Thomson, James 1700-48
Scottish poet

Born in Ednam, Roxburghshire, he was educated at Jedburgh School and studied at Edinburgh University for the ministry, but he abandoned his studies to seek his fortune as a writer in London. He published Winter (1726), Summer (1727), Spring, (1728) and Autumn, which appeared with the other three under the collective title The Seasons (1730). Substantially revised in 1744, it became a source book for much later bird poetry, and an influence on Wordsworth, J M W Turner and others. His tragedies include Sophonisba (1729), Agamemnon (1738), Edward and Eleonora (1739), Tancred and Sigismunda (1745) and Coriolanus (1748). The poem Liberty (1735-36) was inspired by the Grand Tour which he undertook as a tutor in 1731, and was dedicated to the Prince of Wales, who awarded him a pension. 'Britannia' (1729), which criticized Sir Robert Walpole's foreign policy, secured him further patronage and the sinecure of Surveyor-General of the Leeward Isles (1744). Alfred, a Masque (1740) contains the song 'Rule Britannia', also claimed by David Mallet. The Spenserian The Castle of Indolence (1748) appeared a few weeks before his death.

Bibliography: J Grant, James Thomson (1957)