ABSTRACT
Like N. Elliot, John Bennet was an Oxford cobbler; like William Vernon, he found assistance and patronage from Thomas Warton. Bennet's earliest productions in Poems on Several Occasions are predominantly convivial, written to friends and acquaintances. The volume as a whole is framed by poems written to him by one of Bennet's friends, James Green. However, the collection blends poems of sociability with the requisite pious pieces, demonstradng Bennet's efforts in a range of high and low topics and with a variety of styles, from simple songs to the more ambitious and demonstrably literate historical pieces written in pentameters. Moreover, Bennet's poems argue for the significance of regional alongside national history. Bennet's balance of playfulness and piety, and his apparent comfort in adopting a variety of voices, distinguish him from among the large confraternity of shoemaker poets.
