1709 in poetry
Encyclopedia
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish
or France
).
's career as a poet was launched with the publication of the anthology Poetical Miscellanies, The Sixth Part, edited by John Dryden
. The publisher, Jacob Tonson
, had solicited poems from Pope for the volume three years before; but publication was delayed and finally occurred three weeks before Pope's 21st birthday. Pope did not visit London at the time of publication, instead travelling there in June. Tonson was a hard bargainer, and paid Pope 13 guineas, for the young man's verses (about two pence per line). Pope would eventually become a hard bargainer himself in dealing with publishers, and although he became good friends with Tonson, he hardly ever wrote for him again.
Pope's January and May; Or, The Merchant's Tale, a story about a young wife and the old husband she cuckolds (on pages 172-224) retold part of Geoffrey Chaucer
's Canterbury Tales (lines 817-720 of Pope's version):
The poet also contributed a translation, The Episode of Sarpedon, Translated from the Twelfth and Sixteenth Books of Homer's Iliads (pages 301-323). John Denham
, a poet of Dryden's generation, had written the best-known translation of Sarpedon's speech. According to the 20th-century critic and Pope biographer Maynard Mack, Pope's version shined in comparison, and when both versions were weighed together, "the coffee-house critics must have sensed [...] that a new star of some magnitude was rising in their sky".
But the four Pastorals (pages 721-751) which concluded the volume, would have been the works on which Pope pinned most of his hopes for recognition, according to Mack, because the genre was what Virgil
and various Renaissance critics deemed a proper first test for an aspiring poet.
On May 17, Pope's friend, Wycherley, wrote to him that "all the best Judges [...] like your part of the Book so well, that the rest is lik'd the worse". Pope wrote back three days later, referring to Tonson's low payments but valuable publicizing (by including him in what the title page of the anthology called "Eminent hands"):
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
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:...
).
Works published
- Sir Richard BlackmoreRichard BlackmoreSir Richard Blackmore , English poet and physician, is remembered primarily as the object of satire and as an example of a dull poet. He was, however, a respected physician and religious writer....
, Instructions to Vander Bank; published anonymously, sequel to Advice to the Poets (17081708 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-- From Richard Blackmore's The Kit-Kats. A Poem, Chapter 6, published this year and referring to the Kit-Kat Club in which the influential publisher Jacob Tonson was a prominent member...
) - Samuel CobbSamuel CobbSamuel Cobb may refer to:* Samuel Cobb , English poet, school master, classicist, and translator of Chaucer* Samuel C. Cobb, American politician, Mayor of Boston* Samuel Sylvester Cobb, American businessman...
, The Female Reign - John DrydenJohn DrydenJohn 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...
, editor, Poetical Miscellanies: The Sixth Part (usually known as Dryden's Miscellanies or Tonson's Miscellanies), sixth in a series of anthologies published by Jacob TonsonJacob TonsonJacob Tonson, sometimes referred to as Jacob Tonson the elder was an 18th-century English bookseller and publisher....
from 16841684 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* April 15 – Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, a France poet, critic and scholar, was admitted to the Académie française, and then only by the king's wish-Works published:* Aphra Behn, Poems Upon...
to this year The 752-page volume, printed on thin paper without book covers (which buyers could arrange to get), the dimensions of which were "roughly that of a middling-sized modern paperback". Publication had been repeatedly delayed. According to Maynard Mack, the book, like most modern anthologies, "featured mainly the work of writers born to be forgotton", although it included two poems by Jonathan SwiftJonathan SwiftJonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
and three by Alexander PopeAlexander PopeAlexander 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...
. (see "Alexander Pope's career launched in Poetical Miscellanies" subsection, below) - William KingWilliam KingWilliam King may refer to:*Bill King, , American radio announcer*Billy King , Irish cricketer*Willie King , blues guitarist and singer...
, Miscellanies in Prose and Verse - Experience MayhewExperience MayhewExperience Mayhew was a New England missionary to the Wampanoag Indians on Martha's Vineyard. He was born on January 27, 1673, in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, the oldest son of Rev. John Mayhew, missionary to the Indians, and great-grandson of Gov. Thomas Mayhew...
, Massachusee Psalter, 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 - John PhilipsJohn PhilipsJohn Philips was an 18th century English poet.- Early life and education :Philips was born at Bampton, Oxfordshire, the son of Rev. Stephen Philips, later archdeacon of Salop, and his wife Mary Wood. He was at first taught by his father and then went to Winchester College...
, Cider - John ReynoldsJohn ReynoldsJohn Reynolds may refer to:* John Reynolds , English writer* John Reynolds , soldier in the English Civil War* John Reynolds , farmer and agricultural innovator from Kent, England...
, Death's Vision Represented in a Philosophical Sacred Poem - Jonathan SwiftJonathan SwiftJonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
:- Baucis and Philemon
- Description of the Morning
- A Famous Prediction of Merlin, the British Wizard
- A Project for the Advancement of Religion and the Reformation of Manners, published anonymously "by a person of quality"
Alexander Pope's career launched in Poetical Miscellanies
On May 2, Alexander PopeAlexander 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...
's career as a poet was launched with the publication of the anthology Poetical Miscellanies, The Sixth Part, edited by 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...
. The publisher, Jacob Tonson
Jacob Tonson
Jacob Tonson, sometimes referred to as Jacob Tonson the elder was an 18th-century English bookseller and publisher....
