SOURCE: "The Revelation of Self in Jubilate Agno and A Song to David, " in English Studies, Netherlands, Vol. 65, No. 1, February, 1984, pp. 23-6.

In the essay below, King examines the "psychological and structural interdependences" between Jubilate Agno and A Song to David, focusing particularly on Smart's identification with King David, a sinner who redeems himself through poetry.

Although the structure of Christopher Smart's Davidic poems, Jubilate Agno (composed c. 1759-63) and A Song to David (1763), have been analyzed perceptively and the background to these poems elucidated superbly, not much attention has been paid to the psychological and structural interdependences between the two poems. During the mental instability he suffered from 1759-63, Smart probably focused his work on David because he saw him not merely as the great poet of the psalms but also as a redeemed sinner who was a great poet. There is a tone, then, of apologia...