Poetry Codex

Romantic

Thomas Chatterton

1752–1770

Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770) was born in Bristol, the posthumous son of a schoolmaster and church official, and was writing remarkable verse before he was in his teens. He invented a fifteenth-century Bristol priest named Thomas Rowley and wrote a body of poems in an imitation medieval English, passing them off as Rowley's recovered manuscripts.

He went to London in 1770 hoping to live by his pen and died there in August of that year, aged seventeen. The question whether the Rowley poems were genuine was argued for decades, but they are now known to be his own. Wordsworth called him ‘the marvellous Boy,’ and Keats dedicated Endymion to his memory.

Poems (101)

  1. Eclogue the First
  2. Eclogue the Second
  3. Eclogue the Third
  4. Elinoure and Juga
  5. To Johne Ladgate
  6. Songe to Ælla
  7. Lydgate's Answer
  8. Bristowe Tragedie; or, The Dethe of Syr Charles Bawdin
  9. Epistle to Mastre Canynge on Ælla
  10. Letter to the Dygne Mastre Canynge
  11. Entroductionne
  12. Englysh Metamorphosis, Book I
  13. An Excelente Balade of Charitie
  14. Onn oure Ladies Chyrche
  15. On the Same
  16. Epitaph on Robert Canynge
  17. The Storie of William Canynge
  18. On Happienesse
  19. Onn Johne a Dalbenie
  20. The Gouler's Requiem
  21. The Accounte of W. Canynges Feast
  22. Minstrel's Song
  23. Kenrick
  24. February, an Elegy
  25. Battle of Hastings, No. 1
  26. Battle of Hastings, No. 2
  27. On the Last Epiphany, or Christ Coming to Judgment
  28. A Hymn for Christmas Day
  29. Sly Dick
  30. The Churchwarden and the Apparition
  31. Apostate Will
  32. The Romance of the Knight
  33. To a Friend ("O'erwhelm'd with pleasure at the joyful news")
  34. To the Beauteous Miss Hoyland
  35. Ode to Miss Hoyland
  36. Acrostic on Miss Eleanor Hoyland
  37. Acrostic on Miss Sally Clarke
  38. To Miss Hoyland ("Once more the Muse")
  39. To Miss Hoyland ("Since short the busy scene of life")
  40. To Miss Hoyland ("Tell me, god of soft desires")
  41. To Miss Hoyland, with a Present
  42. To Miss Hoyland ("Count all the flowers")
  43. To Miss Clarke
  44. To Miss Hoyland ("Sweet are thy charming smiles")
  45. To Miss Hoyland ("Go, gentle Muse")
  46. To Miss C., on Hearing Her Play on the Harpsichord
  47. Elegy on the Death of Mr. John Tandey, Senior
  48. On Mr. Alcock, of Bristol
  49. To Mr. Holland
  50. To Mr. Powel
  51. To Mrs. Haywood, the Novelist
  52. To Horace Walpole
  53. Journal Sixth
  54. Fragment ("Far from the reach of critics and reviews")
  55. Elegy on the Death of Mr. Phillips, of Fairford
  56. Elegy ("Joyless I seek the solitary shade")
  57. Elegy Written at Stanton-Drew
  58. Clifton
  59. Epistle to the Reverend Mr. Catcott
  60. A New Song, to Mr. G. Catcott
  61. The Copernican System
  62. The Defence
  63. Sentiment
  64. The Advice
  65. Verses to a Lady in Bristol
  66. Heccar and Gaira
  67. The Consuliad
  68. Resignation
  69. Elegy ("Haste, haste! ye solemn messengers of night")
  70. The Exhibition
  71. Fragment ("Interest, thou universal god of men")
  72. Sunday. A Fragment
  73. Kew Gardens
  74. Colin Instructed
  75. A Burlesque Cantata
  76. Song: Fanny of the Hill
  77. Narva and Mored
  78. A Song, Addressed to Miss C—am, of Bristol
  79. Enquiry after Happiness
  80. Happiness
  81. Elegy ("Why blooms the radiance of the morning sky?")
  82. The Methodist
  83. The Prophecy
  84. The Shepherds (Fables for the Court)
  85. The Death of Nicou
  86. To Miss Bush, of Bristol
  87. The Happy Pair
  88. A Bacchanalian ("Bacchus, ever smiling power")
  89. The Invitation
  90. A Bacchanalian ("What is war and all its joys?")
  91. The Virgin's Choice
  92. Elegy on the Death of William Beckford, Esq.
  93. The Art of Puffing
  94. To a Friend, on His Intended Marriage
  95. Horace, Book I, Ode 5 (translation)
  96. Horace, Book I, Ode 19 (translation)
  97. The Complaint
  98. An Epitaph on an Old Maid
  99. Elegy on Mr. William Smith
  100. The Resignation
  101. Last Verses

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