ABSTRACT
It appears that only one poem by 'W. W.' ever appeared in print. 'A Summer's Day' was published in 1784, several years after its author's death, in the Gentleman's Magazine, prefaced by a letter from its discoverer, H. C. Charbonnier of Harborough. The poem offers a rather dull rehearsal of rural felicity, but is included here chiefly because of its placing in the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine, which also introduced several labouring-class poets to the public in the 1780s, including Ann Yearsley, Edward Williams (lolo Morganwg) and William Newton. It seems reasonable to conclude that the magazine was for a time the most powerful showcase for labouring-class poets with talent, or at least for those with an interesting story of genius-in-rags to relate; H. C. Charbonnier certainly seems to have thought as much.
