On this day in 1763 Christopher Smart's most famous poem, "Song to David," was published. Though a minor poet, Smart was friendly to those in Samuel Johnson's circle, and notorious to many for his enthusiastic public displays of "religious mania," such as falling to his knees in the streets to pray and enthusiastically inviting others to join him. Smart spent years in mental institutions for such habits, and other years in debtors' prison when he could not make his hack-writing career work. Recent biographers doubt that Smart's madness was severe, or that the "clown of God" -- the subtitle of Chris Mounsey's recent biography -- deserved the treatment he received ... FULL STORY »
