As a youngster, Warton demonstrated a strong predilection toward writing poetry, a skill he would continue to develop all of his life.

His duty in this post was to write a poem about a selected patroness of the university, which would be read to her on a specially appointed day.

Among other important contributions, Warton, along with his brother, was among the first to argue that Sir Thopas, by Geoffrey Chaucer, was a parody.

He was a general supporter of the poetry of Thomas Gray—a fact that Johnson satirized in his parody "Hermit hoar, in solemn cell."

Among his minor works were an edition of Theocritus, a selection of Latin and Greek inscriptions, the humorous Oxford Companion to the Guide and Guide to the Companion (1762); lives of Sir Thomas Pope and Ralph Bathurst; and an Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems attributed to Thomas Rowley (1782).

In a poem written in 1745 he shows the delight in Gothic churches and ruined castles which inspired much of his subsequent work in romantic revival.

[5] Although he continued to write poetry, Warton's main energies were turned to poetical reading and criticism.