author
Robert Bloomfield
1766–1823
A shoemaker-poet who turned rural life into vivid, memorable verse, he found sudden fame with The Farmer’s Boy. His work stands out for bringing the voice and experience of working people into English poetry.
6 Audiobooks
The Bird and Insects' Post Office
by Robert Bloomfield
May Day with the Muses
by Robert Bloomfield
Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs
by Robert Bloomfield
Wild Flowers; or, Pastoral and Local Poetry
by Robert Bloomfield
The Banks of Wye: A Poem
by Robert Bloomfield
The Farmer's Boy: A Rural Poem
by Robert Bloomfield
About the author
Born in Honington, Suffolk, on December 3, 1766, Robert Bloomfield grew up in modest circumstances and worked from a young age. He later moved to London and trained as a shoemaker, writing poetry while supporting himself by handwork.
His best-known poem, The Farmer’s Boy (1800), brought him wide attention. Readers were drawn to its detailed picture of the English countryside and to the fact that its author wrote from lived experience rather than from a distance. Bloomfield became known as an important labouring-class poet, often discussed alongside other self-educated writers.
Although his early success was remarkable, it did not bring lasting security, and his later years were difficult. He died in Shefford, Bedfordshire, on August 19, 1823, but his reputation has endured through renewed interest in rural writing and the history of working-class voices in literature.