William Watson (poet)

Sir John William Watson (2 August 1858 - 13 August 1935) was an English poet, popular in his time for his political verse.

William Watson (1858-1935), from The Poems of William Watson, 1905. Courtesy Internet Archive.

Life

Youth and education

Watson was born on 2 August 1858 at Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire, the youngest of 3 sons of Dorothy (Robinson) and John Watson, a grocer.

He grew up at Liverpool, where his father moved for business.

"From an early age," says the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, he "showed an unusual susceptibility to literary and musical influences."

Career

Sir William Watson, from World's Library of Best Books, Volume 20. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

In 1880 Watson published his debut collection The Prince's Quest, and other poems. It attracted no attention until it was republished in 1893 after Mr Watson had made a name by other work. In 1884 appeared Epigrams of Art, Life and Nature, But it also passed unnoted.

Recognition came with the publication of Wordsworth's Grave in 1890; and fame with the publication of the 2nd edition in 1891, and the appearance in the Fortnightly Review, August 1891, of an article by Grant Allen entitled "A New Poet."

During the years 1890-1892 Watson contributed articles to the National Review, Spectator, Illustrated London News, Academy, Bookman and Atalanta, which were collected and republished in 1893 as Excursions in Criticism. In 1893 he also published Lacrymac Musaram, the poem which gave the title to the volume being a fine elegy on the death of Tennyson, and also including the poem on "Shelley's Centenary " (both of these printed privately in 1892), and "The Dream of Man," the earliest of his philosophical poems. The same year, too, saw the publication of The Eloping Angels, a serio-comic trifle of small merit, dedicated to Grant Allen.

In 1894 followed Odes, and Other Poems, and in 1895 The Father of the Forest, which contained also a sonnet "To the Turk in Armenia, " a prelude to the series of sonnets about Armenia contributed to the Westminster Gazette and republished in a brochure called The Purple East in 1896. These sonnets were republished with revision and considerable additions, and a preface by the bishop of Hereford, in The Year of Shame in 1897. Whatever view was taken of the poet's incursion into politics, no one doubted his passionate sincerity, or the excellence of the poetical rhetoric it inspired.

In 1898 were published his Collected Poems and a volume of new poetry, The Hope of the World. In 1902 he printed privately 50 copies of New Poems, and published his "Ode on the Coronation of King Edward VII.," a favourable specimen of its class; and in 1903 besides a volume of Selected Poems, a collection of poems contributed to various periodicals and called For England: Poems Written During Estrangement, a poetical defence of his impugned patriotism during the Boer War. In 1909 appeared an important volume of New Poems.

Watson was very much on the traditionalist wing of English poetry. He was a prolific poet of the 1890s, and a contributor to The Yellow Book , without 'decadent' associations. Following the 1895 arrest of Oscar Wilde, Watson led the campaign to remove Aubrey Beardsley as art director of the Yellow Book.

He married Adeline Maureen (Pring) on August 11, 1909. The couple had 2 daughters.

On the death of Alfred Austin in 1913, Watson was a strong candidate for Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, but his earlier opposition to the Boer War (1899-1902) had made him politically unacceptable to some, and he was passed over for Robert Bridges

Writing

Watson's poetry falls chiefly into 3 classes — critical, philosophical and political — to which may be added a further class of Horatian epistles to his friends. This classification indicates the high character and also the limitations of his poetry.

Watson's poetry is contemplative, not dramatic, and only occasionally lyrical in impulse. In spite of the poet's plea in his "Apologia" that there is an ardour and a fire other than that of Eros or Aphrodite, ardour and fire are not conspicuous qualities of his verse. Except in his political verse there is more thought than passion. Bearing trace enough of the influence of the romantic epoch, his poetry recalls the earlier classical period in its epigrammatic phrasing and Latinized diction.

Watson's debut collection, The Prince's Quest (1880) shows the influence of Keats and Tennyson, but gives little indication of the author's mature style. Epigrams of Art, Life, and Nature (1884) was a remarkable little volume, which already showed the change to Watson's characteristic restraint and concision of manner.

Wordsworth's Grave (1890), which marked a reversion from the Tennysonian and Swinburnian fashion to the meditative note of Matthew Arnold, exhibited in full maturity Watson's poetical qualities: his stately diction, his fastidious taste, his epigrammatic turn, his restrained yet eloquent utterance, his remarkable gift of literary criticism in poetic form. Besides "Wordsworth's Grave" the volume contained "Ver Tenebrosum" (originally published in the National Review for June 1885), a series of political sonnets indicating a fervour of political conviction which was later to find still more impassioned expression; also a selection with additions from the Epigrams of 1884, and among other miscellaneous pieces his tribute to Arnold, "In Laleham Churchyard."

