William Lisle Bowles

William Lisle Bowles
William Lisle Bowles (1762–1850) was an English poet, critic, and clergyman known for his influence on the Romantic poets, particularly Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. His most notable work, "Fourteen Sonnets," published in 1789, emphasized nature and personal emotion, marking a shift from the neoclassical style. Bowles also engaged in literary criticism, notably in his "Letters to Lord Byron," where he debated the merits of poetry and sparked a controversy with Byron himself. In addition to his poetry, Bowles served as a clergyman, holding various ecclesiastical positions, including prebendary of Salisbury.

Author's Books:


The poetry of each age may be considered as vitally connected with, and as vividly reflective of, its character and progress, as either its politics or its religion. You see the nature of the soil of a garden in its tulips and roses, as much as in its pot-herbs and its towering trees. We purpose, accordingly, to compare briefly the poetry of the past and of the present centuries, as indices of some of... more...

PREFACE. A Ninth Edition of the following Poems having been called for by the public, the author is induced to say a few words, particularly concerning those which, under the name of Sonnets, describe his personal feelings. They can be considered in no other light than as exhibiting occasional reflections which naturally arose in his mind, chiefly during various excursions, undertaken to relieve, at... more...