I lived to write, and wrote to live.

In long holidays necessitated by delicate health Rogers became interested in English literature particularly the work of Samuel Johnson Thomas Gray and Oliver Goldsmith. He learned Gray's poems by heart and his family wealth allowed him to leisure to try writing poetry himself. He began with contributions to the Gentleman's Magazine and in 1786 he publiSamuel Rogersd a volume containing some imitations of Goldsmith and an "Ode to Superstition" in the style of Gray.

His recollections of these and other friends such as Charles James Fox are key sources for information about London artistic and literary life with which he was intimate and which he used his wealth to support. Samuel Rogers (30 July 1763 – 18 December 1855) was an English poet during his lifetime one of the most celebrated although his fame has long since been eclipsed by his Romantic colleagues and friends Wordsworth Coleridge and Byron.