Duck, Stephen

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 504 words | Copyright

Duck, Stephen (1705–56), began his working life as a farm labourer. Almost entirely self-educated, he took to writing verse, and came to the notice of Queen Caroline, who gave him a pension and made him a yeoman of the guard in 1733. In 1746 he was ordained but some years later, in a fit of despondency, he drowned himself. His best-known poem, The Thresher's Labour (in heroic couplets), is a vividly realistic portrayal of the unremitting toil of the labourer's life. (See also primitivism.)

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Duck, Stephen." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Duck, Stephen." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-DuckStephen.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Duck, Stephen." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-DuckStephen.html

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