The Father of the Forest (1885) contained the fine "Hymn to the Sea" in English elegiacs (originally contributed to the Yellow Book), "The Tomb of Burns," and "Apologia," a piece of candid and just self-criticism.

The Hope of the World (1898) contains Watson's 3 chief philosophical poems: the title piece, "The Unknown God," and "Ode in May."

By the distinction and clarity of his style and the dignity of his movement, Watson stands in the true classical tradition of great English verse, in a generation rather given over to lawlessness and experiment.

Recognition

In 1893 Gladstone bestowed on Watson the Civil List pension of £200 available on the death of Tennyson.

3 of Watson's poems ("Song," "Ode in May," and "The Great Misgiving") were included in the Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900.

Watson was knighted in 1917.

Publications

Poetry

• The Prince's Quest, and other poems. London: Elkin Mathews, 1880.
• Epigrams of Art, Life and Nature.Liverpool, UK: G.G.Walmsley, 1884.
• Wordsworth’s Grave, and other poems. London: T.F. Unwin, 1890.
• Lachrymae Musarum, and other poems. London & New York: John Lane, 1892.
• Poems. London: John Lane, 1892; London & New York: Macmillan, 1892.
• The Eloping Angels: A caprice. London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1893.
• Odes, and other poems. London: John Lane, 1894; London: Macmillan, 1894.
• The Father of the Forest, and other poems. London: John Lane, 1895; Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1895.
• The Purple East: A series Of sonnets on England's desertion of Armenia. London: John Lane, 1896; Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1896.
• The Year of Shame. London & New York: John Lane, 1897.
• The Hope of the World, and other poems. London & New York: John Lane, 1898.
• Collected Poems. London & New York: John Lane, 1899.
• Ode on the Day of the Coronation of King Edward VII. London & New York: John Lane, 1902.
• New Poems. London & Greenfield, MA: John Lane, 1902.
• Selected Poems. Longon & New York: John Lane, 1903.
• For England. Poems Written During Estrangement. London & New York: John Lane, 1904.
• Poems. (2 volumes), London & New York: John Lane, 1905. Volume I, Volume II.
• Sable and Purple, with other poems. London: E. Nash, 1910.
• The Muse in Exile. London: Jenkins, 1913; New York: John Lane, 1913.
• Retrogression, and other poems. London & New York: John Lane, 1917.
• The Man Who Saw, and other poems arising out of the war. London: John Murray, 1917; New York: Harper, 1917.
• The Superhuman Antagonists, and other poems. London, New York & Toronto: Hodder & Stoughton, 1919.
• Ireland Unfreed: Poems and verses written in the early months of 1921. London & New York: John Lane, 1921.
• A Hundred Poems. London, New York & Toronto: Hodder & Stoughton, 1922.
• Selected Poems. London: T. Butterworth, 1928.
• Poems, 1878-1935. London, Bombay, & Sydney: George G. Harrup, 1936.

Plays

• The Heralds of the Dawn: A play in eight scenes. London & New York: John Lane, 1912.

Non-fiction

• Excursions in Criticism: Being some prose recreations of a rhymer. London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane / New York: Macmillan, 1893.
  • Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1970.
• Pencraft: A plea for the older ways. London & New York: John Lane, 1916.
• Ireland Arisen (pamphlet). London: Grant Richards, 1921.

Edited

• Lyric Love: An anthology. London & New York: Macmillan, 1892.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

The Things That Are More Excellent, by William Watson

See also

• List of British poets
• Timeline of British poetry

References

•  James, William Price (1911). "Watson, William (poet)". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 414.  Wikisource, Web, May 7, 2021.
• Jean Moorcroft Wilson (1981) I Was an English Poet: a critical biography of Sir William Watson, 1858-1936.

External links

Poems

• 2 poems by Watson: "Ode in May," "World-Strangeness"
• William Watson in the Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900: "Song," "Ode in May," and "The Great Misgiving"
• Watson in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "Lachrymæ Musarum," "The First Skylark of Spring," "Song in Imitation of the Elizabethans"
  • Epigrams: I. "To a Seabird", II. "The Play of King Lear", III. "Byron the Voluptuary", IV. "On Dürer’s Melencolia", V. "Exit"
• William Watson at PoemHunter (103 poems)

Books

• Works by William Watson at Project Gutenberg
• William Watson (1858-1935) at Amazon.com

About

• James G. Nelson, Sir William Watson. (limited book preview)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Original article is at William Watson (Poet)