1.
1794 in poetry
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Nationality words link to articles with information on the nations poetry or literature. June – English poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey first meet, beginning in August they collaborate on the historic drama The Fall of Robespierre, published in October and Southeys first published poetry, he also writes the radical play Wat Tyler this summer. July 25 – French poet André Chénier is executed at age 31 in Paris two days before the fall of Robespierre and he had been arrested and held in the Prison Saint-Lazare before his execution. Robert Treat Paine founds the Federal Orrery, a semiweekly Federalist journal in Boston and it features contributions from Joseph Dennie and Sarah Wentworth Morton, and includes poetry, satire and criticism
2.
1798 in poetry
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Nationality words link to articles with information on the nations poetry or literature. July 13 – William Wordsworths poem Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour,13 July 1798 written, William Wordsworth begins writing the first version of The Prelude, finishing it in two parts in 1799. This version describes the growth of his understanding up to age 17 and he would revise the poem more than once during his lifetime but not publish it. Months after his death in 1850 it was published for the first time, robert Anderson, Poems on Various Subjects William Lisle Bowles, St. Michaels Mount George Canning and J. H
3.
1799 in poetry
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Nationality words link to articles with information on the nations poetry or literature. December 20 – William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy first take up residence at Dove Cottage, William Wordsworth completes the first version of The Prelude, begun in 1798. This version, in two parts, describes the growth of his understanding up to age 17, when he leaves home for the University of Cambridge and he will revise the poem more than once during his lifetime but not publish it. Months after his death in 1850 it will be published for the first time in its final version. G. G. Lewis William Sotheby, The Battle of the Nile, about Nelsons defeat of the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile on August 1,1798 Robert Southey, Poems
4.
1798 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1798. February – Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes the conversation poem Frost at Midnight, april – Coleridge writes the conversation poems Fears in Solitude and The Nightingale. April 16 – Coleridges The Recantation, An Ode is published in The Morning Post, april 30 – Richard Cumberlands comedy The Eccentric Lover is first performed at the Covent Garden Theatre in London. First London publication is on October 4, October 11 – Elizabeth Inchbalds Lovers Vows is first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. October 12 – The rebuilt Weimarer Hoftheater is inaugurated with the first performance of the first part of Friedrich Schillers dramatic trilogy Wallenstein, Das Lager, publication of Ivan Kotliarevskys mock-heroic poem Eneyida, the first printed work in the modern Ukrainian language. The National Library of the Netherlands originates when the Batavian Republic opens the former library of the stadtholder to the public, the Académie française publishes the 5th edition of its Dictionnaire. Thomas Nelson originates in Edinburgh as a second-hand religious bookshop
5.
1799 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1799. Premieres of the second and third parts of Friedrich Schillers dramatic trilogy Wallenstein at the Weimarer Hoftheater directed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, april 20 – Wallensteins Tod as Wallenstein. April 13 – The father of Charles and Mary Lamb dies, Charles becomes guardian of his sister, december 20 – William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy first take up residence at Dove Cottage, Grasmere. William completes the first version of The Prelude this year, new edition of Edward Youngs Night Thoughts, illustrated by Thomas Stothard. The Monthly Magazine and American Review starts publication in the United States, edited by Charles Brockden Brown
6.
1796 in architecture
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The year 1796 in architecture involved some significant events. October 8 - The Sans Souci Theatre in Westminster, London, opens to the public, built by dramatist, musician, somerset House in London, designed by William Chambers is completed. The parish church of Urtijëi in the Italian Tyrol, designed by Joseph Abenthung, is completed, hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, Korea, designed by Jeong Yak-yong, is completed. Work begins on Blaise Castle, commissioned by John Scandrett Harford from William Paty, the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat, Egypt, is rebuilt by Mamluk leader Mourad Bey
7.
