Warton, Thomas

9 January 1728 - 21 May 1790

English poet and a Professor of Poetry at Oxford, no less, who also served as Poet Laureate (from 1785 until his death) — in sum, about as "English poet" as one can get. Associated with the Graveyard School, Warton (sometimes known as "Thomas Warton the Younger," for his father was also a poet and professor at Oxford; his brother Joseph Warton was also a poet) is best known for The Pleasures of Melancholy. Now that is a Graveyard School title... Warton, something of an antiquarian and literary historian, helped establish the Rowley forgeries of Thomas Chatterton.

Sites:
Biographical note
[The Burns Encyclopedia, Burns Country]
Biographical note
Part of the "Pleasures of Melancholy" hypertext site discussed below. [Judy Niessner; Richard Stockton College]
Brief biographical note
[Wikipedia]
Brief biographical note
[OldPoetry.com]
Brief biographical note
[Judy Niessner]
Brief biographical note
[Columbia Encyclopedia, Bartleby]
Brief biographical note
[Encarta]
Brief bibliographical note
[Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, (1898); Bartleby.com]
Brief overview
From T. H. Ward's The English Poets (1889) [IPCVision]
Brief biographical note a LitGothic etext
[John W. Cousins, A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910]
Brief note on Warton and poetic tradition
[Cambridge History of English and American Literature (1907-21); Bartleby.com]


Etexts:
The Pleasures of Melancholy [1747]
- hypertext version at Richard Stockton College
A class project, this hypertext version has the complete text, helpful annotations, and supplementary essays on the aesthetic and cultural context of the poem. Highly recommended.
- at U Toronto (excerpt)

"Thomas Warton."