Notable North west poets

Ten Notable North-West Poets from History

By Margaret Brecknell

Above: Greta Hill, home of Coleridge and Southey, pictured in 1840 For centuries, Lancashire and North-West poets have been inspired by the beauty of their surroundings and the vibrancy of their local communities. In honour of National Poetry Day, which is celebrated this year on 6th October, here are ten of the region’s most notable poets from history.

1William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

One of England’s best-loved poets, William Wordsworth’s work was inspired by a love of nature and the awe-inspiring scenery of the Lake District, where he lived for much of his life. He was born in Cockermouth and educated at Hawkshead Grammar School, but, today, Dove Cottage in Grasmere is most famously associated with the writer.

Wordsworth first came to prominence through Lyrical Ballads, his 1798 collaboration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He moved to Dove Cottage the following year. There he wrote many of his most famous poems including Daffodils, known for its immortal opening line, “I wandered lonely as a cloud”. The 1807 collection, Poems, in Two Volumes, includes much of the best work written during his time in Grasmere and shows Wordsworth at the height of his powers.

In 1813, Wordsworth moved with his family to Rydal Mount. His work continued to enjoy great popularity and, in 1843, he was offered the position of Poet Laureate. By this stage the poet was in poor health and, initially, turned down the job on the grounds of being too old. He only accepted it when he was promised by Prime Minister, Robert Peel, that “you shall have nothing required of you”. He famously became the only Poet Laureate never to pen a verse whilst in office.

Wordsworth’s long autobiographical poem, The Prelude, was only published after his death in April 1850. Written over the course of his life, it traces the development of Wordsworth’s poetic powers and forms a fitting tribute to the great Lakeland poet.

2Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Devon-born Samuel Taylor Coleridge followed his great friend and fellow poet, William Wordsworth, to the Lake District, taking up residence at Greta Hall in Keswick in July 1800. Along with Wordsworth and Robert Southey (of whom more below), Coleridge is regarded as one of the three “Lakes Poets”, who put the Lake District firmly on the literary map.

Coleridge’s connection with the Lake District was in many ways fleeting. He had already written two of his most famous poems, The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, before he moved to the area in 1800. He then stayed at Greta Hall for only four years, before he accepted a post in Malta and left his wife and children behind there. He never returned to live with his family, spending his later life in London. Increasingly dependent on opium, he simply found it impossible to settle to a life of domestic bliss in the Lakes.

Yet, his very presence in the Lake District at a time, when, along with Wordsworth, he was at the forefront of an important new literary movement called Romanticism, meant that he left his mark on the area.

Coleridge is known to have walked extensively during his time in the Lakes and is generally credited with making the first recorded descent of Scafell Pike via the Broad Strand route, albeit, inadvertently, after losing his bearings.

3Robert Southey (1774-1843)

Born and raised in South-West England, Southey and his wife, Edith, came on an extended visit to Greta Hall in 1803, soon after the loss of their first child. The stay was not initially meant to be permanent. However, after Samuel Taylor Coleridge left for

Malta, Southey took over the lease of the Keswick property and became the head of a household which also included Coleridge’s wife and family.

Southey may not be as well-known today as his two fellow “Lakes Poets”, but he achieved considerable literary success during his lifetime. In his early career, he was regarded as a radical who openly supported the French Revolution in poems such as Joan of Arc. His 1796 work, After Blenheim, is regarded as one of the first anti-war poems.

He went on to become one of the era’s most prolific writers. His literary output stretched far beyond poetry. Southey contributed essays and reviews, as well as poems, to many of the leading periodicals of the day. His biography of Admiral Lord Nelson is probably his best-regarded work today. His most famous poem about the Lake District, The Cataract of Lodore, was inspired by past visits with his young children to the spectacular waterfall at Lodore – still a popular tourist attraction today.

In later life, the once revolutionary young poet became much more of an establishment figure. In 1813, Southey was appointed Poet Laureate and held the post until his death thirty years later.

