born May 28, 1779, Dublin, Ire.

died Feb. 25, 1852, Wiltshire, Eng.

Irish poet, satirist, composer, and political propagandist. He was a close friend of Lord Byron (Byron, George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron) and Percy Bysshe Shelley (Shelley, Percy Bysshe).

The son of a Roman Catholic wine merchant, Moore graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1799 and then studied law in London. His major poetic work, Irish Melodies (1807–34), earned him an income of £500 annually for a quarter of a century. It contained such titles as "The Last Rose of Summer" and "Oft in the Stilly Night." The Melodies, a group of 130 poems set to the music of Moore and of Sir John Stevenson and performed for London's aristocracy, aroused sympathy and support for the Irish nationalists, among whom Moore was a popular hero.

Lalla Rookh (1817), a narrative poem set (on Byron's advice) in an atmosphere of Oriental splendour, gave Moore a reputation among his contemporaries rivaling that of Byron and Sir Walter Scott (Scott, Sir Walter, 1st Baronet). It was perhaps the most translated poem of its time, and it earned what was till then the highest price paid by an English publisher for a poem (£3,000). Moore's many satirical works, such as The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), portray the politics and manners of the Regency period.