SOURCE: An introduction to The Collected Poems of Christopher Smart, Volume 1, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1949, pp. xiii-xxxvi.

In the following excerpt, Callan broadly surveys Smart's work, attempting to identify the characteristics of the poet's style.

It is not an easy matter to dissociate the poetry Smart wrote from the life he lived. This is due in some measure to the sort of criticism which has been applied to his work since Browning included him in Parleyings with Certain People, but much more to Smart's own nature. Like Donne and Milton, he is persistently egocentric, but whereas they show the ego at grips with the great problems of humanity, Smart's ego seems too often entangled in a pettifogging exhibitionism. His tone is so personal that unless the reader is prepared to make the effort to understand his personality he is continually subject to a feeling of irritation at the...