William Livingston (poet)

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William Livingston
Native name
Uilleam Mac Dhunlèibhe
Born1808
Gartmain, near Bowmore, Islay, Scotland
Died1870
OccupationPoet
LanguageScottish Gaelic
NationalityScottish
Notable worksA' maidin neochiontas na h-óige, Vindication of the Celtic Character, Eirinn a' Gul, Fios thun a' Bhàird

The poet William Livingston (

Scottish Gaelic: Uilleam Mac Dhunlèibhe) (1808–1870) was a Scottish Gaelic poet from Bowmore, Islay and important figure in 19th-century Scottish Gaelic literature
.

Life

Livingstone was born upon the farm of Gartmain, near

Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French and Welsh languages. During his travels through the Scottish lowlands, Livingstone collected an extensive knowledge of the Scottish nation's topography, place-names and folklore.[2]

He lived and worked in multiple locations, including Greenock,[3] before eventually settling in Tradestown, Glasgow.[4]

Writing

A' maidin neochiontas na h-óige (in Gaelic type, 19th century)

Livingston was a hyper patriotic

war poet, and author of epic poetry.[5]

According to

Derick S. Thomson, "Heroic Gaels are always at the center of the action. There is some stirring descriptive verse in these, but the long poems are formless and often bombastic, the epics may owe more to MacPhersons Ossian, too little to Homer. Some of Livingstone's patriotic verse with an evictions background is much tauter, especially Fios thun a' Bhàird."[6]

Enraged by what he saw as, "a

war of attrition against the Gaels", embodied in the Highland Clearances, Livingstone published, Vindication of the Celtic Character, which Donald E. Meek has described as, "an untidy and little known compendium of historical narratives and political rants", at Greenock in 1850.[7]

In his 1861 poem Eirinn a' Gul ("Ireland Weeping"), Livingstone recalled the many stories of the Gaels of

Queen Elizabeth I. Sadly, but expressing hope for the future of the Irish people, Livingstone closes by asking where are the Irish clan warriors who charged out of the mist and slaughtered the armies of the Stranger at the Battle of the Yellow Ford and the Battle of Moyry Pass.[8]

In his famous poem Fios thun a' Bhàird ("A Message to the Bard"), which denounces the mass evictions ordered upon Islay after the island was purchased by James Morrison and which was composed to the air When the kye came hame,[9] William Livingstone presents, according to John T. Koch, “a stark view of an Islay in which the human world has been all but banished from the natural landscape.”[10]

Examples of William Livingston's work may be viewed in the Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry.[11][12]

Towards the end of his life, Livingstone, according to Donald E. Meek, "produced a fascinating range of celebratory poems, commemorating friends, worthies of the Glasgow Gaelic circuit, and scholars such as Eugene O'Curry."[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ Edited by Donald E. Meek (2019), The Wiles of the World Caran an t-Saohgail: Anthology of 19th-century Scottish Gaelic Verse, Birlinn Limited. Page 478.
  2. ^ Edited by Derick S. Thomson (1987), The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 164.
  3. ^ Edited by Donald E. Meek (2019), The Wiles of the World Caran an t-Saohgail: Anthology of 19th-century Scottish Gaelic Verse, Birlinn Limited. Page 478.
  4. ^ Edited by Derick S. Thomson (1987), The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 164.
  5. ^ Edited by Derick S. Thomson (1987), The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 164.
  6. ^ Edited by Derick S. Thomson (1987), The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 164.
  7. ^ Edited by Donald E. Meek (2019), The Wiles of the World Caran an t-Saohgail: Anthology of 19th-century Scottish Gaelic Verse, Birlinn Limited. Page 478.
  8. ^ Edited by Donald E. Meek (2019), The Wiles of the World Caran an t-Saohgail: Anthology of 19th-century Scottish Gaelic Verse, Birlinn Limited. Pages 348-351, 458-462.
  9. ^ Edited by Donald E. Meek (2019), The Wiles of the World Caran an t-Saohgail: Anthology of 19th-century Scottish Gaelic Verse, Birlinn Limited. Pages 42-48, 400-403.
  10. ISBN 1-85109-440-7
  11. ISBN 1-85109-440-7
  12. ISBN 0-7486-1600-4
  13. ^ Edited by Donald E. Meek (2019), The Wiles of the World Caran an t-Saohgail: Anthology of 19th-century Scottish Gaelic Verse, Birlinn Limited. Page 478.
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