1758 in poetry
Encyclopedia
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish
or France
).
United Kingdom
English
presented a table comparing 29 English poets, rating them on a scale in each of four aspects of literary greatness. A score of 20 was literary perfection. Some of his estimations:
Some other poets Goldsmith placed on the scale: Michael Drayton
, Lee, Aaron Hill
, Nicholas Rowe, Garth, Southern and Hughes. John Donne
was not listed, because, wrote Goldsmith, "Dr Donne was a man of wit, but he seems to have been at pains not to pass for a poet." (See also Mark Akenside
's "Balance of Poets" of 1746
.)
Irish poetry
The history of Irish poetry includes the poetries of two languages, one in Irish and the other in English. The complex interplay between these two traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to...
or France
French poetry
French poetry is a category of French literature. It may include Francophone poetry composed outside France and poetry written in other languages of France.-French prosody and poetics:...
).
Events
- Christopher SmartChristopher SmartChristopher Smart , also known as "Kit Smart", "Kitty Smart", and "Jack Smart", was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart, a high church Anglican, was widely known throughout...
writes "Jubilate Agno" (about 1758-63), only published in 19391939 in poetry— W. H. Auden, from "September 1, 1939"Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:*Last issue of The Criterion is published....
United KingdomEnglish poetryThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
- Mark AkensideMark AkensideMark Akenside was an English poet and physician.Akenside was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the son of a butcher. He was slightly lame all his life from a wound he received as a child from his father's cleaver...
, An Ode to the Country Gentlemen of England - John Gilbert CooperJohn Gilbert CooperJohn Gilbert Cooper or John Gilbert was a British poet and writer.-Biography:John Gilbert was born in Lockington, Leicestershire. His father was left a legacy which included Thurgarton Priory which he was allowed if he changed his name to Cooper...
, The Call of Aristippus - Robert DodsleyRobert DodsleyRobert Dodsley was an English bookseller and miscellaneous writer.-Life:He was born near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where his father was master of the free school....
:- Cleone: A tragedy, verse drama performed in December; the work also contains the author's poem "Melpomene", on the sublime
- Collection of Poems, volumes five and six
- James MacphersonJames MacphersonJames Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.-Early life:...
, The Highlander - Thomas ParnellThomas ParnellThomas Parnell was a poet and clergyman, born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was a friend of both Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. He participated in the Scriblerus Club, contributing to The Spectator, and he also aided Pope in his translation of The Iliad...
, Posthumous Works
EnglishEnglish poetryThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
, Colonial America
- Thomas PrinceThomas PrinceThomas Prince was an American clergyman, scholar and historian noted for his historical text A Chronological History of New England, in the Form of Annals...
, The Psalms, Hymns, & spiritual Songs of the Old and new Testaments, English, Colonial America - Annis Boudinot StocktonAnnis Boudinot StocktonAnnis Boudinot Stockton was an American poet.Stockton was born in Darby, Pennsylvania, to Elias Boudinot, merchant and silversmith, and Catherine Williams. Annis was also known as the Duchess of Morven—their estate in Princeton, New Jersey was named Morven, after the legendary Scottish King...
, "To the Honorable Colonel Peter SchuylerPeter Schuyler (New Jersey)Peter Schuyler was a wealthy Dutch farmer from New Barbadoes Neck , New Jersey.Schuyler was descended from Arent Schuyler of Rensselaerswyck, now , New York. His father purchased a large tract of land along the shores of the Passaic River where large amounts of copper were discovered and mined...
" published in New-York Mercury and New American Magazine; her first published poem; Colonial America
Other
- Solomon GessnerSolomon GessnerSolomon Gessner was a Swiss painter and poet. His writing suited the taste of his time, though by some more recent standards it is “insipidly sweet and monotonously melodious.” As a painter, he represented the conventional classical landscape.-Biography:He was born in Zürich...
