Although Boswell is best known as a prose writer and there is no comprehensive edition of his poems, he was a prolific if miscellaneous versifier all his life. Many earlier pieces c. 1758-62 were printed from the Bodleian MS as Boswell's Book of Bad Verse (1974). These are obviously youthful productions – amorous, literary (prologues to plays), exercises in a variety of metrical and rhyming forms – none perhaps of lasting worth, but reflecting their lively gentleman-author and the peculiarly clubbable and literary environment of Scots lawyers. “A Poetical Epistle to Doctor Sterne, Parson Yorick and Tristram Shandy”, celebrates his meeting with the newly-famous clergyman-author:
My verses, be they good or ill
Have been, dear foes – do laugh your fill –
By Sterne approv'd; when in the Mall
I've even kept him back...
195 words
Citation: McGowan, Ian. "Poems". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2714, accessed 05 December 2025.]
