Selected Poems

Despite his literary successes-- publishing six volumes of poetry, a play, and a children's book-- Robert Bloomfield never escaped from poverty or anxiety and died early and in distress. This penniless history supports the description of Bloomfield as the most successful of the self-taught "peasant poets" of the Romantic period and underscores the incredible odds that any of his writings should be discovered at all. This selection of Bloomfield's poems was originally published in 1998 and was the first scholarly edition of his work. Bloomfield believed that his patron, Capel Lofft, had altered the text excessively, and so this edition has completely restored Bloomfield's own, much fresher text from the autobiographical manuscript at Harvard University. Revised and enlarged, this version also includes a selection of Bloomfield's prose prefaces and explanatory notes, a chronology of his life, and a list of further reading.