Thomson's The Seasons and the Tragic-Sentimental Verse Tale

Eighteenth-century generic experimentation frequently culminated in new generic constructs that incorporated a range of earlier modes and formal models. One of these novel forms is the mid-eighteenth-century tragic-sentimental verse tale which was paradigmatically developed by James Thomson (1700-1748), the author of The Seasons, who introduced his tale of Celadon and Amelia in Summer. The popularity of the story resulted in a range of imitations, and this essay undertakes an examination of the formal and modal properties of some of these by poets such as James Grainger, William Falconer, Edmund Cartwright and William Wordsworth. The transformative changes that each author introduced to Thomson's model reflect the complex adaptation process to which genres were subjected as they were appropriated by later, Romantic-period writers.