C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Christopher Smart (1722–1771)
Smart, Christopher. An English poet, and one of the interesting figures of literary history; born at Shipbourne, Kent, April 11, 1722; died on May 21, 1771. His fame rests upon a ‘Song to David’ (1763), pronounced by Dante Gabriel Rossetti “the only great accomplished poem of the eighteenth century.” It is said to have been written in a madhouse, “partly with charcoal on the walls, or indented with a key on the panels of his cell,” the poet having been deprived of his liberty on account of his debts. Noted also is a version of Horace, which had a wide sale. Other works are: ‘Poems’ (1752); ‘Power of the Supreme Being’ (1753); ‘The Hilliad: An Epic Poem’ (1753); ‘Poems on Several Occasions’ (1763); ‘Translation of the Psalms of David’ (1765); and many miscellaneous essays, poems, and translations.