James Thomson: An Introduction II James Thomson, Pre-Romantic Poetry

  

INTRODUCTION:

 

James Thomson (1700-1748) was a revolutionary poet who wrote nature poems in the times when artificial poetry was mostly welcomed. He was a scotch poet endowed with a love and appreciation for nature and the dreamy life of the middle ages. He was a man of vivid imagination and was an ardent lover and worshipper of nature.

 

BACKGROUND:

 

James Thomson lived during the period of neoclassicism, the age of Alexander Pope. When almost all writers of literature were following classicism, James Thomson had the courage to go against the current trend and he started reacting against this classicism. He was the man who laid the foundation of romanticism which finds its ultimate pinnacle of success in the hands of Wordsworth and Coleridge. His three important poetical works are worth considering.

 

1) The Seasons (1830)

2) Liberty (1735/36)

3) The Castle of Indolence (1748)

 

1) The Seasons:

It was for many years the most popular volume of poetry in England. It was just like Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s progress’ found in every cottage of England. It also created rivalry with Pope's 'Homer'. 

 

It is a blank was poem which consist of a long series of descriptive passages describing natural scenes. This poem was in reaction against the artificial school of poetry popular during the age of Alexander Pope.

 

Here, Thomson writes on Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter in four poems of about a thousand lines each. He does not, however, merely praise each of these seasons. Instead, he presents the merits and demerits, the blessings and curses of each season, so that readers get a complete picture of the year's glory as well as horror.

 

 

2) Liberty:

This is also a gigantic poem written in blank verse intolerably dull. It had no success. Dr Johnson says, "The praises of ‘Liberty’ were condemned to harbour spiders and gather dust."

 

3) The Castle of Indolence:

In the last year of his life he published ‘The Castle of Indolence’ which is even more remarkable than ‘The Seasons’. Written in Spenserian stanza, this poem has two cantos the first deals with the delights of the castle and the second with the feats of "the knights of art and industry. 

 

CONCLUSION:

In short, by writing these poems, James Thomson restored nature to one of the first places among the subjects of poetry. When artificial life was the popular subject matter of poetry, he started a new trend of writing poetry on nature. He paved the way and prepared a ground for Coleridge, Wordsworth and Keats to play on in the succeeding age of Romantic Revival (1798-1830).

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