- ton, Dryden, Gay, Goldsmith, Gray, Dr. Johnson, Ben Jonson, Longfellow, of America, Macauley, Mason, Milton, Philips, Prior, Rowe, Shakespeare, Shad- well, Sheridan, Spenser, and Thomson. But there is no memorial to such poets as the following: Akenside, Mrs. Brown- ing, Byron, Burns, Carew, Cartwright, Chaucer, Churchill, Coleridge, Collins, Cotton, Cowper, Crabbe, Denham, Donne, Fletcher, Mrs. Hemans, Herbert Her- rick, Hogg, Hood, Keats, Miss Landon, Lee, Lovelace, Marlowe, Marston, Mas- singer, Moore, Parnell, Pollock, Pope, Raleigh, Ramsay, Rossetti, Scott, Shelley, Shenstone, Southern, Southey, Waller, Wither, Wolfe, Wordsworth, Young, and several others. POGGIO, BRACCIOLINI, GIAN FRANCESCO, an Italian humanist; born in Castel Terranuova, near Flor- ence, Feb. 11, 1380. By his untiring re- search of the monastery libraries of Switzerland and Germany he brought to light MSS. supposed to have been lost, of works of the ancient classics, as Quintilian, Valerius Flaccus, Ascanius, Statius, Ammianus, and many others. He translated into Latin several of the Greek classics. His own writings are: "Facetiae," a work of the same question- able character as others of the same title — the book had 26 editions at the end of the 15th century; "Of the Vari- ances of Fortune"; a "History of Flor- ence"; "The Miseries of Human Life"; "The Infelicity of Princes"; "On Mar- riage in Old Age"; "Dialogue Against Hypocrites." He died in Florence, Oct. 30, 1459. POGROM, a Russian word which first gained current usage in the English language in 1903, when Russian ruffians, instigated by the higher authorities, made an attack on the Jewish quarter of Kishinev, in Russian Bessarabia, killing fifty persons and injuring some hun- dreds of others. The word is almost equivalent to "massacre." Russian po- groms, however, first took place in 1881, after the assassination of Czar Alexan- der II., when the reactionary officials of the government, to divert the dicontent of the people away from the evils of the government, stimulated race hatred against the Jews. A secret propaganda was promulgated among the ignorant peasants, putting rhe blame for their economic sufferings on the Jews, who had monopolized most of the small trade of the towns. Out of this agitation sprang a secret organization, officially known as the Union of the Truly-Rus- sia*. People, but more popularly called the Black Hundreds. This organization, backed by the secret support of the more reactionary officials, not only carried on a persistent anti-Semitic propaganda, but actually instigated thousands of pogroms, of which that in Kishinew was only the first to attract world-wide attention. The result of these violent attacks was to drive hundreds of thou- sands of the Russian Jews out of the country, most of whom eventually found refuge in the United States. Pogroms have also been extensively practiced in Poland, since the establishment of inde- pendence by that country after the World War, to split the radical opposi- tion against the conservative govern- ment of the Paderewski regime. POILU, a popular name for the French soldier, meaning literally "hairy," from the French "poil," hair, and alludes to his unshaven and unkempt appearance during campaigns. The sobriquet paral- lels the use of Tommy Atkins in Eng- land, and Doughboy in the United States. POINCARE, RAYMOND, French statesman, born at Bar-le-Duc, August 20, 1860. He was educated in the Ly- ceum of Louis le Grand. He early en- tered politics and in 1893 was appointed Minister of Public Construction. He filled this office again in 1895. In 1894 and again in 1906 he was Minister of Finance. From 1911 to 1913 he was Premier. In the latter year he became President of the Republic. He was President during the entire period of the
