William Shenstone (November 18, 1714 – February 11, 1763) was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes. Son of Thomas Shenstone and Anne Penn, daughter of William Penn of Harborough Hall, then in Hagley (now Blakedown), Shenstone was born at the Leasowes, Halesowen. At that time this was an enclave of Shropshire within the traditional county of Worcestershire. While attending Solihull School, he began a lifelong friendship with Richard Jago. He went up to Pembroke College, Oxford in 1732 and made another firm friend there in Richard Graves, the author of The Spiritual Quixote. Shenstone took no degree, but, while still at Oxford, he published Poems on various occasions, written for the entertainment of the author (1737). This edition was intended for private circulation only but, containing the first draft of The Schoolmistress, it attracted some wider attention. Shenstone tried hard to suppress it but in 1742 he published anonymously a revised draft of The Schoolmistress, a Poem in imitation of Spenser. The inspiration of the poem was Sarah Lloyd, teacher of the village school where Shenstone received his first education. Isaac D'Israeli contended that Robert Dodsley had been misled in publishing it as one of a sequence of Moral Poems, its intention having been satirical, as evidenced by the ludicrous index appended to its original publication.
the solitary reaper
Behold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by hersel...[read poem]
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Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by hersel...
she dwelt among the untrodden ways
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none...[read poem]
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Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none...
the world is too much with us
The World is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:...[read poem]
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Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:...
daffodils
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I ...[read poem]
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That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I ...
the simplon pass
-Brook and road
Were fellow-travellers in this gloomy Pass,
And with them did we journey s...[read poem]
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Were fellow-travellers in this gloomy Pass,
And with them did we journey s...
composed upon westminster bridge, september 3, 1802
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sig...[read poem]
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Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sig...
a pastoral ballad, absence
Ye shepherds so cheerful and gay,
Whose flocks never carelessly roam;
Should Corydon's...[read poem]
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Whose flocks never carelessly roam;
Should Corydon's...
the tables turned
Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, a...[read poem]
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Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, a...
if a daughter you have
If a daughter you have, she's the plague of your life,
No peace shall you know, tho' you've bur...[read poem]
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No peace shall you know, tho' you've bur...
london, 1802
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of s...[read poem]
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England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of s...
a complaint
There is a change--and I am poor;
Your love hath been, nor long ago,
A fountain at my fond...[read poem]
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Your love hath been, nor long ago,
A fountain at my fond...
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