Writing
Tickell's success in literature, as in life, was largely due to the friendship of Joseph Addison, who procured for him (1717) an under-secretaryship of state, to the chagrin of Richard Steele, who from then on bore a grudge against Tickell. During the peace negotiations with France, Tickell published in 1713 the Prospect of Peace.
In 1715 he brought out a translation of the first book of the Iliad contemporaneously with Alexander Pope's version. Addison's reported description of Tickell's version as the best that ever was in any language roused the anger of Pope, who assumed that Addison was the author. Addison instructed Tickell to collect his works, which were printed in 1721 under Tickell's editorship.
Kensington Gardens (1722), Tickell's longest poem, is sometimes viewed as inflated and pedantic. It has been said that Tickell's poetic powers were awakened by his admiration for the person and genius of Addison, and undoubtedly his best work is the sincere and dignified elegy addressed to the Earl of Warwick on Addison's death. His ballad of Cohn and Mary was for a long time the most popular of his poems. Tickell contributed to The Spectator and The Guardian. *His Works were printed in 1749 and are included in Chalmers's and other editions of the English Poets.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Tickell
Famous quotes containing the word writing:
“When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“In the learned journal, in the influential newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener some monied corporation, or some dangler, who hopes, in the mask and robes of his paragraph, to pass for somebody. But through every clause and part of speech of the right book I meet the eyes of the most determined men; his force and terror inundate every word: the commas and dashes are alive; so that the writing is athletic and nimble,—can go far and live long.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Life.—No, I’ve nothing to teach you about it for the moment. May be writing about it another week.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)