George Crabbe

George Crabbe (1754-1832), English poet, born at Aldeburgh, Suffolk. He practised medicine from 1774 to 1780, when he went to London to try to make a living by writing. The statesman Edmund Burke helped him publish his manuscripts and to enter the ministry. Crabbe was ordained in 1781 and became rector of Aldeburgh. Subsequently he was curate at Trowbridge from 1814 until his death. His poetry, which by then was famous, was notable for unsentimental, realistic descriptions of nature and of English village life. It includes The Village (1783), a work in heroic couplets, which was to establish his literary reputation. The poem's dark tone and lack of sentimentality were unconventional. Other works include The Newspaper (1785), The Parish Register (1807), The Borough (1810), and Tales of the Hall (1819). After the death of his wife in 1813, he began to travel to London more frequently where he became acquainted with Thomas Moore, Southey, and Wordsworth. In 1822 he travelled to Edinburgh to stay with Sir Walter Scott, with whom he had a close friendship. In that year he wrote In a Neat Cottage, and the following year a collected edition of his works appeared. Throughout the Romantic Movement, Crabbe maintained his realistic style and unflinching observations of rural life.