Author: SMETHAM (Richard):
Title: Natal Love, A Poem, Together Two Other Pieces.
Description: Sandbach: Printed by R. Lindop, MDCCCXXXVII 1838. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 12mo (in 6s), 160 x 92 mms., pp. [7] 8 - 105 [106 blank], including half-title, contemporary boards, with paper label on front cover; respined, boards worn, piece torn from upper corner rear free end-paper. Who was Richard Smetham? The most likely candidate is a Methodist minister, described in the online Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland as a "young preacher [in the]south-west corner of Dorset [preaching in] the last part of the county to be reached by Methodist preaching from what had begun as the extensive Salisbury Circuit. The first known preaching in Bridport was in 1807 in the open air, by Richard Smetham, a young minister from South Petherton." This suggests that he was born in the late 18th century; he is the uncle of the better-known Methodist minister James Smetham (1821 - 1851). Or he might be James Smetham (1821 - 1889) the English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painter and engraver; he would have been about 17 when the poem was published, and it has several of the hallmarks of a juvenile. Johnson [1992] 837 found no copy in Jackson. OCLC locates only two copies: BL and Stanford

Keywords: poetry Methodism literature


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