Hyslop, James

(1798-1827)

   Scottish poet and shepherd of Nether Wellwood farm, in the parish of Muirkirk, he was born at Damhead, parish of Kirkconnel, Dumfriesshire. He taught himself English, Latin, French, mathematics, and algebra. His early verses were published in the Greenock Advertiser and other newspapers, frequently signed "The Muirkirk Shepherd;" his later works could be found in the Edinburgh Magazine. He had several jobs: running a school in Greenock; three years as tutor on board his majesty's ship Doris; as a reporter in London (1826); and as tutor on board his majesty's ship Tweed. He died off the Cape Verde Islands, in the Atlantic, and he was buried at sea with full military honors. He wrote a good deal in prose, chiefly upon the persecution of the covenanters. His poem "The Cameronian Dream," written 75th birthday). Some of his poems: "Amhrán na mBréag," "Be Born a Saint," "Boxing the Foxa," "Bright after Dark," "Fleadh Cheoil," "Gaeltacht," "Look, No Hands," "The True Story Ending in False Hope."

   Sources: Contemporary Irish Poetry: An Anthology. Anthony Bradley, ed. University of California Press. New and rev. ed., 1988. Biography of Pearse Hutchinson (http://www.irishwriters-online.com/pearsehutchinson.html). Modern Irish Poetry. Patrick Crotty, ed. The Blackstaff Press, 1995. The Book of Irish Verse: An Anthology of Irish Poetry from the Sixth Century to the Present. John Montague, ed. Macmillan, 1974. The Faber Book of Drink, Drinkers and Drinking. Simon Rae, ed. Faber and Faber, 1991. The Penguin Book of Contemporary Irish Poetry. Peter Fallon and Derek Mahon, eds. Penguin Books, 1990.