, Der Tod Abels, Switzerland, German-language work akin to an idyllic pastoral
Oliver Goldsmith's "poetical scale"
In the January 1758 edition of the Literary Magazine, an anonymous writer widely believed to be English poet and author Oliver GoldsmithOliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
presented a table comparing 29 English poets, rating them on a scale in each of four aspects of literary greatness. A score of 20 was literary perfection. Some of his estimations:
| Genius | Judgement | Learning | Versification | ||
| Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey... |
16 | 12 | 10 | 14 | |
| Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English... |
18 | 12 | 14 | 18 | |
| William Shakespeare William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"... |
19 | 14 | 14 | 19 | |
| Ben Jonson Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems... |
16 | 18 | 17 | 8 | |
| Abraham Cowley Abraham Cowley Abraham Cowley was an English poet born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the 17th century, with 14 printings of his Works published between 1668 and 1721.-Early life and career:... |
17 | 17 | 15 | 17 | |
| Edmund Waller Edmund Waller Edmund Waller, FRS was an English poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1679.- Early life :... |
12 | 12 | 10 | 16 | |
| John Milton John Milton John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell... |
18 | 16 | 17 | 18 | |
| John Dryden John Dryden John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet... |
18 | 16 | 17 | 18 | |
| Joseph Addison Joseph Addison Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison... |
16 | 18 | 17 | 17 | |
| Matthew Prior Matthew Prior Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel... |
16 | 16 | 15 | 17 | |
| Alexander Pope Alexander Pope Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson... |
18 | 18 | 15 | 19 | |
Some other poets Goldsmith placed on the scale: Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.-Early life:He was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothing is known about his early life, beyond the fact that in 1580 he was in the service of Thomas Goodere of Collingham,...
, Lee, Aaron Hill
Aaron Hill
Aaron Hill was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer.The son of a country gentleman of Wiltshire, Hill was educated at Westminster School, and afterwards travelled in the East. He was the author of 17 plays, some of them, such as his versions of Voltaire's Zaire and Mérope, being adaptations...
, Nicholas Rowe, Garth, Southern and Hughes. John Donne
John Donne
John Donne 31 March 1631), English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs,...
was not listed, because, wrote Goldsmith, "Dr Donne was a man of wit, but he seems to have been at pains not to pass for a poet." (See also Mark Akenside
Mark Akenside
Mark Akenside was an English poet and physician.Akenside was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the son of a butcher. He was slightly lame all his life from a wound he received as a child from his father's cleaver...
's "Balance of Poets" of 1746
1746 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Lucy Terry writes the first known poem by an African American, "Bars Fight, August 28, 1746", about an Indian massacre of two white families in Deerfield, Massachusetts; the ballad was related orally...
.)
Births
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:- February 3 – Vasily KapnistVasily KapnistCount Vasily Vasilievich Kapnist , , was a Russian poet and playwright who wrote in somewhat rough Russian language....
, UkrainianUkrainian literatureUkrainian literature is literature written in the Ukrainian language. Ukrainian literature had a difficult development because, due to constant foreign domination over Ukrainian territories, there was often a significant difference between the spoken and written language...
poet and playwright (died 18231823 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published in English:* Robert Bloomfield, Hazelwood Hall, verse drama...
) - December 27 – Mary RobinsonMary Robinson (poet)Mary Robinson was an English poet and novelist. During her lifetime she is known as 'the English Sappho'...
, EnglishEnglish poetryThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
poet and novelist
- Also:
- Sir George Dallas, 1st BaronetSir George Dallas, 1st BaronetSir George Dallas, 1st Baronet was a British politician and poet. He was created baronet, of Harley Street in the County of Middlesex, on 31 July 1798. He succeeded William Hamilton Nisbet as Member of Parliament for Newport, Isle of Wight in 1800, holding the position until 1802...
, EnglishEnglish poetryThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is... - year uncertain – Joseph FawcettJoseph FawcettJoseph Fawcett was an 18th-century English Presbyterian minister and poet.Fawcett began his education at Reverend French's school in Ware, Hertfordshire and in 1774 entered the dissenting academy at Daventry. At the school, he practiced his preaching on thorn bushes...
(died 18041804 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* William Wordsworth writes "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", inspired by an incident on April 15, 1802 in which Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, came across a "long belt" of daffodils...
