Bards of a Feather is an adaptation of a talk given by Dr Timothy Hands , the
Headmaster of Winchester College , to accompany an exhibition in the College Treasury commemorating Keats ’ s residence in Winchester in 1819 . The talk formed part of the city ’ s contribution to the 2019 National Heritage Open Days .
Bards of a Feather Timothy Hands
Dr Hands examines the extent to which the College played a greater part than is usually realised in the creation of the cultural construct we know as Romanticism . He examines the published poetry of the Warton brothers , Thomas and Joseph , the guiding influence of their father , Thomas the Elder , and the generation of poets which the two brothers encouraged as pupils at Winchester and Oxford , especially William Lisle Bowles , a poet much admired by Wordsworth , Coleridge and their circle .
The talk repositions Keats ’ s much loved ‘ To Autumn ’, composed two hundred years ago in Winchester , as a poem concerned with poetic tradition and genre as much as with season , revealing it as a work of silent and ingenious adaptation as well as of extraordinary individuality of utterance .
Photo credit : Chris Andrews .
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Winchester College Treasury