Poetry Codex

Restoration & Augustan

James Thomson

1700–1748

James Thomson was a Scottish poet who made his name with The Seasons (1726-30), a landmark of eighteenth-century nature poetry.

Palgrave includes "Rule Britannia", written for the masque Alfred, and a short love song.

Major Works (3)

  1. The Castle of Indolence: An Allegorical Poem — Allegorical poem, 1748
  2. Liberty — Philosophical poem, 1735-36
  3. The Seasons — Poem sequence, 1730

Poems (53)

  1. Rule Britannia
  2. For ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove
  3. On the Death of a particular Friend
  4. A Hymn on the Seasons
  5. Ode: Tell me, thou soul of her I love
  6. Come, gentle god
  7. Song: One day the god of fond desire
  8. Song: Hard is the fate of him who loves
  9. To Amanda: Come, dear Amanda, quit the town
  10. To Amanda: Unless with my Amanda blest
  11. To Myra
  12. The Bashful Lover
  13. To the Nightingale
  14. Hymn on Solitude
  15. A Nuptial Song
  16. An Ode on Aeolus's Harp
  17. On the Death of His Mother
  18. To the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton
  19. On the Death of Mr. William Aikman, the Painter
  20. To the Memory of the Right Honourable the Lord Talbot
  21. Epitaph on Miss Elizabeth Stanley
  22. A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Mr. Congreve
  23. To Dodington: The Happy Man
  24. To His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
  25. To the Rev. Patrick Murdoch
  26. Lines Sent to George Lyttelton, Esq., Soon After the Death of His Wife
  27. To Mrs. Mendez' Birthday
  28. To the Incomparable Soporific Doctor
  29. To Seraphina
  30. To Amanda: Come, healing god
  31. To Amanda: Ah! urged too late
  32. To Amanda: Accept, loved Nymph
  33. Britannia
  34. A Paraphrase of the Latter Part of the Sixth Chapter of St. Matthew
  35. On the Report of a Wooden Bridge to be Built at Westminster
  36. The Works and Wonders of Almighty Power
  37. A Paraphrase of Psalm CIV
  38. A Complaint on the Miseries of Life
  39. Hymn on the Power of God
  40. A Pastoral betwixt David, Thirsis, and the Angel Gabriel, upon the Birth of Our Saviour
  41. A Pastoral between Thirsis and Corydon upon the Death of Damon
  42. Of a Country Life
  43. Upon Happiness
  44. Verses on Receiving a Flower from a Lady
  45. On Beauty
  46. A Pastoral Entertainment
  47. On the Hoop
  48. An Elegy on Parting
  49. The Month of May
  50. Morning in the Country
  51. Lisy's Parting with Her Cat
  52. Lines on Marlefield
  53. A Poetical Epistle to Sir William Bennet

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