{\b Thomas Warton}.

Date of birth: 9 January 1728

Date of death: 21 May 1790

{\b Works}.

Thomas Warton's works include odes, light verses and sonnets. Some of his most 
well known poetry includes; Pleasures of Melancholy (1774) and The Triumph of 
Iris (1749), as well as the verses he composed for The Oxford Sausage (1764). 
He is best remembered, however, for The History of English Poetry (1774-81) 
which is the first literary history of any scope and gives great insight into 
tastes in poetry at this time. Warton, along with Oliver Goldsmith and Edmund 
Burke, was a prominent member of The Literary Club, which was founded by Dr 
Samuel Johnson.

{\b Featured Works}.

'The Oxford Newsman's Verses: For the Year 1771'.

{\b General Comment}.s
Warton was born in Hampshire, England, son of the older Thomas Warton, a poet 
and professor of poetry. He was the brother of Joseph Warton, also a poet and 
critic. Warton edited some early poetry by John Milton who was a strong 
influence on his work. In 1785 he was appointed poet laureate, but was not 
very successful in his writing on royal topics and was scorned in this 
position by various contemporaries. His poetry often reflects his regret at 
the shifting of aesthetic values and the loss of the mediaeval imaginative 
world as poetry moved into the Romantic period. This regret can be seen as 
early as 1747 in his Pleasures of Melancholy.