The nineteenth century Dorset poet, William Barnes 1801 - 1886), although from a tenant farming background, was well-educated, eventually becoming a schoolmaster, and later a clergyman. He wrote much poetry in Dorset dialect. His best-known work, titled by him, "My Orcha'd in Linden Lea", was set to music by Vaughan Williams.

 Sue Edney argues that, "in spite of his complex, influential and intricate poetry, Barnes has not achieved a proper place in the canons of modern literary studies: establishment and non-establishment." For most readers, his use of dialect is off-putting, yet Robert Burns wrote in dialect and his poetry may need a glossary. Why is Burns a canonical fixture when Barnes never makes it to the play-list with the general reading public, though many poets have admired his work?

Sue writes: "Individual poetic achievement was of secondary value for Barnes compared to the overwhelming importance of community harmony, his ‘good and loveworthy' vision. In my talk, I will discuss this vision and its relevance to modern literary and social debates."

Wednesday, July 28^th:

W.B. Yeats: A Life in Poetry:

John Chambers, BRLSI member.   

William ButlerYeats (1865 - 1939) is one of the major figures of poetry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and hugely influential on later poets, especially in Ireland.