The Castle of Indolence

Drawing of the Castle of Indolence[1]

The Castle of Indolence is a poem written by James Thomson, a Scottish poet of the 18th century, in 1748.

According to the Nuttall Encyclopedia, the Castle of Indolence is "a place in which the dwellers live amid luxurious delights, to the enervation of soul and body." The poem is written in Spenserian stanzas at a time when they were considered outdated and initiated an interest in this stanza form which would later have a strong influence upon the English Romantic poets Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, and John Keats.

  1. ^ Thomson, James (1730) The Seasons and the Castle of Indolence. Wentworth Press, page 139 (reprint). ISBN 9781363523856