Roden Berkeley Wriothesley Noel, also known as Noël (27 August 1834 – 26 May 1894), was an English poet. He was a Cambridge Apostle.
Early life
He was the youngest son of Charles Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough and, his fourth wife, Lady Frances Jocelyn. His only full sibling was Lady Victoria Noel, who married Sir Fowell Buxton, 3rd Baronet, later Governor of South Australia.
Noel was educated at Windlesham House School, Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained his M.A. in 1858. He then spent two years travelling in the East. From 1867 to 1871, he served as a Groom of the Privy Chamber.
His other works include a drama in verse, The House of Ravensburg (1877), an epic on David Livingstone's expedition in Africa, a Life of Byron (1890, Great Writers series), an edition of Edmund Spenser's poems, a selection of Thomas Otway's plays (1888) for the Mermaid series, and critical papers on literature and philosophy.
Personal life
In 1863, he married Alice Maria Caroline de Broë, daughter of Paul de Broë, the director of the Ottoman Bank in Beirut. Their third child, Eric, who died aged five, is commemorated in Roden Noel's best-known book of verse, A Little Child's Monument (1881).
Publications
- Behind the Veil, and Other Poems (1863), not included in his collected works
- Beatrice, and Other Poems (1868)
- The Red Flag (1872)
- Livingstone in Africa (1874)
- A Little Child's Monument (1881)
- Songs of the Heights and Deeps (1885)
- A Modern Faust, and Other Poems (1888)
- Poor People's Christmas (1890)
- My Sea, and Other Poems (1896).