Robert Tannahill
Robert Tannahill (* 3. June 1774 in Paisley , Scotland ; † 17th May 1810 ) was a Scottish poet of the working class . Known as the "Weber Poet", he wrote to succeed Robert Burns . Robert Chambers rated him in his Cyclopaedia of English literature as equal.
Life
Tannahill was born the fourth of seven children. His mother, Janet Pollock, was from Gateside, North Ayrshire , and his father, James Tannahill, was from Kilmarnock .
Shortly after he was born, the family moved into a newly built house near Queen Street that served as both a home and a weaving mill. Robert was weak and limped due to a slight deformation of his right leg. At the age of twelve he left school and began an apprenticeship as a weaver with his father. At that time he showed his first interest in poetry.
After his apprenticeship, he left town and worked in Bolton from 1799 to 1801 before returning to his family to support them. His father died shortly afterwards and his mother became frail. In a letter to a friend he wrote: "My brother Hugh and I - in addition to our old, frail mother, who was plagued by old age and years - were left alone. Seven years ago there were nine of us at the table." Hugh married a little later, leaving Robert behind as the sole supporter. He described his situation in the touching but formally weak poem "The Filial Vow". Still, his mother should outlive him by 13 years.
Through contact with the composer Robert Archibald Smith , Robert's interest in poetry and music grew. As he became more active in the city's literary life, he helped found the Burns Club of Paisley and became its secretary. As a result, his works appeared in magazines such as The Scots Magazine . In 1807 Robert Tannahill published a small collection of poems and songs. The 900-copy edition was sold out within a few weeks. Despite the success, Tannahill fell discouraged after publishers from Greenock and Edinburgh declined to publish an expanded collection of his poems. There were also worries about their own health. Because of these incidents, he eventually drowned himself in the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal . His body was not found; only his coat was found next to the over-aged canal.
plant
Most of Tannahill's work dates back to the time after his return to his parents' house in 1802, when he was "alternately weaving threads and verses" on the loom. He tried his hand at a wide variety of text types such as stories , fables , epitaphs , epistles , odes and dialect songs , both in English and in Scots . Tannahill is best known for the latter. He wrote three of his odes on the occasion of Robert Burns' birthday. In the first of these odes, a Scottish genius enters the gathering of the Olympian gods and solicits a national bard. The wish is granted immediately with the birth of Burns. Poverty is a recurring topos in Tannahill's work. Above all, he repeatedly addressed the suffering of soldiers and sailors in the Napoleonic Wars and that of their widows.
Tannahill published his collection of poems and songs in 1807 under the title " The soldier's return, a Scottish interlude in two acts, with other poems and songs ". The title track, a drama fragment in dialect verses, served as a framework for the accompanying song texts. As was customary at the time, the book was published on request. Tannahill found this humiliating. He tried in vain to promote the commercial success of his work. Only after his death were editions of his poems published in 1815 and 1817 and a reprint of the original edition in 1822. In addition, numerous pieces have been published in William Motherwell 's Harp of Renfrewshire collection , which first appeared in 1819 and has been reprinted several times. Further collections of Tannahill's works appeared a little later, supplemented by copies from friends.
music
Both Robert Archibald Smith and the Aberdeen organist John Ross set poems by Tannahill to music. Conversely, Tannahill wrote texts himself to accompany traditional Scottish and Irish airs . Some became popular folk tunes. Perhaps the best known is "The Braes of Balquhidder" - the template for the ballad " Wild Mountain Thyme ", with the well-known refrain "Will Ye Go Lassie, Go?" In this play he takes up a story of his nanny Mary McIntyre, according to which she and her mother baked Bannockbrot for the army of Charles Edward Stuart on the march to the battle of Culloden .
Tannahill also wrote "Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielea". The text was first published in 1806 and set to music by James Barr in 1818 . The well-known Australian folk song Waltzing Matilda later emerged from this version .
In 2006 Brechin All Records released the first part of The Complete Songs of Robert Tannahill . Part 2 was published in 2010 on the 200th anniversary of Robert Tannahill's death.
Aftermath
As a suicide Tannahill was buried in an unnamed grave near the West Relief Church (now Castlehead Cemetery) on Canal Street in Paisley. In 1866 a granite monument was built due to the increasing recognition of the poet.
On his 100th birthday, an edition of his "Poems and Songs" was published in 1874. 15,000 people took part in a procession to the Gleniffer Braes , one of the most mentioned places in his works. Between 1876 and 1936 concerts with his songs were held there every year. The entrance fees were used for a statue designed by David Watson Stevenson , which was installed in Paisley Abbey in 1883 . A memorial fountain, which is now neglected, was also built.
Portraits of the poet all seem to be based on a sketch by local artist John Morton that he made the day after Tannahill's death. An engraving of this sketch adorned the cover picture of The Harp of Renfrewshire in 1819 and editions of the poems in 1822, 1825, 1838 and 1846. Two portraits in oil paint followed later. One in 1833 by William Beith, a paisley flower painter. Another created Thomas Carswell, an artist from Greenock , for Mr. Marshall, a former school friend of Tannahill's. This picture was made from the engraving of The Harp of Renfrewshire and Mr. Marshall's memory of his old school friend.
A bust of the poet was made by John Fillans in 1845 - again on the basis of Morton's drawing - and in 1873 transferred to the Paisley Museum. Another bust was placed in the Wallace Monument in 1869 .
literature
- Robert Tannahill . In: Robert Chambers (Ed.): Cyclopaedia of English literature , Volume 2, p. 490.
- Thomas Wilson Bayne, “Robert Tannahill,” Dictionary of National Biography
- Douglas, George Brisbane: James Hogg . Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, Edinburgh 1899, p. 22 et seq. , 13492155M.
- The Harp of Renfrewshire (1872), ed. William Motherwell, p.37ff
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Robert Chambers (Ed.): Cyclopaedia of English literature , Gould and Lincoln, 1856, p. 490
- ^ Tannahill Club: Complete Songs and Poems of Robert Tannahill , Centenary Edition. Edition, William Wilson, Paisley 1874, p. Iii, OCLC 10858082 .
- ^ Robert Tannahill: Burns' Anniversary Meeting , January 29, 1805, text online
- ^ Robert Tannahill: Poems and Songs, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect , 1817, pp. 176-188, text online
- ↑ Open Library archive
- ↑ The Braes of Balquhidder (Wild Mountain Thyme) . In: Renaissance Festival Lyrics . Retrieved June 21, 2015.
- ^ Robert Tannahill, David Semple: The poems and songs of Robert Tannahill, with life and notes, by David Semple . Alexander Gardner, Paisley 1874, pp. 182-185, 13516086M.
- ↑ Dennis O'Keeffe: Waltzing Matilda: The Secret History of Australia's Favorite Song . Allen and Unwin, Sydney 2012, ISBN 978-1-74237-706-3 .
- ↑ Paisley online
- ↑ Short biography of John Morton
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tannahill, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish writer and poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 3, 1774 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paisley , Scotland |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 17, 1810 |
| Place of death | Paisley , Scotland |