After Blenheim
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After Blenheim is an anti-war poem written by English Romantic poet laureate Robert Southey in 1796. The poem is set at the site of the Battle of Blenheim, an old man tells two small children of burned homes, civilian casualties, and rotting corpses, while repeatedly calling it a famous victory. Old Kaspar, whose father lived nearby the battlefield, Wilhelmine, his granddaughter, old Kaspar has finished his work and is sitting in the sun in front of the cottage, watching his little granddaughter at play. Peterkin, his grandson, has been rolling a round object he found near the stream. He brings it to the old man, who explains Tis some poor fellows skull and he admits that he often finds them while ploughing in the garden. The children anticipate a story—And little Wilhelmine looks up/with wonder-waiting eyes, Kaspar explains to the children the story of the battle, that the Duke of Marlborough routed the French, although he admits he never understood the reason for the war himself. He also mentions that his father had a cottage by the father lived at Blenheim then—where Peterkin found the skull. The soldiers burned it to the ground, and his father and mother had fled, the following verse refers to a childing mother, or a mother with child and many of them died with their newborns, possibly alluding to his own mother. Thousands of corpses lay rotting in the fields, but he shrugs it off, Wilhelmine says it was a wicked thing, but he contradicts her, no, he says, it was a great victory. It is one of Southeys most famous poems, the often-quoted closing lines are, After Blenheim, also called Battle of Blenheim, was written during Southeys Jacobin years. It appeared in publication with several others, in the category of Ballads and metrical tales, with the tale of Lord William. By 1820, however, Southey had changed his mind about the Battle, the fate of Germany, had it not been won, he calculated, might have over set the Protestant Succession in Britain
8.
Robert Southey
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Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called Lake Poets, and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 until his death in 1843. Although his fame has long been eclipsed by that of his contemporaries and friends William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey was also a prolific letter writer, literary scholar, essay writer, historian and biographer. His biographies include the life and works of John Bunyan, John Wesley, William Cowper, Oliver Cromwell, the last has rarely been out of print since its publication in 1813 and was adapted for the screen in the 1926 British film, Nelson. He also wrote on issues, which led to a brief, non-sitting. Robert Southey was born in Wine Street, Bristol, to Robert Southey and he was educated at Westminster School, London, and Balliol College, Oxford. Southey later said of Oxford, All I learnt was a little swimming, experimenting with a writing partnership with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, most notably in their joint composition of The Fall of Robespierre, Southey published his first collection of poems in 1794. Each young man should take to himself a mild and lovely woman for his wife, it would be her part to prepare their innocent food, and tend their hardy and beautiful race. Southey was the first to reject the idea as unworkable, suggesting that they move the location to Wales. In 1799 Southey and Coleridge were involved with experiments with nitrous oxide. Southey married Edith Fricker at St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol and she was a sister of Sara Fricker, Coleridges wife. The Southeys made their home at Greta Hall, Keswick, in the Lake District, also living at Greta Hall and supported by him were Sara Coleridge and her three children, after Coleridge abandoned them, as well as the widow of poet Robert Lovell and her son. In 1808 Southey met Walter Savage Landor, whose work he admired and that same year he wrote Letters from England under the pseudonym Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella, an account of a tour supposedly from a foreigners viewpoint. From 1809 Southey contributed to the Quarterly Review and he had become so well known by 1813 that he was appointed Poet Laureate after Walter Scott refused the post. In 1819, through a friend, Southey met the leading civil engineer Thomas Telford. From mid-August to 1 October 1819, Southey accompanied Telford on an tour of his engineering projects in the Scottish Highlands. This was published in 1929 as Journal of a Tour in Scotland in 1819 and he was also a friend of the Dutch poet Willem Bilderdijk, whom he met twice, in 1824 and 1826, at Bilderdijks home in Leiden. In 1837 Southey received a letter from Charlotte Brontë, seeking his advice on some of her poems and he wrote back praising her talents, but also discouraging her from writing professionally. He said Literature cannot be the business of a womans life, years later, Brontë remarked to a friend that the letter was kind and admirable, a little stringent, but it did me good
9.
