Smart, Christopher

Smart, Christopher

▪ English poet
born April 11, 1722, Shipbourne, Kent, Eng.
died May 21, 1771, London
 English religious poet, best known for A Song to David (1763), in praise of the author of the Psalms, notable for flashes of childlike penetration and vivid imagination. In some respects his work anticipated that of William Blake and John Clare.

      After his education at the University of Cambridge, Smart was elected a fellow of Pembroke Hall (1745), but at about the age of 27 he became a hack writer in London. He was three times confined for madness (a mild religious mania), but his strange yet engaging personality won him such friends as Samuel Johnson, actor-manager David Garrick, playwright Oliver Goldsmith, and both Dr. Charles Burney, the musicologist, and his daughter, Fanny, the novelist. Smart died in a debtor's prison.

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  • Smart, Christopher — (1722 1771)    Born in Kent, and educated at Durham, northeast England, he graduated M.A. from Pembroke Hall (now Pembroke College), Cambridge, in 1747 and was elected a fellow in 1745. In 1750 his poem Hymn to the Supreme Being won the Seatonian …   British and Irish poets

  • SMART, CHRISTOPHER —    English poet, born in Kent; was a Fellow of Cambridge and a friend of Johnson s; author of the Song to David, now famous, much overrated, think some; he was subject to insanity, and it was written during lucid intervals; he was the author of a …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Smart, Christopher — (1722 1771)    Poet, s. of the steward to Lord Vane, was b. at Shipbourne, Kent, and by the bounty of the Duchess of Cleveland sent to Camb. Here his ill balanced mind showed itself in wild folly. Leaving the Univ. he came to London and… …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • Christopher Smart — Born 11 April 1722(1722 04 11) Shipbourne, England Died 21 May 1771(1771 05 21) (age …   Wikipedia

  • Christopher Smart — Nacimiento 11 de abril de 1722 Shipbourne, Ingla …   Wikipedia Español

  • Smart — [smärt] Christopher 1722 71; Eng. poet …   English World dictionary

  • Christopher Smart's asylum confinement — Christopher Smart The English poet Christopher Smart (1722–1771) was confined to mental asylums from May 1757 until January 1763. Smart was admitted into St Luke s Hospital for Lunatics …   Wikipedia

  • Christopher Smart's alleged madness — It was alleged by many who knew Christopher Smart that he was mad during the mid 1750s. On 6 May 1757, he was admitted into St Luke s Hospital for Lunatics, Bethnal Green, London, by his father in law, John Newbery. Although many felt that Smart… …   Wikipedia

  • Christopher Smart — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Smart (homonymie). Christopher Smart Christopher Smart (11 avril 1722 à Shipbourne – 21 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Christopher Reeve — en 1985. Nombre real Christopher D Olier Reeve Nacimiento 25 de abril de …   Wikipedia Español

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