Bourne became proficient in writing Latin poetry during his time at Westminster School, and continued on to become a distinguished Latin poet at Cambridge. Though a bad teacher, he was a skillful Latin poet, producing some translations of English poets, in addition to his own occasional verse. He often wrote on quotidian subject matter and is praised widely, though not universally, for his eloquence and for revolutionizing the field of Latin poetry. The DNB regards him as "one of the most popular English Latin poets of the eighteenth century."