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As a poet, critic, essayist, editor, literary historian, biographer, and antiquarian, Thomas Warton ranks as one of the most accomplished and versatile writers of the eighteenth century. In his poetry he reflected his lifelong belief that nature and the historical past should be the concerns of the truly imaginative poet. Although not a brilliant poet, Warton wrote verse that is often excellent and usually stimulating. His nine sonnets helped to renew interest in the form and to pave the way for the important sonnet writing of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Warton's appreciation of melancholy culminated a period rich with works devoted to the pleasures of contemplation and graveyard imaginings. In addition, his editions of poetry by his contemporaries helped to advance them as significant voices in the period immediately following the death of Alexander Pope. Warton's critical work on Edmund Spenser made more popular the historical method of criticism, which asked the reader to judge a literary work from a historical perspective as well as from the critical preferences of contemporary times.
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