James Thomson, the most popular Scottish poet of the eighteenth century, excelled at describing the drama of nature. He is best known for The Seasons, a didactic four-part poem on the seasonal cycle which combines empirical description of the natural world with belief in the workings of Divine Providence.

Thomson was born in 1700 in (probably) Ednam, Roxburghshire, near the Scottish boundary with England (known as the Border or Borders). His family moved that year to Southdean, another Border village, where his father Thomas, a Presbyterian minister, took charge of the parish. Thomson received a Scottish Calvinist up-bringing from his father, who went to the College of Edinburgh (which later became Edinburgh Universit

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First published 17 August 2004

Citation: Balakier, James. "James Thomson". The Literary Encyclopedia. 17 August 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4389, accessed 9 February 2010.]