Author: BELCHER (Joseph):
Title: Poetical Sketches of Biblical Subjects: Partly original, Partly Selected from our Most Esteemd Poets. Illustrative of the Sacred Volume.
Description: London: Printed for W. Jones...., and W. Simpkin and R. Marshall..., 1825. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 12mo, 174 x 117 mms., pp. xii, 298, binder's cloth; lacks frontispiece, front hinge cracked, top and base of spine chipped, joints snagged, a goodish copy with the autograph "E. L. [?Harris]" on the front paste-down end-paper. I think this is the Joseph Belcher (1794 - 1859) who was born in Birmingham and was a Baptist minister for many years; he moved to Nova Scotia in 1843 and later to the United States, specifically Philadelphia. He left England because he had strong views about the separation of the church and the state; such views were regarded as highly suspect in the Church of England in the 19th century. This volume was reviewed in The Eclectic Review: "This volume deserves notice among the various selections which have lately been put forth.... The volume is...so well meant, and the contents so unexceptionable, that we shall abstain from any captious remarks on the selection. Though not entitled to rank as a class-book..., it forms a very pleasing selections of sacred poetry for young persons." David Bebbington: Nineteenth-Century British Baptist Attitudes towards the Relations of Church and State (2014).

Keywords: poetry religion literature


See more books from our catalog: Poetry