Johnson, the son of Sarah and Michael Johnson, grew up in Lichfield.
Johnson is a poet of limited range, but within that range he is a poet of substantial talent and ability. His works include a verse drama, some longer serious poems, several prologues, many translations, and much light occasional poetry, impromptu compositions or jeux d’esprit. Yet his biographer James Boswell noted correctly that Johnson’s “mind was so full of imagery, that he might have been perpetually a poet.” Moreover, Johnson wrote poetry throughout his life, from the time he was a schoolboy until eight days before his death, composing in Latin and Greek as well as English. As a result, aside from his two verse satires (1738, 1749), which were from the beginning recognized as distinguished achievements, and a few lesser pieces, the rest of his poems have not in general been well known. His literary fame has traditionally-and properly-rested more on his prose than on his poetry. Samuel Johnson, the premier English literary figure of the mid and late 18th century, was a writer of exceptional range: a poet, a lexicographer, a translator, a journalist and essayist, a travel writer, a biographer, an editor, and a critic.
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