George Crabbe

Monument i St James Kirke, Trowbridge^[1]

George Crabbe var en engelsk digter (1754-1832), født i fiskerbyen Aldeburgh i grevskabet Suffolk. Han var oprindelig (ikke universitetsuddannet) læge, men fungerede størstedelen af sit liv som præst. Var en anerkendt entomolog (insektforsker).

George Crabbe er mest kendt for de lange versfortællinger The Village og The Borough. Sidstnævnte er grundlaget for Benjamin Brittens opera Peter Grimes. George Crabbe var meget læst i sin samtid, og fremtrædende litterære skikkelser som William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott og Jane Austen udtrykte sig anerkendende om hans jordnære digtekunst. For så vidt angår litterær form står han i gæld til klassicismens digtere, især Oliver Goldsmith, men indholdsmæssigt gør han op med perioden forud og beskriver den rå og barske virkelighed, han kendte, uden nogen form for skønmaleri.

Referencer

^ På monumentet står: SACRED to the memory of THE REV^d G. CRABBE L.L.B.
who died on the 3rd of February 1832 in the 78th year of his age
and the 18th year of his services as rector of this parish.
Born in humble life, he made himself what he was; breaking through the obscurity of his birth by the force of his genius; yet he never ceased to feel for the less fortunate; entering, as his works can testify, into the sorrows and wants of the poorest of his parishioners, and so discharging the duties of a pastor and a magistrate as to endear himself to all around him, as a writer he cannot be better described than in the words of a great poet, his contemporary, "tho' nature's sternest painter, yet her best".
This monument was erected by some of his affectionate friends and parishioners

[1] På monumentet står: SACRED to the memory of THE REV^d G. CRABBE L.L.B.
who died on the 3rd of February 1832 in the 78th year of his age
and the 18th year of his services as rector of this parish.
Born in humble life, he made himself what he was; breaking through the obscurity of his birth by the force of his genius; yet he never ceased to feel for the less fortunate; entering, as his works can testify, into the sorrows and wants of the poorest of his parishioners, and so discharging the duties of a pastor and a magistrate as to endear himself to all around him, as a writer he cannot be better described than in the words of a great poet, his contemporary, "tho' nature's sternest painter, yet her best".
This monument was erected by some of his affectionate friends and parishioners

[1]