William Hogarth: Distressed Poet

Distressed Poet.   Engraving.  £250
[Approx: 12 1/2 x 15 1/2. Ref: Paulson 145.]

The Distressed Poet is based on Alexander Pope's view that the wretched denizens of Grub Street – contemptible because they wrote for money – were fair game for satirists when they were impertinent enough to ape their betters.  Fair enough, but too academic; above all the Distressed Poet is about Hogarth's father.

Richard Hogarth arrived in London from Westmorland in 1686.  Somewhere along the line he had acquired a working knowledge of the classics and he settled down to make a living as a school teacher.  It didn't work out and he was forced to join the ranks of the large and hapless regiment of London hackwriters.  This didn't work out either and as night followed day he found himself imprisoned for debt in the Fleet.

It goes without saying that this must have made a big impression on young William.   In later years he was to attribute his father's problems to "the cruel treatment he met with from Booksellers and Printers", but it is difficult to believe that he didn't, at some level, harbor some resentment against him.  Such, at least, is what The Distressed Poet suggests.  A clear, straight-forward image, it invites us to contemplate the dreariness and distress that flows from a poet's vain and foolish aspirations.