1776
ENGLISH POETRY 1579-1830: SPENSER AND THE TRADITION
William Whitehead
Alcibiades, "Extempore Verses on the Poet Laureat's Ode for 1776" London Evening Post (11 January 1776).
Commentary for
William Whitehead:
1750: Anonymous
1755: Rev. William Mason
1757: William Shenstone
1757: Richard Owen Cambridge
1757: Bp. Richard Hurd
1757: Rev. John Free
1757: Horace Walpole
1758: Anonymous
1761: R. S.
1762: Rev. Charles Churchill
1762: Thomas Gray
1765: Cuthbert Shaw
1765: Anonymous
1769: W. G. E.
1770 ca.: William Cole
1772: Paul Pinchwell
1772: Anonymous
1773: Christopher Anstey
1774: Rev. John Langhorne
1774: Anonymous
1774: The Bellman
1775: Anonymous
1776: Alcibiades
1776: Philo-Musa
1777: Anonymous
1777: Philo-Musa
1778: Anonymous
1780: Anonymous
1785: C. J.
1785: Anonymous
1785: Edmond Malone
1785: Anonymous
1785: Anna Seward
1786: Rev. Robert Potter
1786: Anonymous
1788: Rev. William Mason
1788: Anonymous
1788: Anonymous
1795: Dr. Robert Anderson
1795: Anonymous
1804: Joseph Dennie
1804: Rev. William Tooke
1806: Rev. George Richards
1807: Robert Southey
1809: Dr. Nathan Drake
1811: Anonymous
1824: Bryan Waller Procter
1851: Dr. David Macbeth Moir
1860: George Gilfillan
1880: Thomas Humphry Ward
1910: Ralph Straus
Commentary by
Alcibiades:
1776: William Whitehead
Alas! poor Master Laureat,
What, not another stanza?
Why, Sir, I fear, you've caught the cold,
Yclep'd the influenza.
No conquests to adorn your rhimes,
No vaunts nor threats terrific;
Instead of thunder, blood, and war,
Your lines run now pacific.
Your style is strangely alter'd, Sir,
From what 'twas heretofore;
You seem to me to be afraid
To vaunt and brag encore.