Irish poetry
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Irish poetry includes poetry in two languages, Irish and English. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century and this culminated in the work of the poets of the Irish Literary Revival in the late 19th and early 20th century. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe, the earliest examples date from the 6th century, and are generally short lyrics on themes from religion or the world of nature. They were frequently written by their authors in the margins of the illuminated manuscripts that they were copying. The best known example is Pangur Bán and it was practical for poems to be short because the Irish recognized that it was necessary to use any means necessary to make the poems lasting in their oral culture. To accomplish such a feat as well as they have, they used complicated rhyme schemes that would render a poem nonsensical if any of the key words were changed from the original version, in an oral culture, Irish poetry had many uses. A poem could be used to both the poet and the subject of the poem, oftentimes kings would commission poets to create a piece about them. Such poems would be passed on to descendants so they would remember the deeds of past generations. Kings would also commission poets to write poems of advertisement, speaking of the greatness and worthiness. Oral poetry, because it was in the vernacular, was used for entertainment. Poems that were entertaining could also be informative, teaching people lessons or offering them wisdom of experience for dealing with situations they would encounter in their everyday lives. Finally, poems, especially those featured in the sagas, were thought to be an instrument of the supernatural, Another source of early Irish poetry is the poems in the tales and sagas, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Unlike many other European epic cycles, the Irish sagas were written in prose, Irish bards formed a professional hereditary caste of highly trained, learned poets. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles and they were chroniclers and satirists whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, glam dicin, the Metrical Dindshenchas, or Lore of Places, is probably the major surviving monument of Irish bardic verse. It is a great onomastic anthology of naming legends of significant places in the Irish landscape, the earliest of these date from the 11th century, and were probably originally compiled on a provincial basis. As a national compilation, the Metrical Dindshenchas has come down to us in two different recensions. Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland, verse tales of Fionn and the Fianna, sometimes known as Ossianic poetry, were extremely common in Ireland and Scotland throughout this period
10.
Robert Burns
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Robert Burns, also known as Rabbie Burns, the Bard of Ayrshire, Ploughman Poet and various other names and epithets, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and he also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, in 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV. As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected songs from across Scotland. His poem Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay, and he was born in a house built by his father, where he lived until Easter 1766, when he was seven years old. William Burnes sold the house and took the tenancy of the 70-acre Mount Oliphant farm, here Burns grew up in poverty and hardship, and the severe manual labour of the farm left its traces in a premature stoop and a weakened constitution. By the age of 15, Burns was the principal labourer at Mount Oliphant, during the harvest of 1774, he was assisted by Nelly Kilpatrick, who inspired his first attempt at poetry, O, Once I Lovd A Bonnie Lass. In the summer of 1775, he was sent to finish his education with a tutor at Kirkoswald, despite his ability and character, William Burnes was consistently unfortunate, and migrated with his large family from farm to farm without ever being able to improve his circumstances. Subsequently, the family became integrated into the community of Tarbolton, to his fathers disapproval, Robert joined a country dancing school in 1779 and, with Gilbert, formed the Tarbolton Bachelors Club the following year. His earliest existing letters date from this time, when he began making overtures to Alison Begbie. In spite of four songs written for her and a suggestion that he was willing to marry her, Robert Burns was initiated into masonic Lodge St David, Tarbolton, on 4 July 1781, when he was 22. This venture accordingly came to an end, and Burns went home to Lochlea farm, during this time he met and befriended Captain Richard Brown who encouraged him to become a poet. He continued to write poems and songs and began a book in 1783. The case went to the Court of Session, and Burnes was upheld in January 1784, a fortnight before he died. During the summer of 1784 Burns came to know a group of girls known collectively as The Belles of Mauchline, one of whom was Jean Armour, the daughter of a stonemason from Mauchline. His first child, Elizabeth Paton Burns, was born to his mothers servant, Elizabeth Paton, while he was embarking on a relationship with Jean Armour, Burns signed a paper attesting his marriage to Jean, but her father was in the greatest distress, and fainted away. To avoid disgrace, her parents sent her to live with her uncle in Paisley, although Armours father initially forbade it, they were eventually married in 1788
11.
