Francis Ledwidge

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Ledwidge Cottage Museum, Slane

Francis Edward Ledwidge (born August 19, 1887 in Slane , County Meath , † July 31, 1917 in Boezinge , West Flanders ) was an Irish poet and nationalist.

Life

Francis Ledwidge was born into a poor family as the second youngest of seven children to Patrick Ledwidge and Anne Lynch. He grew up listening to the old Irish stories and legends his mother told him and the songs she sang to him. After leaving school at the age of 13, he worked as a farm laborer and handyman. He was unionized from 1906 and was the secretary of the Meath Labor Union in Slane from 1913 to 1914 . Ledwidge was politically left-wing and at the same time an Irish nationalist. He tried unsuccessfully to found a division of the Gaelic League in his hometown. But he was with his brother Joseph founder of the Irish Volunteers department in Slane. Despite his nationalist attitude, he joined the 5th Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers on October 24, 1914 . He fought first in the Battle of Gallipoli and then on the Western Front in France. He was killed by a grenade in the Third Battle of Flanders near the town of Boezinge north of Ypres .

Literary work

As a teenager, Francis Ledwidge took every opportunity he had to write poetry that appeared in the local newspaper Drogheda Independent from 1901 . In 1912 he sent a notebook to Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany , who published poetry under the name of Lord Dunsany and had many friends in Dublin's literary circles. Lord Dunsany encouraged Ledwidge to write and introduced him to William Butler Yeats in Dublin . Dunsany prepared the only independent book publication that appeared during Ledwide's lifetime: Songs of the Fields (1915). These poems can be assigned to the Irish Literary Revival - according to language and subject . A second book entitled Songs of Peace (1917) was in preparation when Ledwidge died. The second volume was followed by a third volume also supervised by Dunsay under the title Last Songs (1918). Ledwidge's poetry is best known for its design of rural life; War and its horror are also discussed in his last poems. Edward Marsh included Ledwidge's poems in the second volume of his anthology Georgian Poetry . Dunsany gathered Ledwidge's poems, which were scattered in many magazines, in the volume The Complete Poems of Francis Ledwidge (1919).

Book publications

literature

  • Lewis Chase: Francis Ledwidge . In: The Cornhill Magazine , June 1920 (No. 726), pp. 696-704. With an autobiographical letter from Ledwide to Chase, dated June 6, 1917. Full text in the Internet Archive .
  • Alice Curtayne: Francis Ledwidge. A life of the poet . Brian & O'Keeffe, London 1972; New edition: New Island Books, Dublin 1998. ISBN 1-874597-80-4 .
  • Pascal Depaepe: Francis Ledwidge: An Irish poet in the Great War. A discussion of his poetry and his place in the tradition of the Irish Literary Renaissance and the Easter Rising . Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), Faculteit letteren, Department literatuurwetenschap. Leuven 1999.
  • Hubert Dunn: The minstrel boy. Francis Ledwidge, and the literature of his time, including six previously unpublished poems . Booklink, Holywood, Co. Down, 2006. ISBN 978-0-9554097-0-7 .
  • Liam O'Meara: A lantern on the wave. Francis Ledwidge, poet, activist and soldier . Riposte Books, Dublin 1999.
  • Jennifer Thewissen: Francis Ledwidge. A romantic poet writing in time of war . Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain-la-Neuve 2003.
  • Roxane Vermander: The Irish War poet Francis Ledwidge and patron Lord Dunsany. A biographical and literary approach . Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), Faculteit letteren, Department literatuurwetenschap. Leuven 1999.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Francis Ledwidge: Letter to Lewis Chase, June 6, 1917. Quoted in Lewis Chase: Francis Ledwidge . In: The Cornhill Magazine , June 1920 (No. 726), pp. 696-704, here p. 699.
  2. ^ Francis Ledwidge: Letter to Lewis Chase, June 6, 1917. Quoted in Lewis Chase: Francis Ledwidge . In: The Cornhill Magazine , June 1920 (No. 726), pp. 696-704, here p. 698.
  3. ^ Commonwealth War Graves Commission Casualty Details Francis Ledwidge Additional Information
  4. ^ Edward Howard Marsh: Georgian Poetry 1913-15 . The Poetry Bookshop, London 1915.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Ledwidge, Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ledwidge, Francis Edward (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish poet and nationalist
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Slane
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 1917
Place of death Boezinge