A Song To David
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A Song To David
''A Song to David'', a 1763 poem by Christopher Smart, was, debatably, most likely written during his stay in a mental asylum while he wrote ''Jubilate Agno''. Although it received mixed reviews, it was his most famous work until the discovery of ''Jubilate Agno''. The poem focuses on King David and various aspects of his life, but quickly turns to an emphasis on Christ and Christianity. Background There is no evidence proving that Christopher Smart wrote ''A Song to David'' while locked away in a mental asylum for seven years.''Poetical Works'' p. 99 However, John Langhorne claimed, in the 1763 ''Monthly Review'', "that it was written when the Author was denied the use of pen, ink, and paper, and was obliged to indent his lines, with the end of a key upon the wainscot."''Monthly Review'' xxviii, 1763 p. 321 It is unlikely that Christopher had to go to such extremes to actually write the poem, but many scholars believe that it was written during his confinement. However, Christoph ...
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Christopher Smart
Christopher Smart (11 April 1722 – 20 May 1771) was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines, ''The Midwife'' and ''The Student'', and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart, a high church Anglican, was widely known throughout London. Smart was infamous as the pseudonymous midwife "Mrs. Mary Midnight" and for widespread accounts of his father-in-law, John Newbery, locking him away in a mental asylum for many years over Smart's supposed religious "mania". Even after Smart's eventual release, a negative reputation continued to pursue him as he was known for incurring more debt than he could repay; this ultimately led to his confinement in debtors' prison until his death. His two most widely known works are ''A Song to David'' and ''Jubilate Agno'', which are believed to have been written during his confinement in St. Luke's Asylum, although this is still debated by scholars as there is no record o ...
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Hexagram
, can be seen as a compound composed of an upwards (blue here) and downwards (pink) facing equilateral triangle, with their intersection as a regular hexagon (in green). A hexagram ( Greek language, Greek) or sexagram (Latin) is a six-pointed geometric star figure with the Schläfli symbol , 2, or . Since there are no true regular continuous hexagrams, the term is instead used to refer to a compound figure of two equilateral triangles. The intersection is a regular hexagon. The hexagram is part of an infinite series of shapes which are compounds of two n-dimensional simplices. In three dimensions, the analogous compound is the stellated octahedron, and in four dimensions the compound of two 5-cells is obtained. It has been historically used in religious and cultural contexts and as decorative motifs. The symbol was used as a decorative motif in medieval Christian churches and Jewish synagogues. It was first used as a mystic symbol by Muslims in the medieval period, known a ...
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Christian Poetry
Christian poetry is any poetry that contains Christian teachings, themes, or references. The influence of Christianity on poetry has been great in any area that Christianity has taken hold. Christian poems often directly reference the Bible, while others provide allegory. History of Christian poetry Early history Poetic forms have been used by Christians since the recorded history of the faith begins. The earliest Christian poetry, in fact, appears in the New Testament. Canticles such as the ''Magnificat'' and ''Nunc Dimittis'', which appear in the Gospel of Luke, take the Biblical poetry of the psalms of the Hebrew Bible as their models. Many Biblical scholars also believe that St Paul of Tarsus quotes bits of early Christian hymns in his epistles. Passages such as Philippians 2:5-11 (following) are thought by many Biblical scholars to represent early Christian hymns that were being quoted by the Apostle: :''Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:Who, being i ...
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British Poems
British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, the English language as spoken and written in the United Kingdom or, more broadly, throughout the British Isles * Celtic Britons, an ancient ethno-linguistic group * Brittonic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly called British) ** Common Brittonic, an ancient language Other uses *''Brit(ish)'', a 2018 memoir by Afua Hirsch *People or things associated with: ** Great Britain, an island ** United Kingdom, a sovereign state ** Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) ** United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) See also * Terminology of the British Isles * Alternative names for the British * English (other) * Britannic (other) * British Isles * Brit (other) * Briton (d ...
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1763 Poems
Events January–March * January 27 – The seat of colonial administration in the Viceroyalty of Brazil is moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. * February 1 – The Royal Colony of North Carolina officially creates Mecklenburg County from the western portion of Anson County. The county is named for Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who married George III of the United Kingdom in 1761. * February 10 – Seven Years' War – French and Indian War: The Treaty of Paris ends the war, and France cedes Canada (New France) to Great Britain. * February 15 – The Treaty of Hubertusburg puts an end to the Seven Years' War between Prussia and Austria, and their allies France and Russia. * February 23 – The Berbice Slave Uprising starts in the former Dutch colony of Berbice. * March 1 – Charles Townshend becomes President of the Board of Trade in the British government. April–June * April 6 – The Théâtre du Palais ...
