William Tasker (poet)
William Tasker (1740–1800) was an English clergyman, scholar and poet. He made translations of works of Pindar and Horace. His own poems celebrated the "genius of Britain", which to him was both artistic and military. He was also interested in science, including physiognomy. Life William Tasker was born in 1740 at Iddesleigh, Devon. He was the only son of William Tasker (1708–1772) and Jane Vickries (died 1795). His father was rector of Iddesleigh, Devonshire, from 6 July 1738. He was educated at Barnstaple, then attended Exeter College, Oxford, matriculating on 20 February 1758. He remained there as sojourner and obtained a B.A. on 2 February 1762. On 24 June 1764, he was ordained deacon, and next day was made curate of Monk-Okehampton, near Iddesleigh. He was ordained a priest on 12 July 1767. Tasker became rector of Iddesleigh on 6 November 1772, after his father died. Tasker was a friend of Dr. William Hunter, attended his lectures, and studied botany in the gardens at Kew. James Boswell describes a meeting between Tasker and Samuel Johnson on 16 March 1779, where Tasker asked for Johnson's opinion of his poems. Boswell wrote, "The bard was a lank, bony figure, with short black hair; he was writhing himself in agitation while Johnson read, and, showing his teeth in a grin of earnestness, exclaimed in broken sentences and in a keen, sharp tone, 'Is that poetry, sir—is it Pindar?. Isaac D'Israeli later said this description was true. Tasker was an admirer of the poet Mary Robinson (1757–1800), whom he praised as the "Sweet Sappho of our Isle." Tasker was careless with his finances. The revenues of his benefice were placed under sequestration on 23 March 1780. He said that his "unletter'd brother-in-law" had obtained the sequestration in an "illegal mode" through "merciless and severe persecutions and litigations". His brother-in-law had died by 1790. Writing to Gough Nichols, editor of the Gentleman's Magazine in 1797, Tasker said he was "confined in my dreary situation at Starvation-Hall, 40 miles below Exeter, out of the verge of Literature & where even your extensive magazine has never yet reached." William Tasker died after a long and painful illness at Iddesleigh rectory on 4 February 1800. At the time of his death he was working on a history of physiognomy from Aristotle to Lavater. He was buried near the chancel of the Church of St James, Iddesleigh. A tablet was erected on the north wall of the church tower. His widow, Eleonora, died at Exbourne on 2 January 1801, aged 56, and was buried in the same grave with her husband. They had no children. Work and reception Tasker thought the results of the Seven Years' War (1754–63) had only been the growth of corruption and luxury at home. He wrote several poems on the Anglo-French War (1778–83) in which he represented the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, as being at the centre of a selfish and corrupt network. Tasker saw the action by Admiral Augustus