Poetry of Scotland
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Much of the earliest Welsh literature was composed in or near Scotland, but only written down in Wales much later. These include The Gododdin, considered the earliest surviving verse from Scotland, very few works of Gaelic poetry survive from this period and most of these in Irish manuscripts. The Dream of the Rood, from which lines are found on the Ruthwell Cross, is the surviving fragment of Northumbrian Old English from early Medieval Scotland. In Latin early works include a Prayer for Protection attributed to St Mugint, there were probably filidh who acted as poets, musicians and historians. After the de-gallicisation of the Scottish court from the twelfth century, what survives of their work was only recorded from the sixteenth century. This includes poems composed by women, including Aithbhreac Nighean Coirceadail, the first surviving major text in Scots literature is John Barbours Brus. In the early fifteenth century Scots historical works included Andrew of Wyntouns verse Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland and Blind Harrys The Wallace and they were probably influenced by Scots versions of popular French romances that were produced in the period. Much Middle Scots literature was produced by makars, poets with links to the court, which included James I. Makars at the court of James IV included Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Douglass Eneados was the first complete translation of a major classical text in an Anglian language. James V supported William Stewart and John Bellenden, David Lyndsay wrote elegiac narratives, romances and satires. George Buchanan founded a tradition of poetry that would continue in to the seventeenth century. From the 1550s cultural pursuits were limited by the lack of a court, political turmoil. Poets from this period included Richard Maitland of Lethington, John Rolland), Alexander Hume, a new tradition of vernacular Gaelic poetry began to emerge, including work by women such as Mary MacLeod of Harris. The tradition of neo-Latin poetry reached its fruition with the publication of the anthology of the Deliciae Poetarum Scotorum and this period was marked by the work of female Scottish poets including Elizabeth Melvilles, whose Ane Godlie Dream was the first book published by a woman in Scotland. The ballad became a literary form by aristocratic authors including Robert Sempill, Lady Elizabeth Wardlaw. After the Union in 1707 Scottish literature developed a national identity. Allan Ramsay led a revival, the trend for pastoral poetry. The eighteenth century was also a period of innovation in Gaelic vernacular poetry, major figures included Rob Donn Mackay, Donnchadh Bàn Mac an t-Saoir, Uilleam Ross and Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, who helped inspire a new form of nature poetry
12.
Dumfries
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Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth, Dumfries was a civil parish and became the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South, people from Dumfries are known colloquially as Doonhamers. There are at least three theories on the etymology of the name, One is that the name Dumfries originates from the Scottish Gaelic name Dún Phris which means Fort of the Thicket. Another is that it comes from a Brythonic cognate of the alleged Gaelic derivation, No positive information has been obtained of the era and circumstances in which the town of Dumfries was founded. Some writers hold that Dumfries flourished as a place of distinction during the Roman occupation of North Great Britain. This is inferred from the etymology of the name, which, Dumfries was once within the borders of the Kingdom of Northumbria. The district around Dumfries was for centuries ruled over and deemed of much importance by the invading Romans. The Romanized natives received freedom as well as civilisation from their conquerors, late in the fourth century, the Romans bade farewell to the country. According to another theory, the name is a corruption of two words mean the Friars’ Hill, those who favour this idea allege that St. In the list of British towns given by the ancient historian Nennius, the name Caer Peris occurs, twelve of King Arthurs battles were recorded by Nennius in Historia Brittonum. The Battle of Tribruit, has suggested as having possibly been near Dumfries or near the mouth of the river Avon near Boness. It has been argued, the town thus characterised must have been Dumfries, however, against this argument is that the town is situated eight to nine miles distant from the sea, although the River Nith is tidal and navigable all the way into the town itself. Although at the time 1 mile upstream and on the bank of the Nith from Dumfries. The abbey ruins are on the site of the Bailey of the very early Lincluden Castle and this religious house was used for various purposes, until its abandonment around 1700. Lincluden Abbey and its grounds are now within the Dumfries urban conurbation boundary, William the Lion granted the charter to raise Dumfries to the rank of a Royal Burgh in 1186. Dumfries was very much on the frontier during its first 50 years as a burgh and it grew rapidly as a market town and port. Alexander III visited Dumfries in 1264 to plan an expedition against the Isle of Man, previously Scots, a royal castle, which no longer exists, was built in the 13th century on the site of the present Castledykes Park
13.
