William Ross (poet)

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William Ross (

Prince Charles Edward Stuart, one of Ross' most famous songs is the lament, Cuachag nan Craobh ("Cuckoo of the Tree"),[4] the tune of which is now known throughout the Anglosphere as The Skye Boat Song, based on multiple sets of Scottish English
lyrics composed a century later.

Life

Ross was born at

Morayshire, where he gained an education at the local grammar school. Later the family moved to Gairloch in Wester Ross, which was his mother's birthplace.[3][6]

Travelling as a peddler with his father, Ross learned the many different dialects spoken throughout the western

catechist for the Church of Scotland parish at Gairloch,[8] which was, according to John Lorne Campbell, "a position he occupied with enthusiasm and skill until his death at the age of twenty-eight."[9]

Around 1780, William Ross met Mòr Ros (Lady Marion Ross), a member of the minor

love poetry (Feasgar Luain, Òran Cumhaidh, and Òran Eile) are concerned with her; their passionate subjectivity is quite unusual in Gaelic verse of the time."[11]

Mòr Ros rejected the impoverished poet's advances and, in 1782, she married an

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "legend has it that Ross died of love, but if he did it was a lengthy process".[3]

Despite the poet's many versifications of his loss and heartbreak over the marriage of Mòr Ros, he was also capable of poking fun at his own sorrow, as he did in the self-flyting poem Oran eadar am Bàrd agus Cailleach-mhilleadh-nan-dàn ("Exchange of Verses between the Poet and the Hag-who-spoils-poems"). In that poem, we also, according to Derick Thomson, "see [Ross] deflating his own romantic, poetic conceptions about the ideal loved-one."[14]

In his 1783 poem Moladh Gheàrrloch ("In Praise of Gairloch"), William Ross describes the Highland

ebb tide upon the Big Sand of Gairloch, is, according to Ronald Black, "as succinct a description as we have of the great festive shinty matches of the past."[15]

Ross' last song, Òran Eile, according to Derick Thomson, "is the finest distillation of the poet's love and despair, unsentimental, spare, with much realistic detail and with an underlying passion which shows in the imagery and word craft."[16]

Although still in his twenties, William Ross died of asthma and tuberculosis at Gairloch in either 1790 or 1791.[3][6][17] According to legend, on the night of his death, Mrs. Samuel Clough's dress accidentally caught fire from a candle she was holding inside her house in Liverpool, which resulted in her death as well.[18][19]

Works

William Ross is said to have burned all his manuscripts, but his poems survived as oral poetry and were subsequently collected and written down from the dictation of those who had memorized them.[20]

Two volumes of Ross's Gaelic poems were published—Orain Ghae'lach (Inverness, 1830) and An dara clòbhualadh (Glasgow, 1834), edited by John Mackenzie.[6][21]

According to John Lorne Campbell, "Although he was well educated in Gaelic, Ross does not seem to have troubled to write down his compositions, of which some seem to have become lost. His poetry possessed a sensitivity and restraint uncommon among Highland bards, and unusual freedom from Anglicisms, but his themes are too often of but trivial interest."[22]

At the same time, his poetic range covered

Prince Charles Edward Stuart in 1788.[3][23] According to John Lorne Campbell, Ross' Gaelic lament for the Prince, which begins "Soraidh bhuan do'n t-Suaithneas Bhàn", ("Farewell to the White Cockade"), "is at once the Prince's only true elegy and the last genuine Jacobite poem composed in Scotland."[24]

Other iconic 18th-century Gaelic poets, especially

Iain mac Fhearchair of North Uist, are known to have been major influences.[3][25]

More recently, iconic Gaelic poet Fr.

Scottish Gaelic: Dùbhgall mac Thormoid), who alleged that the Bard of Gairloch only saw Mòr Ros in a dream and then pined away and died longing in vain to see her again while awake.[26]

During the 20th century, William Ross' poetry was a major influence upon Sorley MacLean, who remains one of the most important figures in Scottish Gaelic literature.[27] MacLean considered William Ross' last song, Òran Eile,[28] "one of the very greatest poems ever made in any language", in the British Isles and comparable to the best of William Shakespeare's 154 sonnets.[29]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Derick S. Thomson (1987), Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 253.
  2. ^ Derick S. Thomson (1993), Gaelic Poetry in the Eighteenth Century: A Bilingual Anthology, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Aberdeen. Pages 161-167.
  3. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24136. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  4. Tobar an Dualchais
  5. ^ Ronald Black (2001), An Lasair: anthology of 18th century Scottish Gaelic verse, Birlinn Limited. Page 500.
  6. ^ a b c Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Ross, William (1762-1790)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 49. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  7. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press. Page 278.
  8. ^ Derick S. Thomson (1987), Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 252.
  9. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press. Page 278.
  10. ^ Derick S. Thomson (1993), Gaelic Poetry in the Eighteenth Century: A Bilingual Anthology, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Aberdeen. Page 147.
  11. ^ Derick S. Thomson (1987), Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 252.
  12. ^ Ronald Black (2001), An Lasair: anthology of 18th century Scottish Gaelic verse, Birlinn Limited. Page 500.
  13. ^ Edited by Ronald Black (2002), Eilein na h-Òige: The Poems of Fr. Allan MacDonald, Mungo Press, Glasgow. Page 46.
  14. ^ Derick S. Thomson (1993), Gaelic Poetry in the Eighteenth Century: A Bilingual Anthology, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Aberdeen. Pages 161-167.
  15. ^ Ronald Black (2001), An Lasair: anthology of 18th century Scottish Gaelic verse, Birlinn Limited. Page 501.
  16. ^ Derick S. Thomson (1987), Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 252.
  17. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press. Page 278.
  18. ^ Ronald Black (2001), An Lasair: anthology of 18th century Scottish Gaelic verse, Birlinn Limited. Pages 500-501.
  19. ^ Edited by Ronald Black (2002), Eilein na h-Òige: The Poems of Fr. Allan MacDonald, Mungo Press, Glasgow. Page 46.
  20. ^ Derick S. Thomson (1987), Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 252.
  21. ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). "Mackenzie, John (1806-1848)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  22. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press. Page 278.
  23. ^ Derick S. Thomson (1987), Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 252.
  24. ^ John Lorne Campbell (1979), Highland Songs of the Forty-Five, Arno Press. Page 279, 286-291.
  25. ^ Derick S. Thomson (1987), Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 252.
  26. ^ Edited by Ronald Black (2002), Eilein na h-Òige: The Poems of Fr. Allan MacDonald, Mungo Press, Glasgow. Page 46.
  27. ^ Krause, Corinna (2007). Eadar Dà Chànan: Self-Translation, the Bilingual Edition and Modern Scottish Gaelic Poetry (PDF) (Thesis). The University of Edinburgh School of Celtic and Scottish Studies. p. 67.
  28. ^ "18mh – Beachdan: Uilleam Ros". Làrach nam Bàrd (in Scottish Gaelic). BBC Alba. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  29. ^ MacLean, Sorley (1985). "Old Songs and New Poetry" (PDF). In Gilles, William (ed.). Ris a' Bhruthaich: The Criticism and Prose Writings of Sorley MacLean. Stornoway: Acair. pp. 111, 114.

Further reading

External links

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Ross, William (1762-1790)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 49. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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