Poetry Codex

Restoration & Augustan

Stephen Duck

1705–1756

Stephen Duck (1705–1756) was an English poet, born in Wiltshire and working as an agricultural labourer when he began to write verse. His poem The Thresher's Labour, which describes the farm worker's year of toil, became known beyond his village and brought him to the notice of Queen Caroline, who gave him a pension and a place at court.

He later took holy orders and served as a clergyman and as keeper of the Queen's library at Richmond. Poems on Several Occasions (1736), the collection drawn on here, gathers his verse, including The Thresher's Labour, longer narrative poems such as Avaro and Amanda, and imitations of Horace.

Poems (46)

  1. The Thresher's Labour
  2. To a Gentleman, who requested a Copy of Verses from the Author
  3. On Poverty
  4. The Shunammite
  5. Gratitude
  6. A Pastoral Elegy
  7. On a Good Conscience
  8. On Music
  9. On Richmond Park, and Royal Gardens
  10. Avaro and Amanda
  11. To a Young Lady, who had a Cupid given Her
  12. On the Hon. Mrs. Horner's Travelling for the Recovery of her Health
  13. The Absent Lover
  14. On a Screen, work'd in Flowers by Her Royal Highness Anne, Princess of Orange
  15. To His Royal Highness The Duke of Cumberland, On His Birth-Day
  16. To Death
  17. On Mrs. L——s
  18. Truth and Falshood
  19. Proper Ingredients to make a Sceptic
  20. On Two Young Ladies leaving the Country
  21. On Mites
  22. Chloe's Conquest
  23. Occasion'd by a Dispute with a Lady
  24. To Mr. Worsdale: Occasion'd by seeing Celia's Picture unfinish'd
  25. On the Queen's Grotto, in Richmond Gardens
  26. To the Author of a Poem on the Duke of Lorrain's Arrival at the British Court
  27. On Florella's Birth-Day
  28. To the Rev. Dr. Freind, on his quitting Westminster School
  29. On Celia's Picture, drawn by Sir Godfrey Kneller
  30. On the Marriage of his Serene Highness the Prince of Orange
  31. The Answer
  32. On Delia singing, and playing on Music
  33. To the Right Honourable William Clayton, Esq. (now Lord Sundon) on his being Elected Representative in Parliament for Westminster without Opposition
  34. To Mr. Winder, (now Fellow) of Corpus-Christi, Oxford; in Answer to a Latin Epistle, which he sent me
  35. A Description of a Journey to Marlborough, Bath, Portsmouth, &c.
  36. Penelope to Ulysses
  37. An Epigram
  38. A Poem on Her Majesty's Birth-Day
  39. Felix and Constance
  40. Ad Joannem Miltonum
  41. An Imitation of the Tenth Ode of the Second Book of Horace
  42. An Imitation of the Sixteenth Ode of the Second Book of Horace
  43. An Imitation of the Sixteenth Ode of the Third Book of Horace
  44. Imitated from Claudian
  45. Of Friendship. To Celia
  46. An Ode, presented to their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, in Richmond Gardens, on Thursday, May 6. 1736

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