`The great mass of writing by what one
might broadly term "working-class Victorians" is only
now receiving proper attention.
This book is a major contribution to that process.'
 

Times Educational Supplement
             

Three traditions are represented in this anthology: a Chartist and radical literature, a Parnassian strand, and a deliberately local manner, often steeped in dialect. This is a literature poised between speech and print, between the anonymous street ballad and the literary lyric. From common themes and common failings powerful individual voices emerge; many of them have not been heard since the days of their original publication. Brian Maidment has recovered something important for the modern reader, providing a working anthology and a guide for further exploration.


Dr Brian Maidment is the Head of English at Edge Hill College of Higher Education.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

List of Illustrations



1 CHARTISTS AND RADICALS



Introduction

The Two Weavers - Alexander Rodger

A Bundle of Truths - Alexander Rodger

Whisperings for the Unwashed - William Thom



Chartist Lyrics

When the World is Burning - Ebenezer Jones

The Gathering of the People - W.J. Linton

The Steam King - E.P. Mead

Labour Song - James Syme

The Song of the Low - Ernest Jones

A Chartist Chorus - Ernest Jones

Just Instinct and Brute Reason - A Manchester Operative

The Black Hole of Calcutta - Ebenezer Elliott

The Press - Ebenezer Elliott

The Awakening of the People - Gerald Massey

Two Chartist Songs - Thomas Cooper



Melodrama, Pathos, and Narrative

Song - Ebenezer Elliott

Revenge - W.J. Linton

The Food-Rioter Banished - William Thom



Historical Narratives

Leawood Hall - Ernest Jones

Bob Thin, or the Poorhouse Fugitive - W.J. Linton



Later Radical Lyrics

Preawd Tum's Prayer - Joseph Ramsbottom

Ten Heawrs a Day - Joseph Ramsbottom

Mother Wept - Joseph Skipsey

The Stars are Twinkling - Joseph Skipsey

Get Up - Joseph Skipsey



2 THE PARNASSIANS

Introduction

Poems of Social Indignation

Steam at Sheffield - Ebenezer Elliott

The Village Patriarch - Ebenezer Elliott

The Death of the Factory Child - J.C. Prince

Patriotism - George Richardson



Philosophical, Discursive and Historical Poems

The Mind - Charles Swain

Night - Thomas Cleaver

The Purgatory of Suicides - Thomas Cooper

The Isles of Britain - Elijah Ridings



'Such Gems as Morland Drew'

A Spring Song - John Bethune

Summer Morning - Thomas Miller

My Own Hills - Robert Story

The Mossy Stane - Robert Nicoll

My Latest Publication - Edward Capern



The City Observed, the City Repressed

A Winter Night in Manchester - Philip Connell

Manchester - J.B. Rogerson

The Lowly Bard - Fanny Forrester

The City Singers - J.L. Owen

Salford Bridge - William Billington



Dedicatory, Celebratory, and Memorial Poems

The Poet's Corner - Alexander Wilson

Robin Burns - Gerald Massey

Gerald Massey - William Billington

To the Memory of William Billington - George Hull

To the Memory of Ebenezer Elliott - Richard Furness



Genius and Intemperance

The Sabbath Peal - Thomas Nicholson

John Barleycorn's Diary - Cornelius McManus

Genius and Intemperance - John Nicholson



The Subject of Poetry

The Minstrel's Lot - J B Rogerson

The Poesy - J.C. Prince

The Poet's Sabbath - J.C. Prince

The Poet's Mission - Ernest Jones

Sonnet to Poesy - James Waddington

Genius - James Waddington

The Brooklet - Joseph Skipsey

The Minstrel - Joseph Skipsey

Random Thoughts on Poetry - J.C. Prince

Preface - Gerald Massey

The Uses and Pleasures of Poetry for theWorking Classes - Janet Hamilton

The Poet, as Seer and Singer - Joseph Skipsey



3 LOWLY BARDS AND HOMELY RHYMERS

Introduction

Poems from 'The People's Journal'

Sonnets - Henry F. Lott

Sonnets - Henry F. Lott

My Friend's Library - Henry F. Lott

The November Primrose - John Dacres Devlin

Fellow Workers - 'Marie'

Heroisms - 'Marie'

Labour - 'Marie'

The People's Sabbath Prayer - Ebenezer Elliott

The Dream of the Artisan - G.R. Emerson

'We Are Low' Poems

We Are Lowly - Robert Nicoll

We May Be Low, We May Be Poor - Thomas Blackah

Lancashire Bards

Homely Rhymes on Bad Times - Samuel Bamford

The Bard's Reformation - Samuel Bamford

Farewell to My Cottage - Samuel Bamford

The Landowner - Samuel Bamford

Simple Minstrelsy - Elijah Ridings

My Uncle Tum - Elijah Ridings

Cultivate Your Men - Edwin Waugh

The Man of the Time - Edwin Waugh

I've Worn My Bits o'Shoon Away - Edwin Waugh

Homely advoice to th' Unemployed - Samuel Laycock

The Shurat Weaver's Song - Samuel Laycock

Bowton's Yard - Samuel Laycock

What! Another Cracked Poet - Samuel Laycock

Sorrowin - Joseph Ramsbottom

Coaxin - Joseph Ramsbottom

Some Other Local Bards

Rhymes for the Times - Janet Hamilton

A Warkin' Mon's Reflections - Janet Hamilton

The People - Thomas Ince

A Workman's Home - Thomas Ince

The Factory Girl - Bill o'th Hoylus End

A Labourer's Song - James Dawson

A Song of Labour - Alexander Anderson

The Toiler's Wife - George Hull



4 THE METROPLITAN RESPONSE TO SELF-TAUGHT WRITING

Introduction

English Bards and Scotch Reviewers - Lord Byron

Burns - Thomas Carlyle

Lives and Works of our Unlettered Poets - Robert Southey

The Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties - G.L. Craik

Corn Law Rhymes - Thomas Carlyle

Ebenezer Elliott - George Gilfillan

The Condition of the Working Class In England - Friedrich Engels

Homes and Haunts of the British Poets - William Howitt

Burns and his School - Charles Kingsley

Review of Evans's Lancashire Orators - Anon.

The Influence of Poetry on the Working Classes - F.W. Robertson

A Biographical Sketch of Gerald Massey - (Samuel Smiles)

A Hedge-side Poet - Diane Mulock

The Peerage of Poverty - Edwin Paxton Hood



5 THE DIFFICULTIES OF APPEARING IN PRINT

Introduction

Journals - John Clare

The Difficulties of Appearing in Print - Charles Fleming

Alton Locke - Charles Kingsley

The Poet's Dream - Elijah Ridings

Prefaces and letters - J.C. Prince

A Sketch of the Author's Life - William Heaton

Advertisement to Poems of John Nicholson - W. Dearden

Preface to Beggar Manuscripts - Thomas Ince

Unpublished letters to Edwin Waugh - Various authors

6 THE DEFENCE OF THE DIALECT

Introduction

North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

Goosegrave Penny Readings - Ben Brierley

Writing in the Dialect - Joseph Ramsbottom

The Lancashire Dialect - Ben Brierley

Introduction Essay on Dialect - George Milner

The Dialect in Distress - Joseph Cronshaw

Suggested Further Reading

Index of Authors Represented