by
Tom Carty (Thomas O’ Carthaigh),
Tullamore (Tullach Mhor), Ireland, 2008
[This
article is featured in the Lowlands-L Traditions collection as well.]
ost famous in
these isles of the Weaver Poets were the ones of Scotland and Ireland, though
the North of England also had a very strong tradition.
However, being Irish, I’ll focus on those of my isle first.
The weavers were traditionally Scottish by ethnicity, and from Down and Antrim
in origin, and this small area created the “Bards” who published books in the 1750–1850 decade, often by subscribing to the books being published by others.
The nearest the mainstream reader would have come to most of these would be
Rabbie (Robert) Burns. Though he was not a weaver or of the tradition, his
works inspired them in the latter stages, and the peaseant poetry styles
were of his type.
There was a broader group, often called the Classical, where standard English
and traditional verse forms were the rule, written by the Anglo-Irish element
in the Romantic tradition. These are not of what I write.
The subjects of which these poets wrote were of “Kirk and Kitchen,” everyday life in other words. They wrote of their trade, their lives, the works
of others, the politics of the day, addresses to the Freemason lodges of
which they were part, and suchlike. With one or two exceptions, there was
not much tribute to the beauty of the land in which they lived.
Some of these poets were pro-Union, but many formed the basis of the United
Irishman movement as founded by Theobald Wolfe Tone, Henry Joy Mc Cracken and James and William Orr, the latter two being names highly respected
among all shades of opinion in the North of Ireland to this day.
They wrote in many forms of verse, but most often in the Standard Habbie format,
where the first three lines rhymed, the fourth did not, the fifth rhymed
with the first three, and the last rhymed with the fourth. While this may
look complicated, it suited the verse they wrote, and the speech patteren
employed due to their accents.
They wrote in the standard dialect of their day, which they identitied as “Doric,” nowadays known in Ireland as Ulster Scots in its revived form.
The most famous poem from these that would be known in Ireland would be “An Irish Cottiers Death and Burial” by James Orr.
A book, The Rhyming Weavers,* charts and analyses the poems of these writers and the culture from which
they came.