Laurence Eusden - Life, Poetry and Criticism

Poet, born in Spofforth, North Yorkshire, N England, UK. He became poet laureate in 1718, by the customary patronage prevalent at the time. He was lampooned as ‘L. E.’ by Pope, and in Swift's treatise on bathos. He died as rector of Coningsby, Lincolnshire.

Life

Laurence Eusden was born in Spofforth in North Yorkshire in 1688 (date unknown) to the Rev.

Eusden, who was thirty years-old at the time of his appointment was also the youngest Poet Laureate.

Poetry and Criticism

In order to read Eusden's works today, one would need to search doggedly through the depths of the British Library, as it is unlikely much if any of Eusden's work is available anywhere else. The first 12 lines of that poem give one a sense of the dullness of Eusden's poetry:

The Origin Of The Knights Of The Bath
1: Hail glorious Off-spring of a glorious Race! 2: Britannia's other Hope, and blooming Grace! 3: Thou smil'st already on the burnish'd Shield, 4: And thy weak Hand the little Sword can wield: 5: Already, clad in Arms, Thou mov'st along, 6: The Love, and Wonder of each ravish'd Throng! 7: A-while vouchsafe, young Hero, to retire 8: 'Mid' Streams, and Grottos, and th'Aonian Choir: 9: Apollo, God of Fore-sight, who with Ease 10: Thy distant, ripen'd Years, as present, sees, 11: Bids all the Muses Thee receive with Pride, 12: To all the Muses by all Arts ally'd.

Eusden's name is rarely remembered for his translations and gratulatory poems, but rather by the numerous satirical allusions of Pope, e.g. Little-read today, he is one of several poets called "dull" in Alexander Pope's satire The Dunciad

In fact, there is very little to be said of Eusden except at his expense, and since Alexander Pope -- his infinitely greater contemporary -- started this fun we might as well enjoy it.

In The Dunciad Eusden rates only one line (Book 1 line 104) but from that line flows a whole page of small-print notes that drip acid and provide the entertainment -- Pope's intention all along. and follows it with more, though not in verse, on the subject of that fortune which 'rais'd' Eusden so high, meaning his highly-placed supporters:

"That the putting the Laurel on the head of one who writ such verses, will give futurity a very lively idea of the judgment and justice of those who bestowed it."

In addition to Pope's skewering of Eusden's abilities, Thomas Gray, author of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", said that "Eusden set out well in life, but afterwards turned out a drunkard and besotted his faculties".

As a number of Eusden's critics have noted, it would be better to describe Eusden as a verse-writer or verse-maker, and definitely one of the lesser lights in English poetry.