4Isabella Whitney (c.1546-c.1624)

Isabella Whitney is little known to modern poetry lovers, but the 16th-century Cheshire woman has a notable claim to fame in that she is credited with being the first Englishwoman to have poetry on a non-religious subject published in her own name.

Her first small collection of poetry was published in 1567 by Richard Jones, a member of the Stationers’ Company in London, where she is thought to have been living at the time. Known in short as The Copy of a Letter, it consists of four poems, all on the topic of love, which are written from the point of view of two male and two female jilted lovers.

Her second work, A Sweet Nosegay, published some six years later, includes autobiographical details, which help to fill in some of the gaps regarding Whitney’s otherwise little-known life story. She describes herself as having turned to writing as a profession after losing her job as a servant, being “whole in body and in mind, but very weak in purse”.

Referring to her status as a single woman, Whitney writes,

“Had I a husband, or a house, and all that longs thereto My self could frame about to rouse as other women do: But till some household cares me tie, My books and pen I will apply.”

This suggests that she was well aware of the disapproval which she would have attracted for pursuing a career as a female writer in the Elizabethan era.

As financial pressures grew, and with a wife and large family to support, Collier came up with the idea of painting caricatures to supplement his income. Styling himself as “the Lancashire Hogarth”, he would tour the pubs of Rochdale to sell his work and tout for new commissions. The versatile Collier also began to write satirical poetry in the local Lancashire dialect, which he illustrated himself.

Collier’s most famous literary work, A View of the Lancashire Dialect, or, Tumnus and Mary, was published in 1746. It is regarded as the earliest significant work in the Lancashire dialect to be published. Later in life, a collection of his dialect poetry was published under the title, Human Passions Delineated, complete with illustrations by Collier himself.

Shortly before his death in 1786, Collier is said to have composed his own epitaph, “Jack of all trades… left to die i’th dark”, which was later inscribed on his gravestone in the churchyard of Rochdale’s St Chad’s Church.

Above: Rochdale’s Dialect Writers Memorial

5John Collier (1708-86)

The satirical poet, known as “Tim Bobbin”, lived in the Rochdale area for virtually all his life. From the age of 16, he worked as an itinerant schoolmaster, before taking up a permanent position at Milnrow Free School.

Above: Memorial plaque to Francis Thompson on Winckley Street Preston

6Edwin Waugh (1817-90)

Along with four of his fellow townsmen, Edwin Waugh is commemorated on a memorial to Lancashire Dialect Writers in Rochdale’s Broadfield Park.

Waugh is probably now the best remembered of the Victorian authors who aimed to reintroduce the kind of Lancashire dialect writing first pioneered by John Collier a century or so earlier. His most famous poem, Come Whoam to Thi Childer an Me, first appeared in the Manchester Examiner in 1856. It was later published in pamphlet form and sold thousands of copies throughout England and across the continent. Waugh was able to give up his job and focus on his writing, supplementing his income with performances of his work.

A collection of his most popular dialect verses was subsequently published as Poems and Songs. Such was Waugh’s reputation that he became known as the “Lancashire Burns”. The comparison is apt, as, just like Scotland’s favourite poet, Waugh possessed the enviable ability to recreate in the local dialect a vivid picture of his native county’s people, places and customs.

7William Billington (1825-84)

Known as the “Blackburn poet”, Billington was born in the Ribble Valley village of Samlesbury. His family lived in impoverished circumstances and Billington received only the most basic education at Catholic Sunday Schools. Crucially, though, he was taught to read and write, which proved invaluable when he later turned to poetry.

In 1839, the family moved to Blackburn and Billington found work in the local cotton mills. By the 1850s, he had a wife and family to support, but he devoted the little free time he had to self-improvement, learning the work of the major English poets and taking an active interest in politics and religion. His interest in poetry stemmed from his friendship with local poet, Richard Dugdale, as well as his maternal uncle, Robert Bolton, who wrote and performed his own songs.

