Class, Patronage, and Poetry in Hanoverian England: Stephen Duck, The Famous Threshing Poet (Oxford English Monographs) 9780198859666

Duck’s remarkable story reveals the tolerances, and intolerances, of the Hanoverian social order. Class, Patronage, and Poetry in Hanoverian England: Stephen Duck, The Famous Threshing Poet explores these complex and contested relationships through Duck’s life and work. It sheds new light on the poet’s early life, revealing how the farm labourer developed an interest in poetry; how he wrote his most famous poem, ‘The Thresher’s Labour’; how his public identity as the ‘famous Threshing Poet’ took shape; and how he came to be positioned as a figurehead of labouring-class writing. It explores how the patronage Duck received shaped his writing; how he came to reconceive his relationship with land, labour, and leisure; and how he made use of his newly acquired classical learning to develop new friendships and career opportunities. Finally, it reveals how, after Duck’s death, rumours about his suicide came to overshadow the achievements of his life. Both in life, and in death, this book argues, Duck provided both opportunity and provocation for thinking through the complex interplay of class, patronage, and poetry in Hanoverian England.