, had solicited poems from Pope for the volume three years before; but publication was delayed and finally occurred three weeks before Pope's 21st birthday. Pope did not visit London at the time of publication, instead travelling there in June. Tonson was a hard bargainer, and paid Pope 13 guineas, for the young man's verses (about two pence per line). Pope would eventually become a hard bargainer himself in dealing with publishers, and although he became good friends with Tonson, he hardly ever wrote for him again.
Pope's January and May; Or, The Merchant's Tale, a story about a young wife and the old husband she cuckolds (on pages 172-224) retold part of 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...
's Canterbury Tales (lines 817-720 of Pope's version):
- Thus ends our Tale, whose Moral next to make,
- Let all wise Husbands hence Example take;
- And pray, to crown the Pleasure of their Lives,
- To be so well deluded by their Wives.
The poet also contributed a translation, The Episode of Sarpedon, Translated from the Twelfth and Sixteenth Books of Homer's Iliads (pages 301-323). John Denham
John Denham (poet)
Sir John Denham was an English poet and courtier. He served as Surveyor of the King's Works and is buried in Westminster Abbey....
, a poet of Dryden's generation, had written the best-known translation of Sarpedon's speech. According to the 20th-century critic and Pope biographer Maynard Mack, Pope's version shined in comparison, and when both versions were weighed together, "the coffee-house critics must have sensed [...] that a new star of some magnitude was rising in their sky".
But the four Pastorals (pages 721-751) which concluded the volume, would have been the works on which Pope pinned most of his hopes for recognition, according to Mack, because the genre was what Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
and various Renaissance critics deemed a proper first test for an aspiring poet.
On May 17, Pope's friend, Wycherley, wrote to him that "all the best Judges [...] like your part of the Book so well, that the rest is lik'd the worse". Pope wrote back three days later, referring to Tonson's low payments but valuable publicizing (by including him in what the title page of the anthology called "Eminent hands"):
- I can be content with a bare saving [that is, neither winning nor losing] game, without being thought an Eminent hand, (with which Title Jacob has graciously dignify'd his adventurers and voluntiers in Poetry). Jacob creates Poets, as Kings sometimes do Knights, not for their honour, but for money. Certainly he ought to be esteem'd a worker of Miracles, who is grown rich by Poetry.
- What Authors lose, their Booksellers have won,
- So Pimps grow rich, while Gallants are undone.
Births
- August 7 – Jean-Jacques Lefranc, marquis de PompignanJean-Jacques Lefranc, marquis de PompignanJean-Jacques Lefranc , Marquis de Pompignan was a French man of letters and erudition, who published a considerable output of theatrical work, poems, literary criticism, and polemics; treatises on archeology, nature, travel and many other subjects; and a wide selection of highly-regarded...
, FrenchFrench poetryFrench 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:...
poet (died 17841784 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* About this year, the Sturm und Drang movement ended in German literature and music, which began in the late 1760s...
) - September 18 (N.S.) – Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
(died 17841784 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* About this year, the Sturm und Drang movement ended in German literature and music, which began in the late 1760s...
), 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, author, critic
- Also:
- John ArmstrongJohn Armstrong (poet)Dr. John Armstrong was a poet. He was the son of the minister of Castleton, Roxburghshire, Scotland and studied medicine, which he practised in London....
(died 17791779 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* William Cowper and John Newton, Olney Hymns, 66 by Cowper , another 282 by Newton; the work was popular, with many editions published* Robert Fergusson, Poems on Various Subjects, Part 2 of...
), Scottish poet - John BanksJohn Bancks-References:...
also spelled "Bancks" (died 17511751 in poetry— Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard, published this yearNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:...
), 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 author - George Lyttelton, 1st Baron LytteltonGeorge Lyttelton, 1st Baron LytteltonGeorge Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton PC , known as Sir George Lyttelton, Bt between 1751 and 1756, was a British politician and statesman and a patron of the arts.-Background and education:...
(died 17731773 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published:* Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Poems...
), 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...
statesman and poet - Robert Nugent, 1st Earl NugentRobert Nugent, 1st Earl NugentRobert Craggs-Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent PC was an Irish politician and poet.-Background:The son of Michael Nugent and Mary, daughter of Robert Barnewall, 9th Baron Trimlestown, he was born at Carlanstown, County Westmeath...
, year uncertain (died 17881788 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:This year three works of poetry, all written by women , condemned slavery:...
), IrishIrish poetryThe 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...
statesman and poet - Christoph Friedrich Wedekind (died 17771777 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-United Kingdom:* Thomas Chatterton, Poems, Supposed to Have Been Written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and Others, in the Fifteenth Century, published anonymously, edited by Thomas Tyrwhitt; published...
), German
- John Armstrong
Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:- February 15 – John PhilipsJohn PhilipsJohn Philips was an 18th century English poet.- Early life and education :Philips was born at Bampton, Oxfordshire, the son of Rev. Stephen Philips, later archdeacon of Salop, and his wife Mary Wood. He was at first taught by his father and then went to Winchester College...
(born 16761676 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Great Britain:* Thomas Hobbes, translator, Homer's Iliads in English: To which may be added Homer's Odysses * Benjamin Tompson, New Englands Crisis...
), 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... - September 4 – Jean-François RegnardJean-François RegnardJean-François Regnard , "the most distinguished, after Molière, of the comic poets of the seventeenth century", was a dramatist, born in Paris, who is equally famous now for the travel diary he kept of a voyage in 1681....
(born 16551655 in poetryNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published:* John Cotgrave, The English Treasury of Wit and Language: collected out of the most, and best of our English drammatick poems; methodically digested into common places for generall use...
), FrenchFrench poetryFrench 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:...
See also
- PoetryPoetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
- List of years in poetry
- List of years in literature