Smith, Horatio

(1779-1849)

   Born in London, the son of solicitor, he was educated at Chigwell School, Essex, and became a successful stockbroker, earning the praise of Percy Bysshe Shelley as one who could not only make money well and be generous with it, but was also a good poet. When the Drury Lane Theatre was to be rebuilt, the managers offered a prize for an address to be recited at he opening. He, with his brother James, wrote The Rejected Addresses (1812), parodies of eight poets, none of whom took offense at the clever accuracy of the parodies. Smith went on to become friends with many poets, including Shelley, with whom he participated in a sonnet writing competition. His poem was "On a Stupendous Leg of Granite." Shelley's was "Ozymandias"; both were published in 1818. After making his fortune, Smith published a series of six historical novels and three volumes of Gaieties and Gravities. He died at Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Some of his poems: "Address to a Mummy," "Birthday of the Spring," "Diamond Cut Diamond," "Invocation to the Cuckoo," "Lachrymose Writers," "Sonnet to My Own Nose," "Winter," "York Kidney Potatoes."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Roofs of Gold: Poems to Read Aloud. Padraic Colum, ed. Macmillan, 1964. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Poetical Works of Horace Smith: Volume I & II. Henry Colburn, 1846. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).