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Thomas Warton the younger
In the eighteenth century, the then vicar of St. Michaels
church, the Rev. Thomas Warton, had two sons and a daughter. All four of them
wrote poetry, with Thomas Warton the younger being perhaps the most famous. The
eldest son Joseph won acclaim, at the time, for his translation of the Eclogues
and Georics of Virgil. Thomas, the younger, became poet Laureate, one of his
most famous poems was the sonnet To the river Loddon.
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To
the river Loddon
AH! what a weary race my feet have run,
Since first I trod thy banks with alders crowned,
And thought my way was all through fairy ground,
Beneath thy azure sky, and golden sun:
Where first my Muse to lisp her notes begun!
While pensive Memory traces back the round,
Which fills the varied interval between;
Much pleasure, more of sorrow, marks the scene.
Sweet native stream! those skies and suns so pure
No more return, to cheer my evening road;
Yet still one joy remains, that not obscure,
Nor useless, all my vacant days have flowed,
From youth's gay dawn to manhood's prime mature;
Nor with the Muse's laurel unbestowed. |
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Thomas's sister, Jane, also wrote poetry, which it was said
"were at least not inferior to her father." Thomas Warton the younger
died in 1790 |