The Robert Bloomfield Society Blog Entries
13th August 2010
Annual Prizegiving
The annual Prizegiving and Year 8 Leavers? evening at the Robert Bloomfield Middle School in Shefford was held on 19 July. This is, in fact, the fifth such occasion at which a representative of the Society has presented the Creative Writing Award funded by the Society.
The prizewinning student Rowan Lewis was presented with an attractively bound hardback copy of the Penguin anthology Poems for Life, which, though regrettably not including any poem by Bloomfield, seemed an appropriate award to such a gifted young writer as Rowan. Membership Secretary Angela Underhill once again attended the evening to make the presentation.
The prizewinning student Rowan Lewis was presented with an attractively bound hardback copy of the Penguin anthology Poems for Life, which, though regrettably not including any poem by Bloomfield, seemed an appropriate award to such a gifted young writer as Rowan. Membership Secretary Angela Underhill once again attended the evening to make the presentation.
10th November 2009
Annual Bloomfield Day and AGM - 27 March 2010
The annual Bloomfield day and AGM will take place at Nottingham Trent University on 27 March 2010, and will feature David Woods reading a section from his novel based on Bloomfield's Wye Valley tour, a talk by John Goodridge on Bloomfield's friend and fellow Shefford resident, Thomas Inskip, and a discussion of Bloomfield's "lost" poem "To Immagination, the subject of a fascinating article by Tim Fulford in a recent number of the journal Romanticism.
6th April 2009
Annual Bloomfield Day and AGM - 4th April 2009
The annual Bloomfield Day and AGM took place on Saturday, 4th April, at Nottingham Trent University, which once again generously provided hospitality for the event.
We had four speakers this year, beginning with Dr Peter Cochran, whose talk had the arresting title "The Farmer's Boy restored and renovated - at Last". Dr Cochran focused on the differences between the poem as originally composed by Bloomfield, and as it appeared in print, with numerous alterations by Capel Lofft. The next talk, which was given by Dr Simon White of Oxford Brookes University, was entitled "Otatheite and The Farmer's Boy", and considered why Bloomfield chose to footnote the line 'Destroys life's intercourse; the social plan' towards the close of "Summer" with a long passage describing social relations in Otaheite.
After lunch, Dr Kerri Andrews reflected on the perils and pitfalls involved in designing the Society's website; while Professor Tim Fulford gave us a fascinating introduction to the forthcoming edition of Bloomfield's correspondence.
Before the AGM, we had an opportunity to hear a recording of "Robert Bloomfield's Jig", a new composition by the Bedfordshire folk-singer Graeme Meek.
Later this year, in June, we are proposing to visit the Edward Jenner Museum in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. This elegant Queen Anne house, where the great doctor lived, worked and died, is a fitting memorial to the man so much admired and celebrated by Bloomfield in his poetry. Further details will be sent to members shortly.
We had four speakers this year, beginning with Dr Peter Cochran, whose talk had the arresting title "The Farmer's Boy restored and renovated - at Last". Dr Cochran focused on the differences between the poem as originally composed by Bloomfield, and as it appeared in print, with numerous alterations by Capel Lofft. The next talk, which was given by Dr Simon White of Oxford Brookes University, was entitled "Otatheite and The Farmer's Boy", and considered why Bloomfield chose to footnote the line 'Destroys life's intercourse; the social plan' towards the close of "Summer" with a long passage describing social relations in Otaheite.
After lunch, Dr Kerri Andrews reflected on the perils and pitfalls involved in designing the Society's website; while Professor Tim Fulford gave us a fascinating introduction to the forthcoming edition of Bloomfield's correspondence.
Before the AGM, we had an opportunity to hear a recording of "Robert Bloomfield's Jig", a new composition by the Bedfordshire folk-singer Graeme Meek.
Later this year, in June, we are proposing to visit the Edward Jenner Museum in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. This elegant Queen Anne house, where the great doctor lived, worked and died, is a fitting memorial to the man so much admired and celebrated by Bloomfield in his poetry. Further details will be sent to members shortly.