''The Course of Time'' is a ten-book

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and P ...

, first published in 1827. It was the last published and most famous work of Scottish poet

Robert Pollok Robert Pollok (19 October 1798 – 15 September 1827) was a Scottish poet best known for his work, ''The Course of Time'', published in the year of his death. Biography Pollok was born at North Moorhouse Farm, Loganswell, Renfrewshire, Scotl ...

. The first edition of the poem sold 12,000 copies, and by its fourth edition it had sold 78,000 copies and become well known even in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Pollok himself died in September 1827, only a few months after the poem was published. An

illustrated An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video ...

edition was published in 1857, featuring the work of

John Tenniel Sir John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914)Johnson, Lewis (2003), "Tenniel, John", ''Grove Art Online, Oxford Art Online'', Oxford University Press. Web. Retrieved 12 December 2016. was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and pol ...

Myles Birket Foster Myles Birket Foster (4 February 1825 – 27 March 1899) was a British illustrator, watercolourist and engraver in the Victorian period. His name is also to be found as Myles Birkett Foster. Life and work Foster was born in North Shiel ...

, and J. R. Clayton.

References

External links

Video footage of the Robert Pollok Centenary Monument

Images and description of the 1857 edition
at the

Memorial University Memorial University of Newfoundland, also known as Memorial University or MUN (), is a public university in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, based in St. John's, with satellite campuses in Corner Brook, elsewhere in Newfoundland and ...

Digital Archive. 1827 poetry books 1827 poems Scottish poems William Blackwood books Books illustrated by John Tenniel {{1820s-poem-stub