Samuel Rogers
born July 30, 1763, Stoke Newington,
near London
died Dec. 18, 1855, London
English poet, best remembered as a witty
conversationalist and as a friend of greater
poets.
Rogers attained eminence with the publication of
his popular discursive poem The Pleasures of
Memory (1792). On his father’s death (1793) he
inherited a banking firm, and for the next half
century he maintained an influential position as
a leading figure in London society and as a
generous host to brilliant company. His
acquisition of paintings and objets d’art made
his home a centre for anyone ambitious to be
thought a man of taste. The amusing, though
often unkind, conversations held at his
breakfast and dinner parties were recorded by
Alexander Dyce and published as Recollections of
the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers (1856; edited by
Morchard Bishop, 1952). In spite of his sharp
tongue, he performed many kind offices for his
friends. He aided Richard Sheridan in his dying
days and helped to secure a pension for Henry
Cary, translator of Dante. He secured a position
for William Wordsworth as distributor of stamps
for Westmorland. He also continued to write
poetry, including an epic, The Voyage of
Columbus (1810); a collection of verse tales,
Italy (1822–28); and a miscellaneous collection
titled Poems (1834). In his own lifetime, his
poetry was widely admired. On Wordsworth’s
death, in 1850, Rogers was offered the
laureateship, which he refused.
