Pomfret, John

(1667-1702)

   Born at Luton, Bedfordshire, the son of a clergyman, he had a grammar school education and graduated MA from Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1688. He took holy orders and held appointments in Bedfordshire. In 1700 "The Choice: a Poem Written by a Person of Quality" won him instant fame. The tenth edition of this poem of 167 lines appeared in 1736. Samuel Johnson included Pomfret and "The Choice" in his Lives of English Poets (1779). Pomfret died of smallpox at Maulden, Bedfordshire. "The Choice" aroused controversy within the Church over one part of line 157, where he says, "I'd have no wife." Johnson comments on the malicious reaction of some of Pomfret's critics who interpreted this as saying he would rather have a mistress, although by this time he was married with a son. Some of his publications: The Sceptical Muse, 1699. A Prospect of Death: An Ode, 1700. Reason: A Poem, 1700. Quæ Rara, Chara, 1707. Poems upon Several Occasions, 1724. Some of his poems: "An Epistle to Delia," "Cruelty and Lust," "Love Triumphant Over Reason," "No Barren Leaves," "The Fortunate Complaint," "Upon the Divine Attributes."

   Sources: A copy of "The Choice" is on Samuel Johnson's Lives of the English Poets, 1779-1781 (http://www2.hn.psu.edu/Faculty/KKemmerer/poets/preface.htm). Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Friendship Poems. Peter Washington, ed. Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Garden Poems. John Hollander, ed. Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). 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 Oxford Book of Friendship. D.J. Enright and David Rawlinson, eds. Oxford University Press, 1991. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.