Jean Armour
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Template, Infobox person Wife of Robert Burns Jean Armour, also known as the Belle of Mauchline, was the wife of the poet Robert Burns. She inspired many of his poems and bore him nine children, born in Mauchline, Ayrshire in 1765, Jean Armour was second oldest of the eleven children of stonemason James Armour and Mary Smith Armour. She met Robert Burns on a green in Mauchline around 1784 when she chased his dog away from her laundry. According to Armours testimony in 1827, she met Burns again at a local dance and her announcement, in March 1786, that she was expecting Robert Burnss baby caused her father to faint. The certificate of a marriage agreement between Burns and Armour was destroyed by James Armour and he removed his daughter to Paisley to prevent local scandal. However word had spread and the Mauchline Kirk recalled her on 10 June 1786, to admit that she was unmarried and pregnant, Burns was called on 25 June to also admit his part in the affair. Additionally, at point, Burns was romantically involved with Highland Mary Campbell, who was also allegedly pregnant by him. The emigration fell through and Mary died in October 1786 before she could give birth, believing he had been abandoned by Jean Armour, he set about having himself declared single again and transferred his property to his brother Gilbert Burns in anticipation of a move. Jean remained with her parents in the village of Mauchline, the couple continued to live apart even after the birth of their twins Robert and Jean on 3 September 1786 and following the success of The Kilmarnock Edition, Burns moved temporarily to Edinburgh. He returned intermittently to Mauchline, during which time Jean fell pregnant to him again, when Burns returned permanently on 23 February 1788 he found Jean was destitute and had been expelled from the family home. They reconciled their relationship, and Burns found her a place to stay, on 3 March she went into labour and delivered a second set of twins, two girls, one of whom died on 10 March, the other on 22 March. In the light of Burnss new-found celebrity as a poet, James Armour relented and allowed his daughter to be married to him, although their marriage was registered on 5 August 1788 in Mauchline, the parish records describe them as having been irregularly married some years ago. She and Burns moved to Ellisland Farm where they stayed until 1791 when they moved to Dumfries, Jean Armour and Robert Burns had nine children together, the last of whom was born on the day of his funeral in July 1796. Her widowhood and the circumstances in which she found herself after Burnss death attracted national attention and a charitable fund was collected for her. She survived her husband by 38 years, and lived to see his name become celebrated throughout the world, here, Jean Armour was buried when she died in 1834. Statues of Jean were erected in Mauchline in 2002, and in Dumfries, opposite St Michaels Kirk, Jean Armours birth and marriage dates derived from Scotlandspeople. gov. uk, the Official Government source for Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland. Dirt and Deity, A Life of Robert Burns, Ian McIntyre, the Complete Works of Robert Burns, Chambers,1867. The Burns Encyclopedia, Maurice Lindsay, Robert Hale,1959 Burns, archive of Jean Armour portraits and artefacts Jean Armour at the National Burns Collection Jean Armour resource at Scran Jean Armour biography in Burns Encyclopedia
14.
Scots language
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Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language which was restricted to most of the Highlands. The language developed during the Middle English period as a distinct entity, although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist, these often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a linguistic continuum. Scots is often regarded as one of the ancient varieties of English, alternatively, Scots is sometimes treated as a distinct Germanic language, in the way Norwegian is closely linked to, yet distinct from, Danish. In the 2011 Scottish census, a question on Scots language ability was featured, native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots or use a dialect name such as the Doric, or the Buchan Claik. The old-fashioned Scotch, an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Northern Ireland, the term Lallans, a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands, is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form. Scots in Ireland is known in circles as Ulster-Scots or Ullans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis, the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English Scottisc, before the end of the 15th century, English speech in Scotland was known as English, whereas Scottish referred to Gaelic. From 1495 the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse, meaning Irish, the Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic. Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century and it remained largely confined to this area until the thirteenth century, continuing in common use while Gaelic was the language of the Scottish court. Scots also includes loan words resulting from contact with Gaelic, Early medieval legal documents include a body of Gaelic legal and administrative loans. Contemporary Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as ceilidh, loch, from the thirteenth century Early Scots spread further into Scotland via the burghs, proto-urban institutions which were first established by King David I. The growth in prestige of Early Scots in the century. By the sixteenth century Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England, from 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster large numbers of Scots-speaking Lowlanders, some 200,000, settled there. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one, Modern Scots is used to describe the language after 1700 when southern Modern English was generally adopted as the literary language though Scots remained the vernacular. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, the Northern Isles, Caithness, Arran, in Ulster it is spoken in the Counties of Down, Antrim, Londonderry and Donegal. Dialects include Insular Scots, Northern Scots, Central Scots, Southern Scots, many speakers are either diglossic and/or able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation in which they find themselves
15.
