William Crowe (poet)
William Crowe | |
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Queen Square (Bath) | |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
| Genre | Poetry |
William Crowe (1745–1829) was an English poet, the son of a
Crowe was a
Life
William Crowe was born at
Crowe continued to hold his fellowship until November 1783, although, according to
According to the Clerical Guide, Crowe was also rector until his death at
Crowe and
Reputation
Anecdotes were told of his eccentric speech and his rustic manners. In politics he was an extreme Whig, close to being a republican, and he sympathised with the early stages of the French Revolution. He was accustomed to walk from his living in Wiltshire to his college at Oxford. His appearances in the pulpit or in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford were always welcomed by the graduates of the university; his Latin sermons at St. Mary's or his orations at commemoration, graced as they were by a fine rich voice, enjoyed great popularity.[1]
Crowe was interested in architecture, and occasionally read a course of lectures on that subject in New College hall. The merits of his lectures at the Royal Institution on poetry were praised by
Works
Lewesdon Hill is Crowe's poem on the hill in the western part of Dorset, on the edge of the parish of Broadwindsor, of which Tom Fuller was rector, and near Crowe's benefice of Stoke Abbott. The poet is depicted as climbing the hill-top on a May morning and describing the prospect, with its associations, which his eye surveys. The first edition, issued anonymously and dedicated to Jonathan Shipley, was published at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1788. A second impression, with its authorship avowed, was demanded in the same year, and later editions, in a much enlarged form, and with several other poems, were published in 1804 and 1827.[1]
Crowe's other works were:
- ‘A Sermon before the University of Oxford at St. Mary's, 5 Nov. 1781.’
- ‘On the late Attempt on her Majesty's Person, a sermon before the University of Oxford at St. Mary's, 1786.’
- ‘Oratio ex Instituto ... Dom. Crew.’ 1788. From the preface it appears that the oration was printed in refutation of certain slanders as to its character which had been circulated. It contained his views on the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
- ‘Oratio Crewiana,’ 1800. On poetry and the poetry professorship at Oxford.
- ‘Hamlet and As you like it, a specimen of a new edition of Shakespeare’; anonymous by Thomas Caldecott and Crowe, 1819, with later editions in 1820 and 1832. The two authors contemplated a new edition of Shakespeare. Caldecott was Crowe's schoolfellow at Winchester and lifelong friend.
- ‘A Treatise on English Versification,’ 1827, dedicated to Caldecott.
- ‘Poems of William Collins, with notes, and Dr. Johnson's Life, corrected and enlarged,’ Bath, 1828.
Crowe's son died in battle in 1815, and in Notes and Queries [2] there is a Latin monody by his father on his loss. His verses intended to have been spoken at the theatre at Oxford on the installation of the Duke of Portland as chancellor were praised by Rogers and Moore. His sonnet to Petrarch is included in the collections of English sonnets by Robert Fletcher Housman and Alexander Dyce. [1]
Crowe contributed articles to Rees's Cyclopædia, but the topics are not known.
References
External links
Media related to William Crowe (1745–1829) at Wikimedia Commons
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Courtney, William Prideaux (1888). "Crowe, William (1745-1829)". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 13. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 239–240.- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.
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