A short biography of thomas campbell

In he published a narrative poem in the Spenserian stanza, Gertrude of Wyoming, with which were printed some of his best lyrics. He was slow and fastidious in composition, and the poem suffered from overelaboration. Francis Jeffrey wrote to the author: "Your timidity or fastidiousness, or some other knavish quality, will not let you give your conceptions glowing, and bold, and powerful, as they present themselves; but you must chasten, and refine, and soften them, forsooth, till half their nature and grandeur is chiselled away from them.

Believe me, the world will never know how truly you are a great and original poet till you venture to cast before it some of the rough pearls of your fancy. In he went to Paris, making there the acquaintance of the elder Schlegel, of Baron Cuvier and others. He continued to occupy himself with his Specimens of the British Poets, the design of which had been projected years before.

The work was published in It contains on the whole an admirable selection with short lives of the poets, and prefixed to it an essay on poetry containing much valuable criticism. In he accepted the editorship of the New Monthly Magazine, and in the same year made another tour in Germany. On the outbreak of war between Denmark and England he hurried home, the " Battle of the Baltic " being drafted soon after.

At Edinburgh he was introduced to the first Lord Mintowho took him in the next year to London as occasional secretary. In June appeared a new edition of the "Pleasures of Hope", to which some lyrics were added. He was well received in Whig society, especially at Holland House. In that year the Campbells removed to Peak Hill, Sydenham. In he published a narrative poem in the Spenserian stanzaGertrude of Wyoming — referring to the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania and the Wyoming Valley Massacre — with which were printed some of his best lyrics.

He was slow and fastidious in composition, and the poem suffered from overelaboration. Francis Jeffrey wrote to the author: "Your timidity or fastidiousness, or some other knavish quality, will not let you give your conceptions glowing, and bold, and powerful, as they present themselves; but you must chasten, and refine, and soften them, forsooth, till half their nature and grandeur is chiselled away from them.

Campbell, who was educated at the Glasgow High School and University of Glasgow, won prizes for classics and for verse-writing. He spent the holidays as a tutor in the western Highlands. In May he went to Edinburgh to attend lectures on law. He supported himself by private teaching and by writing, towards which he was helped by Dr Robert Anderson, the editor of the British Poets.

It is a rhetorical and didactic poem in the taste of his time, and owed much to the fact that it dealt with topics near to men's hearts, with the French Revolution, the partition of Poland and with negro slavery. Its success was instantaneous, but Campbell was deficient in energy and perseverance and did not follow it up. He went abroad in June without any very definite aim, visited Gottlieb Friedrich Klopstock at Hamburg, and made his way to Regensburg, which was taken by the French three days after his arrival.

Fox, received a government pension. Later Mr. Southey bequeathed him money. The pension was given as a tribute to him for the noble national strains, "Ye Mariners of England," and the "Battle of the Baltic.

A short biography of thomas campbell

Campbell was now settled at Sydenham, in England, and his circumstances were materially improved. His home was a happy one. The society in which he moved was of the most refined and intellectual character, and he enjoyed the personal friendship of many of his distinguished contemporaries. In he accepted the editorship of the "New Monthly Magazine," and acted in that capacity until he resigned it to take charge of the "Metropolitan.

In he published "Theodric and Other Poems;" and though busy in establishing the London University, he was, inelected lord rector of the university of his native city. He afterward made a voyage to Algiers, of which he published an account; and in appeared a slight narrative poem, unworthy of his fame, entitled "The Pilgrims of Glencoe.

Siddons," and a "Life of Petrarch. He had watched with an anxiety almost bordering on fanaticism, the progress of the patriotic movement, and the news of the capture of Warsaw by the Russians, affected him as if it had been the deepest of personal calamities.