Auld Lang Syne
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Auld Lang Syne is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song. It is well known in countries, especially in the English-speaking world. By extension, it is sung at funerals, graduations. The international Scouting movement, in countries, uses it to close jamborees. The songs Scots title may be translated into standard English as old long since, or more idiomatically, long long ago, consequently, For auld lang syne, as it appears in the first line of the chorus, might be loosely translated as for old times. The phrase Auld Lang Syne is also used in poems by Robert Ayton, Allan Ramsay. Matthew Fitt uses the phrase In the days of auld lang syne as the equivalent of Once upon a time, in his retelling of fairy tales in the Scots language. CHORUS, On old long syne my Jo, On old long syne, That thou canst never once reflect and it is a fair supposition to attribute the rest of the poem to Burns himself. There is some doubt as to whether the melody used today is the same one Burns originally intended, singing the song on Hogmanay or New Years Eve very quickly became a Scots custom that soon spread to other parts of the British Isles. As Scots emigrated around the world, they took the song with them, a manuscript of Auld Lang Syne is held in the permanent collection of The Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. The song begins by posing a question, Is it right that old times be forgotten. The answer is generally interpreted as a call to remember long-standing friendships, thomsons Select Songs of Scotland was published in 1799 in which the second verse about greeting and toasting was moved to its present position at the end. Most common use of the song only the first verse. The last lines of both of these are sung with the extra words For the sake of or And days of. This allows one note for each word, rather than the slight melisma required to fit Burns original words to the melody. † dine = dinner time‡ ch = voiceless velar fricative, /x/, at the back of the mouth like /k/, similar to Bach in German* syne = since or then – pronounced like sign rather than zine. The tune to which Auld Lang Syne is commonly sung is a pentatonic Scots folk melody, English composer William Shield seems to quote the Auld Lang Syne melody briefly at the end of the overture to his opera Rosina, which may be its first recorded use. For instance, Burns poem Coming Through the Rye is sung to a tune that might also be based on the Millers Wedding
16.
English poetry
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This article focuses on poetry written in English from the United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The article does not include poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, the earliest surviving English poetry, written in Anglo-Saxon, the direct predecessor of modern English, may have been composed as early as the 7th century. This is generally taken as marking the beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry and it is possible to identify certain key moments, however. The Dream of the Rood was written before circa AD700, by and large, however, Anglo-Saxon poetry is categorised by the manuscripts in which it survives, rather than its date of composition. While the poetry that has survived is limited in volume, it is wide in breadth, beowulf is the only heroic epic to have survived in its entirety, but fragments of others such as Waldere and the Finnesburg Fragment show that it was not unique in its time. Other genres include much religious verse, from works to biblical paraphrase, elegies such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Ruin, and numerous proverbs, riddles. With one notable exception, Anglo-Saxon poetry depends on alliterative verse for its structure, with the Norman conquest of England, beginning in 1111 the Anglo-Saxon language rapidly diminished as a written literary language. The new aristocracy spoke predominantly Norman, and this became the language of courts, parliament. While Anglo-Norman or Latin was preferred for high culture, English literature by no means died out, other transitional works were preserved as popular entertainment, including a variety of romances and lyrics. With time, the English language regained prestige, and in 1362 it replaced French and Latin in Parliament, the reputation of Chaucers successors in the 15th century has suffered in comparison with him, though Lydgate and Skelton are widely studied. A group of Scottish writers arose who were believed to be influenced by Chaucer. The rise of Scottish poetry began with the writing of The Kingis Quair by James I of Scotland, the main poets of this Scottish group were Robert Henryson, William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas. The Renaissance was slow in coming to England, with the generally accepted start date being around 1509 and it is also generally accepted that the English Renaissance extended until the Restoration in 1660. However, a number of factors had prepared the way for the introduction of the new learning long before this start date. A number of medieval poets had, as noted, shown an interest in the ideas of Aristotle. The introduction of printing by Caxton in 1474 provided the means for the more rapid dissemination of new or recently rediscovered writers and thinkers. Caxton also printed the works of Chaucer and Gower and these books helped establish the idea of a poetic tradition that was linked to its European counterparts. In addition, the writings of English humanists like Thomas More and Thomas Elyot helped bring the ideas, the establishment of the Church of England in 1535 accelerated the process of questioning the Catholic world-view that had previously dominated intellectual and artistic life
17.
