The 20th-century British historian Lord Blake called Pye "the worst Poet Laureate in English history with the possible exception of Alfred Austin". The appointment was looked on as ridiculous, and his birthday odes were a continual source of contempt. He was made poet laureate in 1790, perhaps as a reward for his faithful support of William Pitt the Younger in the House of Commons. Of all he wrote, his prose Summary of the Duties of a Justice of the Peace out of Sessions (1808) is most worthy of record. Although he had no command of language and was destitute of poetic feeling, his ambition was to obtain recognition as a poet, and he published many volumes of verse. He was obliged to sell the paternal estate, and, retiring from Parliament in 1790, became a police magistrate for Westminster. In 1784 he was elected Member of Parliament for Berkshire. His father died in 1766, leaving him a legacy of debt amounting to £50,000, and the burning of the family home further increased his difficulties. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. Pye was born in London, the son of Henry Pye of Faringdon House in Berkshire, and his wife, Mary James. Pye was merely a competent prose writer, who fancied himself as a poet, earning the derisive label of poetaster. His appointment owed nothing to poetic achievement, and was probably a reward for political favours. ![]() Henry James Pye ( / p aɪ/ 20 February 1745 – 11 August 1813) was an English poet, and Poet Laureate from 1790 until his death.
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