James Thomson, born about 11 September 1700 at Ednam in Roxburghshire and dead on 27 August 1748 at Richmond in Surrey, was among the most consequential poets of eighteenth-century Britain. A Scottish writer who made his career in London, he achieved a rare combination of popularity, literary innovation, and long afterlife. His great poem, The Seasons, led English readers away from the tightly controlled urban wit an…
“In every dress Nature is greatly charming, whether she puts on the crimson robes of the morning, the strong effulgence of noon, the sober suit of the evening, or the deep sables of blackness and tempest.”
Neighbourhood:
Augustan Poets, Nature Poets, Scottish Poets
Emotional landscape: Longing, Tenderness, Spirituality
John Scott of Amwell, born on 9 January 1730 and dead on 12 December 1783, occupied a distinctive if now comparatively quiet place in eighteenth-century English letters. He was a poet, critic, landscape gardener, social commentator, practical administrator, and committed Quaker whose life joined literary aspiration to civic usefulness. In his own day he was known not simply as John Scott but as “Scott of Amwell,” a n…
Neighbourhood:
Devotional Poets, Georgian Poets, Nature Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Tenderness, Joy, Peace
