Abstract
This chapter examines why occasional poetry was particularly favored by writers of laboring-class origins, focusing on four distinct occasions that recur frequently in the verse of laboring-class poets: poems on the occasions of patronage, poems focused on times of difficulty, poems celebrating moments of community, and poems devoted to the act of composing poetry. The chapter argues that occasional verse was favored not only for practical reasons (namely, the poets’ limited time for writing givne the necessity of earning a living by other means), but also because of the limits within which a laboring-class poet might present his or her poetic aspirations.