Mark Akenside, poet and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, was born at
The Akensides were dissenters, his Presbyterian father a
butcher. As a result of an accident with a meat cleaver Mark was left slightly
lame. He attended the Royal Free Grammar School of Newcastle and a private
dissenting academy.
Aged 18, he was dispatched to Edinburgh to study theology
with the intention of becoming a Presbyterian minister. His studies were
financed through a fund established by the Tyneside dissenting community.
However, Mark was a dissenter in a rather broader meaning of
the word and he quickly abandoned theology for the more worldly study of
medicine. He did, though, repay his grant.
Before going to Edinburgh he had already developed a talent
for poetry. During a visit to Morpeth in 1738, he began working on “The
Pleasures of the Imagination” which was to become an extensive didactic poem.
His dissenting background emerged in other ways: as a
political, if somewhat unfocused radical, Dr. Johnson commented that Mark had
an, “…eagerness to subvert and confound…” but without necessarily with any
particular objective in mind.
He also dissented
from the dissenting denominations by becoming a deist. Deism emerged during the
eighteenth century enlightenment as a response to traditional Christianity.
Deists base their belief in God on reason and experience,
not revelation and scripture. They claim Nature as their bible; that it
operates according to laws as discovered by science it is reasonable to
postulate the existence of the lawmaker.
The radical Thomas Paine, was a leading exponent of Deism
which was also the religion of the USA’s founding fathers such as Jefferson and
Adams. It was natural for a freethinking young poet to gravitate in such a
direction.
In 1740, Mark Akenside moved back to Newcastle, but although
he described himself as a surgeon it seems he didn’t actually practice. He did
continue to pursue his poetic ambitions.
By 1743 he’d established a growing literary reputation and
he moved to London. There he came to the favourable notice of Alexander Pope, a
fellow poet and deist.
Subsequently, after gaining a medical degree at Leiden in
1744, he went on to become a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and,
eventually, principal physician at Christ’s Hospital.
Akenside became embroiled in disputes characteristic of the
literary milieu of eighteenth century London. He published poems of a satirical
nature and a slim volume entitled, “Odes on Several Subjects”. His 1746 “Hymn
to the Naiads” was well received.
With advancing years and a burgeoning medical career Mark
began to develop a more conservative outlook. By the time George lll came to
the throne, he had became a Tory. This led to his appointment as the queen’s
physician. He died on the 23rd June, 1770.
As a poet, he gained a good reputation that has, over the
intervening years waned somewhat. However, his command of blank verse is beyond
question and is a good representative of didactic poetry, a form no longer much
favoured.
Nonetheless, Mark Akenside deserves to be recognised as a
considerable figure in Tyneside’s literary heritage. Although he may have ended
his life a Tory he had a radical strain within him. Perhaps his natural
radicalism can be illustrated by the following poem.
For a Column at Runnymede
Thou, who the
verdant plain dost traverse here
While Thames among his willows from thy view
Retires; O stranger, stay thee, and the scene
Around contemplate well. This is the place
Where England's ancient barons, clad in arms
And stern with conquest, from their tyrant king
(Then rendered tame) did challenge and secure
The charter of thy freedom. Pass not on
Till thou hast blest their memory, and paid
Those thanks which God appointed the reward
Of public virtue. And if chance thy home
Salute thee with a father's honour'd name,
Go, call thy sons: instruct them what a debt
They owe their ancestors; and make them swear
To pay it, by transmitting down entire
Those sacred rights to which themselves were born.
Mark Akenside
