author
William Somerville
1675–1742
Best remembered for The Chace, this English poet brought country life, field sports, and sharp observation into lively verse. His work helped shape an early kind of rural poetry that feels grounded in the pleasures and habits of the countryside.
2 Audiobooks
The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase With Memoirs and Critical Dissertations, by the Rev. George Gilfillan
by Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Somerville
The chase : a poem
by William Somerville
About the author
Born in 1675, he was an English poet educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. After studies that pointed toward a legal career, he returned to the life of a country gentleman, and that world became the heart of his writing.
He wrote in several genres, but he is most closely associated with The Chace (1735), the poem for which he is still chiefly remembered. Readers and reference works describe it as his best-known achievement, notable for its vivid treatment of hunting and rural life.
He died in 1742. Although not as famous now as some of his contemporaries, his poetry preserves a strong sense of place and pastime, and it offers a clear window into the tastes and rhythms of eighteenth-century English country life.