A native of Luton, Bedfordshire; educated at Queen’s College, Cambridge; became Vicar of Malden, and was presented to a living of greater value, institution into which was at first refused by Bishop Compton, in consequence of a misconstruction of a passage in the parson’s poem of “The Choice.” Pomfret made a satisfactory vindication; but whilst he lingered in London, engaged in this business, he caught the smallpox, the fatal termination of which abruptly ended alike his anxieties and his hopes. A volume of his Poems—“The Choice,” and others—was pub. in 1699; and in 1724 appeared his “Remains:” a volume containing two poetical pieces,—“Reason,” and “Dies Novissima, or The Last Epiphany; a Pindaric Ode.” This volume was published by a friend, under the name of Philalethes. The 4th ed. of “The Choice” was published 1701, folio; the Tenth Edition of his “Poems on Several Occasions, with an Account of his Life and Writings, to which are added his Remains,” was issued in 1740, 8vo. Many editions of his Poems have since appeared; and they are republished in Johnson’s and Chalmers’s collections.
General
This Gentleman’s works are held in very great esteem by the common readers of poetry; it is thought as unfashionable amongst people of inferior life, not to be possessed of the poems of Pomfret, as amongst persons of taste not to have the works of Pope in their libraries. The subjects upon which Pomfret wrote were popular, his versification is far from being unmusical, and as there is little force of thinking in his writings, they are level to the capacities of those who admire them.
His “Choice” exhibits a system of life adapted to common notions, and equal to common expectations; such a state as affords plenty and tranquility, without exclusion of intellectual pleasures. Perhaps no composition in our language has been oftener perused than Pomfret’s “Choice.” In his other poems there is an easy volubility; the pleasure of smooth metre is afforded to the ear, and the mind is not oppressed with ponderous or entangled with intricate sentiment. He pleases many, and he who pleases many must have some species of merit.
Why is Pomfret the most popular of the English Poets? the fact is certain, and the solution would be useful.
It is asked, in Mr. Southey’s “Specimens of English Poetry,” why Pomfret’s “Choice” is the most popular poem in the English language: it might have been demanded with equal propriety, why London bridge is built of Parian marble.
William’s reign, always excepting Dryden, is our nadir in works of imagination. Then came Blackmore with his epic poems of Prince Arthur and King Arthur, and Pomfret with his Choice, both popular in their own age, and both intolerable, by their frigid and tame monotony, in the next.
The concentrate essence of namby-pambyism.
It is difficult in the present day … to conceive that the “Choice” could ever have been a very popular poem. It is tame and commonplace. The idea, however, of a country retirement, a private seat, with a wood, garden, and stream, a clear and competent estate, and the enjoyment of lettered ease and happiness, is so grateful and agreeable to the mind of man, especially in large cities, that we can hardly forbear liking a poem that recalls so beloved an image to our recollections.
Our grandfathers or our great-grandfathers might with some fair show of reason have maintained that it was impossible to believe that a poem which had so well stood the test of time would ever sink into forgetfulness. Let me suggest to you that if any one in your hearing foretells immortality for some writer for whom you have no relish, you should ask him at once whether he has read Pomfret’s “Choice.”
He dabbled in verse at least as early as 1694, when he wrote an elegy upon the death of Queen Mary. This was published in 1699, with other pieces in heroic couplets, remarkable chiefly for their correctness, under the title of “Poems on Several Occasions.” One of the longer poems, called “Cruelty and Lust,” commemorates an act of barbarity said to have been perpetrated by Colonel Kirke during the western rebellion. Pomfret’s treatment of the situation is prosaically tame…. When the scheme for the “Lives of the Poets” was submitted by the booksellers to Dr. Johnson, the name of Pomfret (together with three others) was added by his advice; Johnson remarks that “perhaps no poem in our language has been so often perused” as “The Choice.” It is an admirable exposition in neatly turned verse of the everyday epicureanism of a cultivated man. Pomfret is said to have drawn some hints from the study of the character of Sir William Temple…. The exclusion of Pomfret from more recent literary manuals and anthologies sufficiently indicates that Johnson’s strange verdict finds few supporters at the present day.