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Philological Quarterly
The ''Philological Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on medieval European and modern literature and culture. It was established in 1922 by Hardin Craig. The inaugural issue of the journal was made available at sixty cents per copy and included articles on Chaucer, Henry Fielding, and Shakespeare, among others. Berthold Ullman served with three colleagues on the original board of associate editors. Bill Kupersmith guided the journal through disciplinary reorganizations and changing academic norms during his thirty-year service as editor of the journal. The current editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ... is Eric Gidal. References External links * Publications established in 1922 Quarterly journals University of Io ...
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John Churton Collins
John Churton Collins (26 March 1848 – 25 September 1908) was a British literary critic. Biography Churton Collins was born at Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, England. From King Edward's School, Birmingham, he went to Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1872, and at once devoted himself to a literary career, as journalist, essayist and lecturer. His first book was a study of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1874), and later he edited various classical English writers, and published volumes on Bolingbroke and Voltaire in England (1886), ''The Study of English Literature'' (1891), a study of Dean Swift (1893), ''Essays and Studies'' (1895), ''Ephemera Critica'' (1901), ''Essays in Poetry and Criticism'' (1905), and Rousseau and Voltaire (1908), his original essays being sharply controversial in tone, but full of knowledge. In 1904 he became professor of English literature at Birmingham University. For many years he was a prominent University Extension lecturer, and a con ...
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti inspired the next generation of artists and writers, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones in particular. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement. Rossetti's art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism. His early poetry was influenced by John Keats and William Blake. His later poetry was characterised by the complex interlinking of thought and feeling, especially in his sonnet sequence, ''The House of Life''. Poetry and image are closely entwined in Rossetti's work. He frequently wrote sonnets to accompany his pictures, spanning from '' The Girlhood of Mary Virgin'' (1849) and ''Astarte ...
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Robert Browning
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings and challenging vocabulary and syntax. His early long poems ''Pauline'' (1833) and ''Paracelsus'' (1835) were acclaimed, but his reputation dwindled for a time – his 1840 poem ''Sordello'' was seen as wilfully obscure – and took over a decade to recover, by which time he had moved from Shelleyan forms to a more personal style. In 1846 he married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett and moved to Italy. By her death in 1861 he had published the collection ''Men and Women'' (1855). His ''Dramatis Personae'' (1864) and book-length epic poem ''The Ring and the Book'' (1868–1869) made him a leading poet. By his death in 1889 he was seen as a sage and philosopher-poet who had fed into Victorian social and political discourse. Societies for ...
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William Kenrick (writer)
William Kenrick (c. 1725 – 10 June 1779) was an England, English novelist, playwright, translator and satirist, who spent much of his career Defamation, libelling and Parody, lampooning his fellow writers. Life and career Kenrick was born at Watford, Hertfordshire, son of a Bone (corsetry), stay-maker. He apparently obtained a doctorate at Leiden University (although other sources maintain he went to a Scottish university) and appeared for the first time as a pamphletist in 1751 where he wrote, under the name of "Ontologos", ''The Grand Question debated; or an Essay to prove that the Soul of Man is not, neither can it be Immortal.'' In typical fashion, Kenrick forthwith provided an answer to this question proving the reverse, a tactic he often used in order to publicize his productions. One of his first targets was the vulnerable Christopher Smart whose poem ''Night Piece'' he attacked in the London monthly journal ''The Kapelion; or Poetical Ordinary, consisting of Great Va ...
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Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, classics, classical scholar, and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is widely known for his ''Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,'' published in 1751. Gray was a Self-criticism, self-critical writer who published only 13 poems in his lifetime, despite being very popular. He was even offered the position of Poet laureate, Poet Laureate in 1757 after the death of Colley Cibber, though he declined. His writing is conventionally considered to be Preromanticism, pre-Romantic but recent critical developments deny such Teleology, teleological classification. Early life and education Thomas Gray was born in Cornhill, London. His father, Philip Gray, was a scrivener and his mother, Dorothy Antrobus, was a milliner. He was the fifth of twelve children, and the only one to survive infancy.John D. Baird, 'Gray, Thomas (1716–1771)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National ...
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William Mason (poet)
William Mason (12 February 1724 – 7 April 1797) was an English poet, divine, amateur draughtsman, author, editor and gardener. Life He was born in Hull and educated at Hull Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1754 and held a number of posts in the church. In 1747, his poem "Musaeus, a Monody on the Death of Mr. Pope" was published to acclaim and quickly went through several editions. Summarizing this poem, a threnody, William Lyon Phelps writes: Among his other works are the historical tragedies ''Elfrida'' (1752) and ''Caractacus'' (1759) (both used in translation as libretti for 18th century operas: ''Elfrida'' - Paisiello and LeMoyne, ''Caractacus'' - Sacchini (as '' Arvire et Évélina'') and a long poem on gardening, ''The English Garden'' (three volumes, 1772–82). His garden designs included one for the Viscount Harcourt. He entered the Church in 1754, and in 1762 became the precentor and canon of York Minster. He was the frien ...
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