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Thomas Warton

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Poet

The Resume

    (January 8, 1728-May 21, 1790)
    Born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom
    Poet, historian, and critic
    Professor of Poetry at Oxford (1757-67)
    Wrote ‘The Pleasures of Melancholy’ (1747) and ‘The History of English Poetry’ (three volumes, 1774-81)
    Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom (1785-90)

Why he might be annoying:

    Samuel Johnson described him as ‘a little, thick, squat red-faced man in very odd dress’ and said that he ‘gobbled like a turkey’ when speaking.
    He started a fourth volume of ‘History’ that would have covered English poetry after the Elizabethan Era but gave it up after writing fewer than 100 pages.
    He suffered a fatal stroke shortly after finishing an ode on the blessings of good health.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He translated an epigram of Martial when he was nine.
    He correctly deduced that the allegedly medieval ‘Rowley poems’ were contemporary forgeries (by Thomas Chatterton).
    He revived interest in the sonnet, which had fallen out of fashion as a poetic form.
    As late as 1911, the Encyclopedia Britannica declared his ‘History’ ‘indispensable to the student of English poetry.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 9 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying