Victorian

William Johnson Cory

1823–1892


William Johnson Cory (1823–1892), born William Johnson at Torrington in Devon, was an English poet and schoolmaster. Educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, he spent twenty-seven years as a master at Eton before retiring to Devon, and later took the name Cory.

His poems were gathered in Ionica, first published in 1858, enlarged in a privately printed second series of 1877 and reissued in 1891. The poems here follow the third edition of 1905, together with its appendix of pieces from the earlier volumes.

  1. Desiderato
  2. Mimnermus in Church
  3. Heraclitus
  4. Iole
  5. Stesichorus
  6. Caius Gracchus
  7. Asterope
  8. A Dirge
  9. An Invocation
  10. Academus
  11. Prospero
  12. Amaturus
  13. Mortem, Quae Violat Suavi a Pellit Amor
  14. Two Fragments of Childhood
  15. War Music
  16. Nubenti
  17. Words for a Portuguese Air
  18. Adrienne and Maurice
  19. The Hallowing of the Fleet
  20. The Cairn and the Church
  21. A Queen's Visit
  22. Moon-Set
  23. After Reading "maud"
  24. A Song
  25. A Study of Boyhood
  26. Mercurialia
  27. Reparabo
  28. A Birthday
  29. A New Year's Day
  30. A Cruise
  31. A Separation
  32. A New Michonnet
  33. Sapphics
  34. A Fable
  35. Amavi
  36. Notes of an Interview
  37. Preparation
  38. Deteriora
  39. Parting
  40. All That Was Possible
  41. Scheveningen Avenue
  42. Melliren
  43. A Merry Parting
  44. School Fencibles
  45. Boconnoc
  46. A Sketch After Brantome
  47. On Livermead Sands
  48. Lacordaire at Oxford
  49. A Retrospect of School Life
  50. Clovelly Beach
  51. An Epoch in a Sweet Life
  52. Phaedra's Nurse
  53. Below Boulter's Lock
  54. From Halsdon to Cheltenham to Two Little Ladies
  55. A Poor French Sailor's Scottish Sweetheart
  56. A Garden Girl
  57. To Two Young Ladies
  58. A House and a Girl
  59. A Fellow Passenger Unknown
  60. Nuremberg Cemetery
  61. Mortal Thing Not Wholly Clay
  62. A Sick French Poet's English Friends
  63. L'oiseau Bleu
  64. Home, Pup!
  65. A Soldier's Miracle
  66. A Ballad for a Boy
  67. Epilogue
  68. Je Maintiendrai
  69. Sapphics for a Tune
  70. Johnnie of Braidislee
  71. Europa
  72. Hypermnestra
  73. Barine
  74. To Britomart Musing
  75. Hersilia
  76. Sappho's Cursing
  77. A Serving Man's Epitaph
  78. A Song to a Singer
  79. Age and Girlhood
  80. A Legend of Porto Santo
  81. To a Linnet
  82. A Song for a Parting
  83. Mir Ist Leide
  84. Lebewohl--Words for a Tune
  85. Remember
  86. To the Infallible
  87. The Swimmer's Wish
  88. An Apology
  89. Notre Dame--From the South-East
  90. In Honour of Matthew Prior
  91. Nec Cithara Carentem
  92. Heracleitus

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