William+Barnes

William Barnes was born on 22nd February 1801. In Giles Dugdale's book, //Poems Grave and Gay//, he states, "[Barnes] was born at Sturminster Newton, a son of a small farmer" (Dugdale iii). He was an educated and dynamic individual with wide interests (Forsyth 326). While most know him particularly for his poetry, he was also a parson, a schoolmaster, an accomplished linguist, a philologist, an archaeologist, wood-carver, engraver, inventor, musician, and composer (Forsyth 330). He played the organ, flute, violin, and piano and was choirmaster and a singer (Badham-Thornhill 6). He had advanced knowledge of many languages including French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Welsh, Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Persian (Farsi) (Levy xiv). He studied Hindu sacred texts (Chezdoy 4). He was an avid gardener and a prodigious reader (Levy xv). He had several unique achievements such as being co-founder of the Dorchester Museum (Levy xv). Therefore, while he is remembered as a country poet he is by no means only a country person but rather an extremely eclectic and well-accomplished man. Barnes was the son of a farmer and was born in Sturminster Newton in the Vale of Blackmoore (Chezdoy 3). His mother passed away when he was a young boy but he inherited her artistic ambitions (Badham-Thornhill 6). He attended school in Sturminster where he had considerable academic achievements and at the age of fourteen was offered employment in the office of a Sturminster solicitor (Badham-Thornhill 6). In 1822 he became engaged to Julia Miles, daughter of an excise officer quartered in Dorchester (Badham-Thornhill 7).

As a young man, he struggled to overcome his humble origins (Chezdoy 2). William Barnes’s professional life began when he became a schoolmaster (Chezdow 4). He had a strong passion for acquiring and teaching knowledge. His success as a teacher of intelligent and eager youth was considerable (Dugdale iv). In 1823 he decided to move to Mere where he opened a small school (Badham-Thornhill 7). School mastering for him was no mere background to his life as a poet. It occupied him fully and called forth the highest of his imaginative and creative powers (Chezdoy 4). He married Julia Miles Barnes in 1827 (Levy xvi). He wrote several textbooks after working up a series of lessons or lectures and he was one of the pioneers of the school primer (Chezdoy 4). He wrote texts for his classes on mathematics, history, civics, grammar, technical drawing, practical science, geography and Anglo-Saxon, which last subject he was one of the first to introduce into schools (Chezdoy 4). He instituted significant changes in the curriculum in his 39 years as a schoolmaster (Chezdoy 4). W hile he was a teacher Barnes had started modestly by writing poems and papers for the local //Dorset Country Chronicle// (Levy xv). From this came his serious advancements in poetry and philology (Levy xv). In 1837 he registered at St. John's College, Cambridge and began contributing to the //Gentleman's Magazine// (Levy). Most of his earlier articles appeared here. He was associated with several major periodicals, as he was well informed in many subjects (Levy). His serious journalistic work began with his contributions to John Russel Smith's //Retrospective Review// (Levy). In 1847 Barnes became a deacon in Whitecombe and was ordained in 1848. Two years later he was awarded his Bachelor of Divinity degree, while continuing to teach throughout this period.

In 1852 his wife, Julia Miles Barnes, died (Levy). Despite his setbacks, Barnes continued to work as a scholar, teaching himself languages (Chezdoy 3). He would pick up a language from anyone who could teach him, but he usually taught himself from a textbook (Chezdoy, 3). If he obtained a dictionary in a foreign language he could teach himself the language in a matter of weeks (Chezdoy 3). In 1854 his book, //A Philological Grammar,// was published. It is a comprehensive work that references seventy-two languages (Chezdoy 3). In 1860 he was introduced to the editor of //Macmillan's Magazine,// David Masson, and he continued to climb the journalistic ladder throughout his middle age (Levy xv). It is widely argued that the majority of Barnes's poetry is a commemoration and preservation of his childhood life in Blackmore Vale and its fading rural civilization (Chezdoy 6). His extensive studies in philology are used to support the claim of “purity” in the Blackmore Vale dialect (Chezdoy 6). The first poems Barnes wrote in the Dorset dialect was in the Dorset County Chronicle in 1833 (Badham-Thornhill 7). The popularity of these poems encouraged Barnes to continue to write in the native tongue about the enclosing industrial oppression upon country folk (Badham-Thornhill 7). Today Barnes is still universally known as "The Dorset Poet" (Dugdale i). In 1862 he became rector of Came (Dugdale, xvi). The Christian ethic and morality was vital for Barnes because he believed they were essential in maintaining small communities (Forsyth, 332). Industrialism and urban development endangered this ideal virtuous Christian life (Forsyth, 333). Until well into his eighties, he regularly walked the roads of his rural parish in order to visit each parishioner every two weeks (Chezdoy, 5).Barnes's life was spent entirely in small towns (Chezdoy 2). It is valuable to consider the marvellous energy of William Barnes when we in this day consider ourselves to be hard working. As noted above, poetry was just one aspect of his multifaceted creative identity. It was an identity rooted in rural sensibility and a strong sense of community (Forsyth 328). William Barnes died in 1886. In 1947 a fine oil portrait by George Stuckey (1870) of Barnes was accepted by the National Portrait Gallery, which proudly titled him as a "Scholar and Artist" (Dugdale i).


 * Works Cited**

Chedzoy, Alan. "William Barnes: A Life of the Dorset Poet.//"// Wimbourne, Dorset: Dovecote Press, 1985.

Dugdale, Giles. "Poems Grave and Gay.//"// Dorchester, England: Longmans, 1949.

Forsyth, R. A. "The Conserving Myth of William Barnes." Victorian Studies. Vol. 6, No 4 (June 1963), 325-54. Web.

Turner Levy, William. "William Barnes, the Man and the Poems." Dorchester, England: Longmans, 1960.