The Seasons is a series of four poems written by the Scottish author James Thomson. The first part, Winter, was published in 1726, and the completed poem cycle appeared in 1730. [1]
The poem was extremely influential, and stimulated works by Joshua Reynolds, John Christopher Smith, Joseph Haydn, Thomas Gainsborough and J. M. W. Turner. [1]
Thomson was educated first at the Parish school of Southdean then at Jedburgh Grammar School and Edinburgh University where he was a member of "The Grotesques" literary club; some of his early poems were published in the Edinburgh Miscellany of 1720. Seeking a larger stage, he went to London in 1725, and became the tutor of Thomas Hamilton (who became the 7th Earl of Haddington) in Barnet. There he was able to begin Winter, the first of his four Seasons. [2]
Blank verse had been considered more of an interesting toy than anything useful to poetry, despite John Milton's epic-scale Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained half a century earlier. [3]
The poem was published one season at a time, Winter in 1726, Summer in 1727, Spring in 1728 and Autumn only in the complete edition of 1730. [2] Thomson borrowed Milton's Latin-influenced vocabulary and inverted word order, with phrases like "in convolution swift". He extended Milton's narrative use of blank verse to use it for description and to give a meditative feeling. [4] The critic Raymond Dexter Havens called Thomson's style pompous and contorted, remarking that Thomson seemed to have avoided "calling things by their right names and speaking simply, directly, and naturally". [4]
The lengthy blank verse poem, reflecting on the landscape of the countryside, was highly influential and much liked for at least a century after its writing. [3] Especially lavish editions were produced between 1830 and 1870 in Britain and America. [5]
A dispute over the publishing rights to The Seasons gave rise to two important legal decisions ( Millar v. Taylor ; Donaldson v. Beckett ) in the history of copyright. In 1750, the London bookseller Andrew Millar reprinted the 1746 edition of The Works of James Thomson vol. 1. and included a prefatory note that emphasised the author's preference for the 1746 edition. Millar may have referred to the 1744 edition because it was the first expanded version of Thomson's famous poem, it sold quickly, and it may have helped to clarify for Millar that he owned the highly valuable copyright of this book in perpetuity. [6] Thomas Macklin included an extract from Autumn in his Poet's Gallery. The painting which used his wife, daughter and Jane Potts as models was created by Joshua Reynolds and then it was engraved and prints were sold. [7]
The Seasons was translated into German by Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1745). This translation formed the basis for a work with the same title by Gottfried van Swieten, which became the libretto for Haydn's oratorio The Seasons . [8]
Artists such as Thomas Medland, Anker Smith and John Neagle (1792) created engravings to accompany the poems. [9] A bathing scene from Summer inspired paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, William Etty ( Musidora: The Bather 'At the Doubtful Breeze Alarmed' ) and Johann Sebastian Bach the Younger.
The piece was translated into French by the naturalist Joseph-Philippe-François Deleuze (1753–1835).
Oscar Wilde included this poem, only half-sarcastically, in a list of ‘books not to read at all’. [10]
The Scottish Enlightenment was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Scottish Lowlands and five universities. The Enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh as The Select Society and, later, The Poker Club, as well as within Scotland's ancient universities.
Rev Robert Blair was a Scottish poet. His fame rests upon his poem The Grave, which, in a later printing was illustrated by William Blake.
Allan Ramsay was a Scottish poet, playwright, publisher, librarian, and impresario of early Enlightenment Edinburgh.
Edward Young was an English poet, best remembered for Night-Thoughts, a series of philosophical writings in blank verse, reflecting his state of mind following several bereavements. It was one of the most popular poems of the century, influencing Goethe and Edmund Burke, among many others, with its notable illustrations by William Blake.
Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Paul Fussell has estimated that "about three quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse".
David Mallet was a Scottish poet and dramatist.
James Thomson was a Scottish poet and playwright, known for his poems The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence, and for the lyrics of "Rule, Britannia!"
The Seasons is a secular oratorio by Joseph Haydn, first performed in 1801.
The Seasons may refer to:
Leonard Welsted was an English poet and "dunce" in Alexander Pope's writings. Welsted was an accomplished writer who composed in a relaxed, light hearted vein. He was associated with Whig party political figures in his later years, but he was tory earlier, and, in the age of patronage, this seems to have been more out of financial need than anything else.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
The reception history of John Milton and his works has been a mixture of positive and negative responses, with his greatest influence being found within his poetry.
Patrick Murdoch was an author, publisher and mathematician, who published a biography of poet James Thomson, and also An account of Sir Isaac Newton's philosophical discoveries by Colin MacLaurin.
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Musidora: The Bather 'At the Doubtful Breeze Alarmed', also known as The Bather, is a name given to four nearly identical oil paintings on canvas by English artist William Etty. The paintings illustrate a scene from James Thomson's 1727 poem Summer in which a young man accidentally sees a young woman bathing naked, and is torn between his desire to look and his knowledge that he ought to look away. The scene was popular with English artists as it was one of the few legitimate pretexts to paint nudes at a time when the display and distribution of nude imagery was suppressed.
Joseph Thurston, was an English poet. His poetry was much appreciated by Alexander Pope.
Media related to The Seasons (James Thomson) at Wikimedia Commons
Texts on Wikisource: 
The Seasons public domain audiobook at LibriVox