Aytoun, William Edmonstoune

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William Edmonstoune Aytoun (ā´tōōn), 1813–65, Scottish poet. He was (1845–64) professor of belles-lettres at Edinburgh Univ. The Bon Gaultier Ballads (written with Sir Theodore Martin, 1845) parodied poems by Macaulay, Tennyson, and others. His best-known poem, Firmilian (1854), burlesqued the chaotic, bombastic poetry being written in his day.

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