Background
In 1728, Johnson was admitted into Pembroke College, Oxford, and William Jorden was made his tutor. During his first weeks, Johnson was assigned various poem topics to write on, which he refused to complete. However, he did complete one poem, the first of his tutorial exercises, on which he spent comparably significant time (that of two rereads), and which provoked surprise and applause. Jorden, impressed with Johnson's skill at Latin verse, asked his student to produce a Latin translation of Pope's Messiah as a Christmas exercise. Johnson completed half of the translation in one afternoon and the rest the following morning. The poem was finished quickly because Johnson was hoping for patronage that would help him overcome the financial difficulties that he was experiencing while at Pembroke.
After Johnson finished the poem, it was sent to his home, and his father Michael Johnson, a bookseller, immediately printed the work. It was later contained in a collected of work by the Pembroke tutor John Husbands titled Miscellany of Poems (1731).
Read more about this topic: Messiah (Latin Poem)
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