Mark Akenside

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Works in ECPA

alphabetical listing / listing in source editions

• HYMN TO THE NAIADS. ()
• [Inscription] I. For a GROTTO. ()
• [Inscription] II. For a Statue of CHAUCER at WOODSTOCK. ()
• [Inscription] III. ()
• [Inscription] IV. ()
• [Inscription] VI. For a Column at RUNNYMEDE. ()
• ODE I. Allusion to HORACE. ()
• ODE II. On the WINTER-SOLSTICE, M. D.CC.XL. (); ON THE WINTER SOLSTICE. M. D.CC.XL. ()
• ODE III. Against SUSPICION. ()
• ODE IV. To a GENTLEMAN whose MISTRESS had married an old Man. ()
• ODE To the Right Honourable FRANCIS Earl of HUNTINGDON. MDCCXLVII. ()
• ODE To the Right Reverend BENJAMIN Lord Bishop of WINCHESTER. ()
• ODE V. Hymn to CHEARFULNESS. The Author Sick. ()
• ODE VI. On the Absence of the Poetic Inclination. ()
• ODE VII. To a FRIEND, on the hazard of falling in LOVE. ()
• ODE VIII. On leaving HOLLAND. ()
• ODE IX. To SLEEP. ()
• ODE X. On LYRIC Poetry. ()
• ODE. ()
• [THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. A POEM.] ()

• Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770. The pleasures of imagination: A poem. In three books. London: printed for R. Dodsley, 1744. 125,[3]p. ; 4⁰. (ESTC T42493; Foxon A139; OTA K048676.000)
  • [THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. A POEM.]
• Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770. Odes on several subjects. London: printed for R. Dodsley. And sold by M. Cooper. M.DCC.XLV., 1745. 54p.; 4⁰. (ESTC T42068; OTA K027268.000)
  • ODE I. Allusion to HORACE.
  • ODE II. On the WINTER-SOLSTICE, M. D.CC.XL.
  • ODE III. Against SUSPICION.
  • ODE IV. To a GENTLEMAN whose MISTRESS had married an old Man.
  • ODE V. Hymn to CHEARFULNESS. The Author Sick.
  • ODE VI. On the Absence of the Poetic Inclination.
  • ODE VII. To a FRIEND, on the hazard of falling in LOVE.
  • ODE VIII. On leaving HOLLAND.
  • ODE IX. To SLEEP.
  • ODE X. On LYRIC Poetry.
• Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. VI. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758]. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.006)
  • HYMN TO THE NAIADS.
  • ODE To the Right Honourable FRANCIS Earl of HUNTINGDON. MDCCXLVII.
  • ODE To the Right Reverend BENJAMIN Lord Bishop of WINCHESTER.
  • [Inscription] I. For a GROTTO.
  • [Inscription] II. For a Statue of CHAUCER at WOODSTOCK.
  • [Inscription] III.
  • [Inscription] IV.
  • [Inscription] VI. For a Column at RUNNYMEDE.
  • ODE.
• Mendez, Moses. A collection of the most esteemed pieces of poetry: that have appeared for several years. With variety of originals, by the late Moses Mendez, Esq; and other contributors to Dodsley's collection. To which this is intended as a supplement. London: printed for Richardson and Urquhart, 1767. [8],320p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T124631; DMI 1073; OTA K099398.000)
  • ON THE WINTER SOLSTICE. M. D.CC.XL.

Source editions

• Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770. The pleasures of imagination: A poem. In three books. London: printed for R. Dodsley, 1744. 125,[3]p. ; 4⁰. (ESTC T42493; Foxon A139; OTA K048676.000)
• Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770. Odes on several subjects. London: printed for R. Dodsley. And sold by M. Cooper. M.DCC.XLV., 1745. 54p.; 4⁰. (ESTC T42068; OTA K027268.000)
• Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. VI. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758]. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.006)
• Mendez, Moses. A collection of the most esteemed pieces of poetry: that have appeared for several years. With variety of originals, by the late Moses Mendez, Esq; and other contributors to Dodsley's collection. To which this is intended as a supplement. London: printed for Richardson and Urquhart, 1767. [8],320p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T124631; DMI 1073; OTA K099398.000)

Biographical note

Mark Akenside, the son of a butcher, was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 9 November 1721. His family being dissenters, he was educated at a dissenting academy. He trained as a clergyman, but later switched to medicine. He qualified in Leiden in 1744. At university, he met his closest friend and life-long supporter, Jeremiah Dyson (c. 1722-1776). Akenside began publishing poetry as early as 1737. In 1744, Dodsley published his didactic poem The Pleasures of Imagination on the advice of Alexander Pope. Later in life, Akenside focused on his medical career and he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and of the Royal Society. Akenside never married and on his death on 23 June 1770, he left everything to Dyson, who edited a posthumous collection of The Poems (1772).