Mary Matilda Betham
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Mary Matilda Betham, known by family and friends as Matilda Betham, was an English diarist, poet, woman of letters, and miniature portrait painter. She exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1804 to 1816 and her first of four books of verses was published in 1797. For six years, she researched notable historical women around the world and published A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and she was the first of fourteen children born to Rev. William Betham of Stonham Aspal, Suffolk and Mary Damant of Eye, Suffolk. Her father researched and published books about royal and English baronetage genealogy and he was also a schoolmaster and the rector of Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire. Betham was baptised on 1 January 1777 and raised in Stonham Aspal and she is said to have had a happy childhood marred by poor health. She was largely self-educated in her fathers library, but gleaned from it and his occasional tutelage an interest in history and she claimed that a key loss of not having attending a school was that she did not learn the art of defending herself. From a young age, Betham would recite poetry and was a reader of plays. She was sent out for sewing lessons to prevent my too strict application to books, Betham learned to speak French during trips to London. Her younger brother was William Betham and it was during a trip to her Uncle Edward Beetham in London that she was inspired to pursue painting and explore her literary talents. The family lived in a centre of literary and artistic activity, while visiting the Beethams she met the artist John Opie, who was instructing her cousin, Jane Beetham, and received lessons from him during her stay. Betham was also encouraged to explore her literary talents by her uncle and she studied with William Wordsworth and studied Italian with Agostino Isola in Cambridge in 1796. In 1797, Betham wrote Elegies, and Other Small Poems, which included Italian poems translated into English and Arthur & Albina, a Druid ballad. She received a tribute for this from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who wrote To Matilda from a Stranger in 1802, comparing her to Sappho and encouraging her to continue writing poetry. }Others who encouraged her were Lady Charlotte Bedingfield and her family. Betham painted pleasant, delicate portraits, which she exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1804 to 1816 as a way to be independent from her parents who had many children to raise. Among the dozens of exhibited portraits were those of the Harriot Beauclerk, Duchess of St Albans, the poet George Dyer, Countess of Dysart, and Bethams father and other family members. In 1804, she published A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country and it included short biographies of Mary Magdalene, Cleopatra, East Indian Bowanny, Madame Roland, and other notable historical women from around the world. Four years later she published her book of poetry. Betham was also a friend of Robert Southey and his wife, of Anna Laetitia Barbauld and her husband
18.
William Lisle Bowles
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William Lisle Bowles was an English priest, poet and critic. Bowles was born at Kings Sutton, Northamptonshire, where his father was vicar, at the age of 14 he entered Winchester College, where the headmaster at the time was Dr Joseph Warton. In 1781 Bowles left as captain of the school, and went on to Trinity College, Oxford, two years later he won the Chancellors prize for Latin verse. Bowles came from a line of Church of England clergymen and his great-grandfather Matthew Bowles, grandfather Dr Thomas Bowles and father William Thomas Bowles had all been parish priests. After taking his degree at Oxford, Bowles followed his forebears into the Church of England, in 1797 he received the vicarage of Dumbleton in Gloucestershire, and in 1804 became vicar of Bremhill in Wiltshire, where he wrote the poem seen on Maud Heaths statue. In the same year his bishop, John Douglas, collated him to a stall in Salisbury Cathedral. In 1818 he was chaplain to the Prince Regent. The longer poems published by Bowles are not of a high standard, though all are distinguished by purity of imagination, cultured and graceful diction. The most extensive were The Spirit of Discovery, which was ridiculed by Lord Byron, The Missionary, The Grave of the Last Saxon. Bowles is perhaps more celebrated as a critic than as a poet, the controversy brought into sharp contrast the opposing views of poetry, which may be roughly described as the natural and the artificial. Bowles was an amiable, absent-minded, and rather eccentric man and his poems are characterised by refinement of feeling, tenderness, and pensive thought, but are deficient in power and passion. These positions were attacked by Byron, Thomas Campbell, William Roscoe and others, among other prose works from his prolific pen was a Life of Bishop Ken. Other works include Coombe Ellen and St. Michaels Mount, The Battle of the Nile, Bowles also enjoyed considerable reputation as an antiquary, his principal work in that department being Hermes Britannicus. His Poetical Works were collected in 1855 as part of the Library Edition of the British Poets, Bowles work was important to the young Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Bowles was the cause in the 1820s of the Alexander Pope controversy into which George Gordon, Lord Byron was drawn. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Cousin. A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, london, J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource Works by William Lisle Bowles at Project Gutenberg Works by or about William Lisle Bowles at Internet Archive
19.
