He arrived in
London in sorry plight, without money, and with ragged shoes; but through
the assistance of some persons of station, he procured occupation as tutor
to a lord's son, and thus earned a livelihood until the publication of his
first poem in 1726. That poem was _Winter_, the first of the series called
_The Seasons_: it was received with unusual favor. The first edition was
speedily exhausted, and with the publication of the second, his position
as a poet was assured. In 1727 he produced the second poem of the series,
_Summer_, and, with it, a proposal for issuing the _Four Seasons_, with a
_Hymn_ on their succession. In 1728 his _Spring_ appeared, and in the next
year an unsuccessful tragedy called _Sophonisba_, which owed its immediate
failure to the laughter occasioned by the line,
O Sophonisba, Sophonisba O!
This was parodied by some wag in these words:
O Jemmie Thomson, Jemmie Thomson O!
and the ridicule was so potent that the play was ruined.
The last of the seasons, _Autumn_, and the _Hymn_, were first printed in a
complete edition of _The Seasons_, in 1730.
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