Bibliography

DMI 1187; ODNB 263; NCBEL 41, 637

Manuscripts

• Smith, Margaret M. Index of English Literary Manuscripts. Vol. III, 1700-1800 . London: Mansell, 1986-1997. Pt. 1 Addison-Fielding. 13-16. Print. 4 volumes.

Editions

• The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper; including the Series Edited, with Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Dr Samuel Johnson: and the most approved translations. The Additional Lives by Alexander Chalmers, F.S.A. Vol. XIV. London: J. Johnson et al., 1810. 51-133. Google Books edition. Web. 13 Feb. 2016. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ofNLAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA51
• Dix, Robin, ed. The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside. Madison and Teaneck; London: Farleigh Dickinson UP; Associated University Presses, 1996. Print.
• Dix, Robin, ed. The Literary Career of Mark Akenside, including an edition of his non-medical prose. Madison and Teaneck: Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2006. Print.

Biography

• Houpt, Charles T. Mark Akenside: A Biographical and Critical Study. New York: Russell and Russell, 1970 [1st ed. 1944]. Print.

Reference works

• Baines, Paul, Julian Ferraro, Pat Rogers, eds. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Eighteenth-Century Writers and Writing, 1660-1789. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. 3-4. Print.
• Fairer, David. English Poetry of the Eighteenth Century 1700-1789. Longman Literature in English Series. Harlow: Longman, 2003. 259-260. Print.
• Mell, Jr., Donald C. English Poetry, 1660-1800: a guide to information sources. American Literature, English Literature, and World Literatures in English Information Guide Series, vol. 40. Detroit: Gale, 1982. 101-105. Print.
• Radcliffe, David H., ed. Dr. Mark Akenside (1721-1770). Spenser and the Tradition: ENGLISH POETRY 1579-1830. Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech, 2006. Web. 11 Nov. 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20170908014740/http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/AuthorRecord.php?recordid=33078.
• Suarez, Michael F. Akenside, Mark. A Collection of Poems by Several Hands [1782]. Ed. Robert Dodsley and Michael F. Suarez. Vol. I. London: Routledge/Thoemmes, 1997. 120-121. Print. 6 volumes.

Criticism

• Aldridge, A. O. Akenside and Imagination. Studies in Philology 42 (1945): 769-792. Print.
• Dix, Robin. Mark Akenside: A Reassessment. Madison, NJ; London, England: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Associated University Presses, 2000. Print.
• Fabel, Kirk M. The Location of the Aesthetic in Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination. Philological Quarterly 76(1) (Winter 1997): 47-68. Print.
• Hart, Jeffrey. Akenside's Revision of The Pleasures of Imagination. PMLA 74 (1959): 67-74. Print.
• Jung, Sandro. 'Silence' in Early Eighteenth-Century Poetry: Finch, Akenside, Collins. LiLi: Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 33(131) (Sep. 2003): 151-162. Print.
• Kallich, Martin. The Association of Ideas and Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination. Modern Language Notes 62 (1947): 166-173. Print.
• Knapp, John. Akenside's Hymn to the Naiads and the Turn from the Ode. 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era 22 (2015): 41-66. Print.
• Marsh, Robert. Akenside and Addison: The Problem of Ideational Debt. Modern Philology 59 (1961-2): 36-48. Print.
• Marsh, Robert. Akenside and the Powers of Imagination. Marsh, Robert. Four Dialectical Theories of Poetry. Chicago: U of Chicago P., 1965. 48-86. Print.
• Meehan, Michael. Liberty and Poetics in Eighteenth Century England. London: Croom Helm, 1986. 52-63. Print.
• Rounce, Adam. Mark Akenside, The Pleasures of Imagination. Gerrard, Christine, ed. A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. 237-251. Print.
• Rounce, Adam. Akenside's Clamors for Liberty. Womersley, David; Bullard, Paddy; Williams, Abigail, eds. 'Cultures of Whiggism': New Essays on English Literature and Culture in the Long Eighteenth Century. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 2005. 216-233. Print.
• Sitter, John. Theodicy at Mid-Century: Young, Akenside, and Hume. Eighteenth-Century Studies 12 (1978): 90-106. Print.
• Stewart, Dustin D. Akenside's Refusal of Allegory: The Pleasures of Imagination (1744). Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 34(3) (Sep. 2011): 315-333. Print.
• Whitely, Paul. 'A Manly and Rational Spirit of Thinking': Akenside's The Pleasures of Imagination (1744). The Journal of the English Association 45(183) (Autumn 1996): 193-211. Print.