Sir James Lamb, 1st Baronet
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Sir James Bland Lamb, 1st Baronet, born James Burges and known as Sir James Burges, Bt, between 1795 and 1821, was a British author, barrister and Member of Parliament. Born James Burges, he was the son of George Burges. His mother was the daughter of James Somerville, 12th Lord Somerville and his father had distinguished himself at the Battle of Culloden by capturing the standard of Charles Edward Stewart and was later deputy paymaster in Gibraltar. He went to Westminster School and then entered University College, Oxford in 1770 before studying law at Lincolns Inn in 1773, Burges first served in Parliament as Member of Parliament for Helston from 1787 to 1790). Burges was an ambitious and productive writer and he was well established, being a friend of William Cumberland and John Graves Simcoe, and a patron of Thomas Dermody. He was connected by marriage to Lord Byron and he wrote music for Ode to the Passions by William Collins and wrote the prologue to Vortigern and Rowena. He exchanged poetry with royalty and wrote long poems, the Birth and Triumph of Love was published in 1796 and the 16,000 line poem was very poorly received. It was quoted as a project that was known for its lack of success, despite the ignominy Burges still had a prestige and funds available where he could indulge his literary interests. He wrote an introduction for William Henry Ireland Shakespearian forgery and Thomas Dermody stole money from him, Burges continued to publish poetry and he had a play in Drury Lane. Despite being championed by Lord Byron, no other plays followed and he wrote an introduction to a later edition of the Pilgrims Progress sequel, Progress of the Pilgrim Good-Intent in Jacobinical Times. In this introduction he revealed that the author of the work was his gifted sister Mary Ann Burges. Lamb married three times, his first marriage to Elizabeth Noel, second daughter of Edward Noel, 1st Viscount Wentworth in 1777 produced no children and his second marriage to Anne, third daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis Charles Montolieu, Baron of St Hippolite produced the following children. Wentworth Noel, an ensign in the Coldstream Guards, he was killed at the 1812 Siege of Burgos during the Peninsular War, Somerville Waldemar, an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, lost a leg at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In 1821 he married Mademoiselle Melanie-Marianne Meray, daughter of Capt. Meray, emilia Charlotte, who married Major-General Sir Hugh Halkett on 25 May 1810. Sophia Anne, who married Warburton Davies on 21 December 1821, in 1812, Lamb married for the third time to Lady Margaret Fordyce, widow of Alexander Fordyce and daughter of James Lindsay, 5th Earl of Balcarres. On 25 October 1821 his name was changed to James Bland Lamb by Royal Licence. Heroic epistle from Serjeant Bradshaw to John Dunning, considerations on the law of insolvency. A letter to the Earl of Effingham, address to the country gentlemen of England
20.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan and his critical work, especially on William Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture. Coleridge coined many words and phrases, including suspension of disbelief. He was an influence on Ralph Waldo Emerson and American transcendentalism. Throughout his adult life Coleridge had crippling bouts of anxiety and depression, it has been speculated that he had bipolar disorder and he was physically unhealthy, which may have stemmed from a bout of rheumatic fever and other childhood illnesses. He was treated for these conditions with laudanum, which fostered a lifelong opium addiction, Coleridge was born on 21 October 1772 in the town of Ottery St Mary in Devon, England. He had previously been Master of Hugh Squiers School in South Molton, Devon, John Coleridge had three children by his first wife. Samuel was the youngest of ten by the Reverend Mr. Coleridges second wife, Anne Bowden, probably the daughter of John Bowden, Mayor of South Molton, Devon, Coleridge suggests that he took no pleasure in boyish sports but instead read incessantly and played by himself. At that school Coleridge became friends with Charles Lamb, a schoolmate, in fancy I can almost hear him now, exclaiming Harp. Pen and ink, boy, you mean, oh aye. the cloister-pump, I suppose. Be this as it may, there was one custom of our masters and he would often permit our theme exercises. To accumulate, till each lad had four or five to be looked over, throughout his life, Coleridge idealised his father as pious and innocent, while his relationship with his mother was more problematic. His childhood was characterised by attention seeking, which has linked to his dependent personality as an adult. He was rarely allowed to return home during the term. He later wrote of his loneliness at school in the poem Frost at Midnight, With unclosed lids, from 1791 until 1794, Coleridge attended Jesus College, Cambridge. In 1792, he won the Browne Gold Medal for an ode that he wrote on the slave trade, afterwards, he was rumoured to have had a bout of severe depression. His brothers arranged for his discharge a few months later under the reason of insanity and he was readmitted to Jesus College, at Jesus College, Coleridge was introduced to political and theological ideas then considered radical, including those of the poet Robert Southey. Coleridge joined Southey in a plan, soon abandoned, to found a utopian society, called Pantisocracy
