I lived from 1824-1889.
I was from Ireland, and am in the English category.
When he was thirteen years old became a clerk in the bank where his father worked as the manager, he worked there for about six years, during that time, he used the words and images of poetry for the satisfaction of his soul.
Read full description...
He loved poetry from an early age and we are told he would wander about Ballyshannon in the evening, listening to the girls singing old ballads at their cottage doors. He transcribed these ballads, and changed them to his liking and then had them printed in broadsheet form to sell in the locality.
When William was nineteen he became a Customs officer, and he was stationed at different places in Northern Ireland from then until he was thirty nine years old. Shortly after he obtained his appointment with the Customs he made his first trip to London and from then on he visted regularly, contributing frequently to that city's periodicals. There he made the personal acquaintance of Leigh Hunt, who treated the young writer with great kindness and he was also befriended by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
In 1850, William Allingham published his first volume of "Poems." It was followed by "Day and Night Songs" (1854) and by various other volumes including "Laurence Bloomfield in Ireland," a long poem which was regarded by Allingham himself as his most important work.
In 1863, he transferred from Ballyshannon to the Customs at Lymington, near Southhampton, England. The following year he was awarded a Civil List pension of £60 by the Government for his services to literature, and this was increased to £100 when he retired from the Civil Service in 1870.
William moved to London when he retired from the Civil Service, to become sub-editor of "Fraser's Magazine" under J. A. Froude, whom he succeeded as editor in 1874.
He published a further 6 volumes before his death in 1889.
William Allingham loved poetry, he loved Ireland and particularly his native Donegal. He used his words so well to convey his feelings and to give us images of Ireland and the lives of people. We have the fun and magic of 'The Fairies'; a sense of pathos in 'The Eviction'; satire in 'Lord Crashton, the Absentee Landlord'; images and other emotions in poems such as 'Adieu to Belshanny' and 'Abbey Assaroe'. Reading William Allingham's poetry we can see and feel the pictures as he paints them. He was a crafstman and an Irish poet to be remembered.
Popular poetry
The Boy from his bedroom-window
Look'd over the little town,
16 lines
Four ducks on a pond,
A grass-bank beyond,
7 lines, 2 comments
Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
56 lines, 1 comment
With grief and mourning I sit to spin;
My Love passed by, and he didn't come in;
72 lines
I heard the dogs howl in the moonlight night;
I went to the window to see the sight;
33 lines, 4 comments
Chequer'd with woven shadows as I lay
Among the grass, blinking the watery gleam,
14 lines
Far from the churchyard dig his grave,
On some green mound beside the wave;
10 lines, 1 comment
That which he did not feel, he would not sing;
What most he felt, religion it was to hide
14 lines
Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods,
And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt,
14 lines
Oh, lovely Mary Donnelly, my joy, my only best
If fifty girls were round you, I’d hardly see the rest;
36 lines
Start a forum topic about this poet
|