), EnglishEnglish poetryThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
Presbyterian minister and poet - Elizabeth HamiltonElizabeth HamiltonElizabeth Hamilton was a British essayist, poet, satirist and novelist. Born in Belfast to Charles Hamilton , a Scottish merchant, and his wife Katherine Mackay , she lived most of her life in Scotland, dying in Harrogate in England after a short illness.Her first literary efforts were directed in...
(died 18161816 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* This year was known as the "Year Without a Summer" after Mount Tambora had erupted in the Dutch East Indies the previous year and cast enough ash in to the atmosphere to block out the sun and cause...
), EnglishEnglish poetryThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
essayist, poet, satirist and novelist - RyōkanRyokanwas a quiet and eccentric Sōtō Zen Buddhist monk who lived much of his life as a hermit. Ryōkan is remembered for his poetry and calligraphy, which present the essence of Zen life.-Early life:...
良寛 (died 18311831 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* John Banim and Michael Banim, The Chaunt of the Cholera* Henry Glassford Bell, Summer and Winter Hours...
), JapaneseJapanese poetryJapanese poets first encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang Dynasty. It took them several hundred years to digest the foreign impact, make it a part of their culture and merge it with their literary tradition in their mother tongue, and begin to develop the diversity of their native poetry. For...
wakaWaka (poetry)Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...
poet and calligrapher, Buddhist monk, often a hermit - Jane WestJane WestJane West [née Iliffe] , who published as "Prudentia Homespun" and "Mrs. West," was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and writer of conduct literature and educational tracts.- Life :...
, who published under the pen namePen nameA pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
s "Prudentia Homespun" and "Mrs. West" (died 18521852 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* Matthew Arnold, Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems* Alfred Tennyson, Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington...
), EnglishEnglish poetryThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
novelist, poet, playwright, and writer of conduct literature and educational tracts
- Sir George Dallas, 1st Baronet
Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:- January 1 – Johann Friedrich von CronegkJohann Friedrich von CronegkJohann Friedrich von Cronegk , German poet, was born at Ansbach.- Biography :Cronegk studied law in Halle and Leipzig and visited Italy and France before returning to his hometown to be a court councilor....
(born 17311731 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* The only complete manuscript of Beowulf and the original manuscript of The Battle of Maldon are damaged in a fire at the archives of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton.* The Gentleman's Magazine is started and...
), German dramatist, poet and essayist - January 7 – Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet (born 16861686 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published:* Sarah Fyge Egerton , The Female Advocate, published anonymously in reply to Robert Gould's Love Given O're 1682* Thomas Flatman, A Song for St Caecilia's Day* Anne Killigrew, Poems by Mrs...
) - July 15 – Ambrosius StubAmbrosius StubAmbrosius Christoffersen Stub was a Danish poet.- Life :Stub was born in Gummerup on the island of Funen, but his exact birth date is unknown. He was baptized at Verninge on May 17, 1705. The son of a tailor, he was able to attend the Latin school of Odense due to the generosity of noblemen who...
, DanishDanish literatureDanish literature, a subset of Scandinavian literature, stretches back to the Middle Ages. Of special note across the centuries are the historian Saxo Grammaticus, the playwright Ludvig Holberg, the storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, and Karen Blixen who...
poet (born 17051705 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published:* Daniel Defoe:** The Double Welcome: A poem to the Duke of Marlbro...
) - December 15 – John DyerJohn DyerJohn Dyer was a painter and Welsh poet turned clergyman of the Church of England who maintained an interest in his Welsh ancestry...
, Welsh poet (born 16991699 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* English poet Matthew Prior, while a secretary in the English embassy in France , mentions in letters that he has been dining with Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, a critic and poet whose poems Prior had...
) - date unknown – Samuel BishopSamuel BishopSamuel Bishop was a poet born in London, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Oxford University. He then took orders and served as Headmaster of Merchant Taylor's School . His poems on miscellaneous subjects fill two quarto volumes and the best of them are those to his wife and daughter....
(born 17311731 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* The only complete manuscript of Beowulf and the original manuscript of The Battle of Maldon are damaged in a fire at the archives of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton.* The Gentleman's Magazine is started and...
), EnglishEnglish poetryThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in Western culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe. Consequently, the term English poetry is...
poet