William Lyle Bowles

English clergyman, poet, and critic. Born in King Sutton to a vicarage family, he came from the clergy of the Church of England. At the age of 14, he entered Winchester College.  In 1781 Bowles left his position as school captain and entered Trinity College, Oxford, where he received a scholarship. Two years later he won the Chancellor's Prize for Latin poetry. After receiving his degree at Oxford, Bowles followed in the footsteps of his ancestors and after serving as curate at Donhead, St. Andrew was appointed curate of Chicklade. In 1818 he was appointed chaplain to the Prince Regent, and in 1828 he was elected resident of Salisbury. Bowles was an amiable, absent-minded, and a rather eccentric man. His poems are distinguished by refinement, tenderness, and thoughtfulness, but they lack power and passion. Bowles argued that images drawn from nature are poetically better than images drawn by art; and that the highest poems should deal with themes or passions of a general or elementary nature, rather than the transient mores of any society.