Lionel Johnson
Lionel Johnson was a poet born in England in 1857, whose life was deeply influenced by his Catholic faith and his connection to Ireland. He came from a military family and had a distant relative involved in an anti-Catholic uprising, which sparked his interest in Irish identity. Johnson studied classics and humanities at Oxford, where he became friends with notable poet W. B. Yeats and began his own poetry writing. After moving to London to pursue a literary career, he published literary criticism and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1891, an event that complicated his struggles with alcoholism and his sexuality. His passion for Ireland led him to engage in Irish politics and public lecturing, yet his battles with addiction resulted in declining health and poverty. Johnson's life ended prematurely at the age of thirty-four due to strokes, and he is often remembered more through the reflections of his contemporaries than for his own literary contributions. His legacy is a poignant reminder of the interplay between personal struggle and artistic expression.
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Lionel Johnson
Poet
- Born: March 15, 1867
- Birthplace: Broadstairs, Kent, England
- Died: October 4, 1902
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
One of poet Lionel Johnson’s editors, W. S. Braithwaite, best described Johnson’s brief and tragic life when he observed that “Lionel Johnson had two passions that controlled his life—his Catholic faith and his love for Ireland.” Johnson was born in England in 1857 to a Protestant military officer. He was distantly related to an Irishman who had fought in an anti-Catholic uprising. The relationship fired his imagination, giving his life a structure it otherwise sorely lacked.
Attending New College at Oxford University, Johnson made the acquaintance of the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats and began writing his own poetry. He also took up drink. After receiving a degree in classics and humanities, Johnson moved to London to pursue the literary life. There he published literary criticism in prominent journals and in 1891 fulfilled his longtime desire to convert to Roman Catholicism. In his postconversion zeal, he renounced his homosexuality, but the conflict between his faith and his desires only intensified his alcoholism.
A collection of poems about Ireland and a visit there in 1893 inspired him to involve himself in Irish politics, and he lectured publicly about this subject. Unfortunately, despite his attempts to gain control of his life, Johnson’s alcoholism sent him on a downward spiral of ill health and poverty. Already a paranoid recluse in his late twenties, in his early thirties he suffered a series of strokes that eventually killed him at the age of thirty-four. After his death, poet Ezra Pound falsely reported that Johnson had died after falling off a barstool. Yeats commemorated Johnson ambivalently in his poem “In Memory of Major Robert Gregory,” describing him as a man “much falling” who “brooded on sanctity.” Sadly, Johnson is remembered more for what others said of him then for his own work.