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Robert Bloomfield

I lived from 1766-1823. I was from England, and am in the English category.

He was born of a poor family in the village of Honington, Suffolk. He lost his father when he was a year old, and received the rudiments of education from his mother, who kept the village school. Apprenticed at the age of eleven to a farmer, he was too small and frail for field labour, and four years later he came to London to work for a shoemaker under an elder brother, enduring extreme poverty. The poem that made his reputation, The Farmer's Boy, was written in a garret in Bell Alley where half a dozen other men were at work, and the finished lines he carried in his head until there was time to write them down. The manuscript, declined by several publishers, fell into the hands of Capel Lofft, a Suffolk squire of literary tastes, who arranged for its publication with woodcuts by Thomas Bewick in 1800. The success of the poem was remarkable, over 25,000 copies being sold in the next two years.

Bloomfield's reputation was increased by the appearance of his Rural Tales (1802), News from the Farm (1804), Wild Flowers (1806) and The Banks of the Wye (1811). Influential friends attempted to provide for Bloomfield, but ill-health and possibly faults of temperament prevented the success of these efforts. An attempt to carry on business as a bookseller failed, his health gave way, his reason was threatened, and he died in great poverty at Shefford, Bedfordshire, in 1823. His Remains in Poetry and Verse appeared in 1824.

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  • The Horkey
    What gossips prattled in the sun,
      Who talk'd him fairly down,
    249 lines
  • The Broken Crutch: A Tale
    "I tell you, Peggy," said a voice behind
    A hawthorn hedge, with wild briars thick entwin'd,
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    A Familiar Ballad.
    Well! I'm determin'd; that's enough:--
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  • Solitude
    Welcome silence! welcome peace!
    O most welcome, holy shade!
    32 lines
  • Barnham Water
    Fresh from the Hall of Bounty sprung,
    With glowing heart and ardent eye,
    72 lines
  • To My Old Oak Table
    Friend of my peaceful days! substantial friend,
    Whom wealth can never change, nor int'rest bend,
    126 lines
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    How bright with pearl the western sky!
    How glorious far and wide,
    40 lines
  • A Visit To Renelagh
    To Ranelagh, once in my life,
    By good-natur'd force I was driv'n;
    64 lines
  • Good Tidings; Or News From The Farm
    Where's the Blind Child, so admirably fair,
    With guileless dimples, and with flaxen hair
    386 lines
  • Love Of The Country
    Welcome silence! welcome peace!
    O most welcome, holy shade!
    32 lines
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