Soame Jenyns

Soame Jenyns (1704–1787) was an English writer and member of parliament, author of the poem The Art of Dancing (1730) and of A Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1757), which drew a famous review from Samuel Johnson.

The poem here is the one printed under his name in Frederick Locker's Lyra Elegantiarum (London: E. Moxon, 1867), an anthology of vers de société and vers d'occasion by deceased authors; the texts follow that first edition.