Over 100 poets of labouring class origin were published in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some were hugely popular and important in their day but few are available today. This is a collection of some of those poems from the 19th century.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME THREE -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chronology -- Note on the Text -- SAMUEL LAYCOCK (1826-1893) -- Lancashire Lyrics Written During the Cotton Famine, 1861-65 -- Welcome, Bonny Brid! -- Ther’s No Good i’ Ceaw’rin’ i’th’ Dust -- Sewin’ Class Song -- The Shurat Weaver’s Song -- Th’ Owd Barber Eawt o’ Wark -- God Bless ’Em, It Shows They’n Some Thowt -- Aw’ve Turned Mi’ Bit o’ Garden O’er -- Aw’ve Just Bin A-Lookin’ at th’ Scholars -- Poems and Songs in the Lancashire Dialect -- Th’ Stricken Stokers -- Quality Row -- Homely Advoice to th’ Unemployed -- Th’ Peers an’ th’ People -- Starved to Death -- To a Cricket -- Mally an’ Jonas -- Bispham -- Mi Gronny -- Sam Bamford -- Th’ Owd Pedlar’s Gone Whoam -- RICHARD WATSON (1833-1891) -- From Poems and Songs of Teesdale (1930) [1862] -- Baliol’s Tower and the Railway Bridge. A Dialogue -- On a Man Found Dead in a Byre at Harwood -- Gib’s Auld Mear -- My Journey to Work -- The Epitaph, Written at Edinburgh Infirmary a Few Days -- to His Death -- DAVID WINGATE (1828-1892) -- From Annie Weir and Other Poems (1866) -- Scene -- Annie Weir -- THOMAS BLACKAH (1828-1895) -- From Songs and Poems, Written in the Nidderdale Dialect (1867) -- We May Be Lo’ We May Be Poor -- T’ Cobblers Roond -- Cheer Up, Jerry -- Hardcastle Moor -- JOHN BEDFORD LENO (1824-1894) -- From Drury Lane Lyrics (1868) -- A Glorious Trio -- The Sounds of Labour -- Herne’s Oak -- There’s Plenty for All -- From Kimburton, A Story of Village Life (1889) -- The Overflow -- The Common Reclaimed -- Bet Graham -- The Village Naturalist -- A Horrible Crime -- A Slap at the Game Laws -- Jim Blake -- The Lovers’ Quarrel -- The Old and New Parson -- Poperlashun -- Farewell! to Kimburton -- ELLEN JOHNSTON (c. 1835-1873) -- From Autobiography, Poems, and Songs of Ellen Johnston, the ‘Factory Girl’ (1869) [1867] -- An Address to Napier’s Dockyard -- A Mother’s Love -- The Drunkard’s Wife -- Lines To a Young Gentleman of Surpassing Beauty -- The Wo