Billington is best remembered today for his dialect poems, particularly on the topic of the Lancashire Cotton Famine during the early 1860s which had such a disastrous impact on the county’s cotton mill workers. Th’ Shurat-weyvur’s song and Aw wod this war wur ended both sold well at the time and have frequently appeared since in anthologies of Lancashire dialect poetry and songs.

Not all his poetry was written in the Lancashire dialect. His 1861 collection, Sheen and Shade, was written in standard English, as was the wonderfully nostalgic 1876 poem, Pendle Hill, which recalls a joyful summer outing with friends.

8Samuel Laycock (1826-93)

Laycock was born a Yorkshireman and was called the “Marsden poet” in honour of the village of his birth near Huddersfield. However, his poetry is best known for recording the dialect of the Lancashire cotton mill workers.

Laycock started work in a local woollen mill at the tender age of nine. In 1837, his family moved to Stalybridge and Laycock found employment as a cotton weaver. He is said to have been inspired by Edwin Waugh’s Come Whoam to Thi Childer an Me to produce his own dialect verses. His first collection of poetry, Lancashire Rhymes, or Homely Pictures of the People, was published in 1864, followed, in 1866, by Lancashire Songs. Both volumes

documented the everyday life of Lancashire’s mill workers and provide an invaluable insight into the local dialect at that time.

Laycock’s growing literary reputation enabled him to find employment as a librarian, firstly at Stalybridge Mechanics’ Institute and then at the Whitworth Institute in Fleetwood. Subsequently, he moved to Blackpool, where he ran a boarding-house with his wife. He continued to write and, shortly before his death in 1893, published a further collection of poetry entitled Warblin’s fro’ an Owd Songster.

9Francis Thompson (1859-1907)

Born in Winckley Street, Preston, Thompson originally looked set to follow his father into the medical profession, but showed a distinct lack of enthusiasm for his studies at Manchester University and eventually left for London to pursue a career as a writer.

Thompson’s early years in the capital did not go well. He had been prescribed opium for a medical condition whilst still in Manchester. Now he became addicted to the drug and before long found himself penniless and living on the streets of London. He continued to write poetry, however, and his big break came when, in 1888, he sent an example of his work to Merrie England. The magazine’s editors, Wilfred and Alice Meynell, were so impressed that they took the troubled poet under their wing and gave him a home.

In 1893, the Meynells arranged for Thompson’s first collection of poetry to be published. Entitled simply Poems, the collection included The Hound of Heaven which is now regarded as his masterpiece.

In addition to poetry, Thompson’s other great passion in life was cricket. His nostalgic poem, At Lord’s, written not long before his death in 1907, has become one of the most famous cricket-themed literary works. During a day watching the cricket at Lord’s, Thompson reminisces about the occasion on which some three decades earlier he had witnessed the Lancashire pair of Hornby and Barlow take on the might of WG Grace’s Gloucestershire. For those wishing to learn more about Albert Hornby, his story was covered in this magazine earlier this year.

Above: Laurence Binyon’s birthplace at 1 High Street Lancaster

10 Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

Lancaster-born Laurence Binyon’s first collection of poetry, Lyric Poems, was published in 1894. Such was his reputation in the early years of the 20th century that he was considered for the role of Poet Laureate. Today, he is best remembered for the work he produced during World War I.

Many of his war poems were influenced by the time he served as a Red Cross orderly in France from 1915 onwards. However, his most famous poem, For The Fallen, was inspired by the heavy number of casualties suffered by British forces early on in the war. It was published in The Times during the autumn of 1914 and became a symbol of the nation’s grief.

Used widely as an inscription on war memorials and at Remembrance Day gatherings across the world, many modern-day readers are probably unaware that the following verse is taken from Binyon’s poem:

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.”