1726 in poetry
This article covers 1726 in poetry. Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Works published
United Kingdom">English poetry">United Kingdom
- Henry Baker, The Second Part of Original Poems: Serious and Humorous
- Ebenezer Cooke, "An ELOGY on the Death of Thomas Bordley, Esq.", the first of four elegies attributed to Cooke; English Colonial America
- Henry Carey, Namby Pamby: or, a panegyrick on the new versification address'd to A----- P----, including fragments of many still-popular nursery rhymes, such as "London Bridge is broken down" ; Dublin
- Alexander Pope, The Odyssey of Homer, Volumes 4 and 5 ;
- William Pulteney and Alexander Pope, The Discovery; or, The Squire Turn'd Ferret, published anonymously; satirical ballad on the claim of Mary Toft that she had given birth to rabbits; published this year, although the book states "1727"
- Richard Savage, Miscellaneous Poems and Translations, an anthology including poems by Savage, Aaron Hill, John Dyer and others, as well as Savage's prose sketch of his early life
- William Somervile, Occasional Poems, Translations, Fables, Tales, &c, published this year, although the book states "1727"
- Joseph Spence - An Essay on Pope's Odyssey, published anonymously; on Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's Odyssey
- Jonathan Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa, anonymously published; written in 1713 for Esther Vanhomrigh, the "Vanessa" of the title
- James Thomson, Winter, a popular poem first published in April, with five editions by March 1728; in 1730 the poem was expanded to 787 lines
"Namby–Pamby" first appears
Henry Carey's poem, Namby Pamby: or, a panegyrick on the new versification address'd to A----- P----, published this year, satirizes the poetry of Ambrose Philips, with the name a play on the first three letters of "Ambrose". Carey and others, including John Gay, Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, used the term as a disparaging nickname for Philips, but this year Carey was the first to put it into print. Carey's poem, a reaction against the style of Philips' To the Honourable Miss Carteret of 1725, mimicked the cloying, overly sentimental reduplication in some verse Phillips had written for children or as elegies of dead children, such as these opening lines from Miss Charlotte Pulteney, in Her Mother’s Arms:Compare with Carey's lampoon of this year:
In The Dunciad, Pope would also make fun of Philips: "Beneath his reign, shall Namby Pamby be prefer'd for Wit!" Pope despised Philips for both political and professional reasons, in part because Whig critics such as Joseph Addison had compared Philips' rustic verse favorably to that of Pope, a Tory. Within a generation, "Namby Pamby" began to broaden its meaning, so that in William Ayres' Memoirs of the life and writings of Alexander Pope of 1745, Jonathan Swift was said to be referring to the "Namby Pamby Stile" of writing. By 1774, the meaning had broadened further, covering anything ineffectual or weak, so that The Westmoreland Magazine could refer to "A namby-pamby Duke". The hyphenated phrase now covers anything ineffectual or affectedly sentimental.
Births
Death years link to the corresponding " in poetry" article:- January 28 - Christian Felix Weiße, German
- May 1 - Justus Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariae, German writer, translator, editor and composer
- August 2 - Lê Quý Đôn, Vietnamese philosopher, poet, encyclopedist and government officialdate unknown - Zaharije Orfelin, Serb educator, administrator, poet, engraver, lexicographer, herbalist, historian, winemaker, translator, editor, publisher, polemicist and traveler
Deaths
Birth years link to the corresponding " in poetry" article:- May 20 - Nicholas Brady, Anglo-Irish clergyman and poetdate unknown:
- * Aogán Ó Rathaille, Irish poet, creator of the Aisling poem
- * Sonome 斯波 園女, Japanese woman poet, friend and noted correspondent of Matsuo Bashō