Home > William Lisle Bowles

He was born at King's Sutton, Northamptonshire, where his father was vicar. At the age of fourteen he entered Winchester College, the headmaster at the time being Dr Joseph Warton. In 1781, Bowles left as captain of the school, and went on to Trinity College, Oxford, where he had won a scholarship. Two years later he won the chancellors prize for Latin verse. In 1789 he published, in a small quarto volume, Fourteen Sonnets, which were praised by Samuel Taylor ColeridgeThis page is about the nineteenth century English poet. For the twentieth century classical composer, see Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( October 21, 1772- July 25, 1834) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher and, along with his and his circle.

The Sonnets even in form were a revival, a return to an older and purer poetic style, and by their grace of expression, melodious versification, tender tone of feeling and vivid appreciation of the life and beauty of nature, stood out in strong contrast to the elaborated commonplaces which at that time formed the bulk of English poetry. After taking his degree at Oxford, Bowles entered the church, and was appointed in 1792 as vicar of Chicklade in WiltshireWiltshire (abbreviated Wilts is a large southern English county. Considered as a ceremonial county it borders those of Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and contains the unitary authority of Swindon. Wiltshire is a m. In 1797Events January 3 The Treaty of Tripoli (a peace treaty between the United States and Tripoli) is signed at Algiers. January 7 The parliament of the Repubblica Cisalpina adopts the Italian Tricolore as official flag: here starts the story of the Flag of It he received the vicarage of Dumbleton in GloucestershireGloucestershire is a ceremonial and administrative county in southwest England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire of the Forest of Dean. The county town is Gloucester, and, and in 1804Events January 1 End of French rule in Haiti June 15 The Twelfth Amendment to the U. Constitution ratified by New Hampshire, and arguably becomes effective (subsequently vetoed by the Governor of New Hampshire) July 27 The Twelfth Amendment to the U. became vicar of Bremhill in Wiltshire. In the same year he was collated by Bishop Douglas to a prebendal stall in Salisbury CathedralSalisbury Cathedral is located in Salisbury, England. Building commenced when the bishopric was moved here from Old Sarum in 1220 during the tenure of Richard Poore. By 1258 the nave, transepts and choir were complete. The magnificent west front was ready. In 1818 he was made chaplain to the Prince RegentGeorge IV (George Augustus Frederick) ( 12 August 1762 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom and Hanover from 29 January 1820. He had earlier served as Prince Regent; his father, George III, suffered from porphyria, and had lapsed into insanity., and in 1828 he was elected residentiary canon of SalisburySalisbury Cathedral is located in Salisbury, England. Building commenced when the bishopric was moved here from Old Sarum in 1220 during the tenure of Richard Poore. By 1258 the nave, transepts and choir were complete. The magnificent west front was ready.

The longer poems published by Bowles are not of a very high standard, though all are distinguished by purity of imagination, cultured and graceful diction, and great tenderness of feeling. The most extensive were The Spirit of Discovery (1804), which was mercilessly ridiculed by Byron; The Missionary of the Andes (1815); The Grave of the Last Saxon (1822); and St John in Patmos (1833). Bowles is perhaps more celebrated as a critic than as a poet. In 1806 he published an edition of Alexander Pope's works with notes and an essay, in which he laid down certain canons as to poetic imagery which, subject to some modification, were later accepted, but which were received at the time with strong opposition by admirers of Pope and his style. The controversy brought into sharp contrast the opposing views of poetry, which may be roughly described as the natural and the artificial.

Bowles maintained that images drawn from nature are poetically finer than those drawn from art; and that in the highest kinds of poetry the themes or passions handled should be of the general or elemental kind, and not the transient manners of any society. These positions were attacked by Byron, Thomas Campbell, William Roscoe and others, while for a time Bowles was almost solitary. William Hazlitt and the Blackwood critics came to his assistance, and on the whole Bowles had reason to congratulate himself on having established certain principles which might serve as the basis of a true method of poetical criticism, and of having inaugurated, both by precept and by example, a new era in English poetry. Among other prose works from his prolific pen was a Life of Bishop Ken (2 vols., 1830-1831).

His Poetical Works were collected in 1855, with a memoir by George Gilfillan.