Sir Thomas Brock, R.A. renowned primarily for the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, was one of the foremost English sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Brock exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1868-1922. At the age of 19 he entered Foley's studio in London. He joined the Royal Academy Schools the following year and in 1869 he was awarded the Gold Medal in Sculpture of the Royal Academy for his Hercules strangling Anteaus. In 1883, he was elected an A.R.A., in 1891 an R.A. and having won the Grand Prix at the 1900 Paris Exhibition, was elected an honorary member of the Société des Artistes Français.

Modelled in 1889, The Genius of Poetry was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1891 (No. 2097). The present marble is probably the example which was exhibited as no other marble is known. This marble, with Eve and Song, in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London, are Brock's three ideal works which the critics considered to be "conceived in a spirit..of poetic or romantic realism."