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Rev. George Gilfillan, in his introductory essay to the 1865 edition of The poetical works, describes Shenstone as "this true but self-stunted Poet" and as " …possessed of great accomplishments, much true talent, and a distinct although narrow vein of poetic genius." Certainly Shenstone's contemporaries, apart from a small circle of close friends, seemed to be more impressed by his work in landscaping his estate at the Leasowes than by his poetry. There was a great deal of poetry: his first published work, The judgement of Hercules, appeared in 1740, and this was followed throughout the poet's relatively short life by the publication of works as varied as odes, elegies, ballads, and Latin inscriptions.
Rev. Gilfillan, while allowing the poet to have talent, is uncomplimentary about the majority of his work:
Few poets have tenderer or more felicitous little touches; and our great regret is, that they occur so seldom, and are almost lost in the surrounding rubbish.The modern reader may well wish to disagree. The poems have a period charm of their own, as the products of a well-educated, gifted amateur who seems to have written largely for his own and his friends' entertainment.
The Pastoral ballad, the longest of the works in this selection, is one of the few of Shenstone's works that Gilfillan felt would be remembered. The other poems, while not perhaps particularly memorable, are certainly attractive and competently written.
The full text of Songs and Ballads can be read online or downloaded free of charge. It is in XHTML format, like this page. Please note the file size is 46.9kb and it may take some time to open-up if you choose to read it online. Downloading for reading later may be the preferred option and this can be typically achieved by calling up an option box. If you have a mouse and it is configured for left click to select, right clicking the link may give you this option.
Delia, Flavia, Fulvia, Phillis, Daphne, Fulvia, Roxana, Ophelia, and Asteria are all ardently addressed in the Songs and Ballads in terms of love requited or unrequited: evidently Shenstone's love poetry was more of an intellectual exercise than a sentimental one. There are also verses with pastoral themes, and evident imitations of classical sources. The rape of the trap and Jemmy Dawson are genuine ballads, the former, written when Shenstone was in his early twenties, crying out to be set to music, while the latter could almost pass as a folk song.
Page created 13 December 2002 and last
updated 06 February 2003
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