A Selection of Poetry by Christopher Smart

by Christopher Smart

At last an e-book of Christopher Smart's best poems - including his masterpiece 'Jubilate Agno.' It is high time that this brilliant and perverse 18th century poet was read more widely and given the acclaim and critical attention he deserves.

Genres: Poetry, 18th Century, Classics, Literature

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Christopher Smart was an English poet. He was a major contributor to two popular magazines, The Midwife and The Student, and a friend to influential cultural icons like Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding. Smart, a high church Anglican, was widely known throughout London.
Smart was infamous as the pseudonymous midwife "Mrs. Mary Midnight" and for widespread accounts of his father-in-law, John Newbery, locking him away in a mental asylum for many years over Smart's supposed religious "mania". Even after Smart's eventual release, a negative reputation continued to pursue him as he was known for incurring more debt than he could repay; this ultimately led to his confinement in debtors' prison until his death.
His two most widely known works are A Song to David and Jubilate Agno, which are believed to have been written during his confinement in St. Luke's Asylum, although this is still debated by scholars as there is no record of when they were written. It is even more unclear when the works were written as Jubilate Agno was not published until 1939 when it was found in a library archive and A Song to David received mixed reviews until the 19th century. To his contemporaries, Smart was known mainly for his many contributions in the journals The Midwife and The Student, along with his famous Seaton Prize poems and his mock epic The Hilliad. Although he is recognized primarily as a religious poet, his poetry includes various other themes, such as his theories on nature and his promotion of English nationalism.

Reviews

[J. Alfred · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just, really just, full of shenanigans. Not poetry in any usual sense-- a little less self-aware than Blake and just as prophetic. Much of it was written in an asylum.
And yet there is a lot that is interesting and oddly calming in it, especially in 'Jubilate Agno,' the long poem from which "For I will consider my cat Jeoffry" comes. (And you should read that as a stand alone piece, if you have not yet.) There are long long lists instructing many Biblical characters, contemporary characters, colors, rocks, plants, and more! to rejoice, often drawing some poetic or just magical reason between the things that it links.
If you want to explore one of the stranger nooks in English lit, this is a good place to go.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

What absolutely insane poetry. There are plenty of moments of genius, but plenty more of complete nonsense. I’m sure there is a specific lens through which it might all make complete sense, but I will never see through that lens. I hope.

[Pollymoore3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poor mad Smart, like Clare and Cowper. Favourites: the much-anthologised “My Cat Jeoffry”, from “Jubilate Agno” and “Nature’s decorations glisten” from “The Nativity of Our Lord”.

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 1 out of 5]

A rubbish edition, the person writing the preface can't even remember the name of the person they are writing about and start calling him Swift.

[hh · Rating 3 out of 5]

partially i'm not keen on having thin slices from large works, so the edition itself affects my rating. the poems are intriguingly political and charmingly devout. and metrically impressive.