Barnes, William

(1801-1886)

   An ordained priest, schoolmaster, poet and author, known as the Dorsetshire Burns. He campaigned for the purification of the English language by getting rid of all foreign influences. His poems both in the local dialect and in English tell of life and labor in rural southwestern England. His first Dorset dialect poems were published in the Dorset County Chronicle (1833-34). His books, many of them concerned with education, history and language, include: Poems of Rural Life-two series, 1844 and 1862. Hwomely Rhymes, 1859. Poems of Rural Life in Common English, 1868. Anglo-Saxon primer, 1878. An Outline of English Speech-Craft, 1878. He was a regular contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine, Retrospective Review, and Macmillan's Magazine. His sense of humor is displayed in "The Bachelor," where the sentiment is take all your riches but give me a good wife. Some of his other poems: "Mater Dolorosa," "The Broken Heart," "The Castle Ruins," "The Surprise," "The Wife A-Lost," "Tokens," "Woak Hill," "Zummer an' Winter."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Poemhunter (www.poemhunter.com). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Dorset Page (www.thedorsetpage.com). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. Christopher Ricks, ed. Oxford University Press 2002. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.