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RICHARD WATSON DIXON (1833-1900)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 347 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RICHARD WATSON DIXON (1833-1900)  ,
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English poet and divine, son of Dr James Dixon, a Wesleyan minister, was born on the 5th of May 1833 . He was educated at King
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Edward's school,
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Birmingham, and on proceeding to Pembroke College, Oxford, became one of the famous " Birmingham
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group " there who shared with William Morris and Burne-Jones in the Pre-Raphaelite
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movement . He took only a second class in moderations in 1854, and a third in Literae Humaniores in 1856; but in1858 he 'won the Arnold prize for an
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historical essay, and in 1863 the English Sacred Poem prize . He was ordained in 1858, was second master of Carlisle high school, 1863–1868, and successively vicar of Hayton, Cumberland, and
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Warkworth, Northumberland . He became minor
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canon and honorary librarian of Carlisle in 1868, and honorary canon in 1874, he was proctor in convocation (189o-1894), and received the honorary degree of D.D. from Oxford in 1899 . He died at Warkworth on the 23rd of
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January 1900 . Canon Dixon's first two volumes of verse, Christ's
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Company and Historical Odes, were published in 1861 and 1863 respectively; but it was not until 1883 that he attracted conspicuous
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notice with Mano, an historical poem in terza rima, which was enthusiastically praised by Mr Swinburne . This success he followed up by three privately printed volumes, Odes and Eclogues (1884), Lyrical Poems (1886), and The Story of Eudocia (1888) . Dixon's poems were during the last fifteen years of his
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life recognized as scholarly and refined exercises, touched with both dignity and a certain severe beauty, but he never attained any general popularity as a poet, the
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appeal of his
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poetry, being directly to the scholar . A
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great student of
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history, his studies in that direction colour much of his poetry . The romantic atmosphere is remarkably preserved in Mano, a successful metrical exercise in the difficult terza rima . His typical poems have charm and melody, without introducing any new note or variety of rhythm .

He is contemplative, sober and finished in

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literary workmanship, a typical example of the Oxford school . Pleasant as his poetry is, however, he will probably be longest remembered by the
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work to which he gave the best years of his life, his History of the Church of England from the Abolition of the
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Roman Jurisdiction (1878-1902) . At the time of his
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death he had completed six volumes, two of which were published posthumously . This
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fine work, covering the period from 1529 to 1570, is built upon elaborate research,, and presents a trustworthy and unprejudiced survey of its subject . Dixon's Selected Poems were published in 1909 with a memoir of the author by Robert Bridges .

End of Article: RICHARD WATSON DIXON (1833-1900)
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