MORE VERSE AND PROSE OF THE CORN LAW RHYMER
Ebenezer Elliott, The Poet of the Poor
"I would fain arrange my letters, papers etc., for publication, if wanted, when I am gone. And I would fain prepare a new volume for the press. This last I am trying to do, but if I use the pen half an hour, I suffer torments which I hope the damned do not suffer."
Preparing the manuscript for the publisher would have taken a phenomenal amount of time for the 68 year old bard. Given that he was very poorly, his eyesight was poor and that he was soon to die, we can only conclude that his wife and daughter did most of the copying out of his poems. The two volumes contained 220 poems, a long article on Elliott by Southey, several articles and letters, three lectures, prefaces and footnote. All of these items would need copying in longhand. Possibly Elliott started work on the two volumes before the 3rd July 1849 mentioned above since there was little time between this date and the publication date of early 1850.
The two volumes are little regarded today as some of the poems (in volume 2 especially) do not display real quality, but the contents of the two volumes are recorded here to help researchers peruse these productions of the Corn Law Rhymer. The lack of quality of the poems in Volume 2 can be attributed to the poet's deteriorating health which was very poor in the last few years. He first sought advice on his illness in January 1847, and we know the bard was taking laudanum for his pain. Elliott mentioned this in another letter he wrote to January Searle on June 22nd 1849:-
"It is quite true that I have been so ill as to be scarcely able to say I was alive, and also true that laudanum must be making havoc of my intellectuals."
Elliott's friend, the Quaker poet and postmaster Thomas Lister, wrote of the two volumes:-
"Yet in these posthumous volumes, there are many blemishing verses, which it could have been hoped in his riper judgement he had either not composed, or rejected from an after collection - it being quite possible, as he himself has sometimes proved, to utter strong truths without offensive language."
It is not intended to give the texts of the poems, letters and lectures contained in the two volumes but to act as a pointer. So this article, then, is a summary of the contents with the occasional comment thrown in. Volume 1 is easy to buy but Volume 2 is quite rare, though a copy was found surprisingly through the Kindle e-book reader (2021).
Elliott's grave at Darfield
Volume One
The volume begins with a Preface which gives some background to the letters and articles in volume two. There is in the Preface to Volume 1 the following statement which is very interesting but grossly self promoting:-
"I claim to have been a pioneer of the greatest, the most beneficial, the only crimeless Revolution, which man has yet seen. I also claim to be the Poet of that Revolution - the Bard of Freetrade; and through the prosperity, wisdom, and loving-kindness which Freetrade will ultimately bring, the Bard of Universal Peace."
Contents of Volume One
"Lyrics For My Daughters" contains 9 poems which are all songs and read quite well. The exception to the songs is the enigmatic poem "Plaint," a striking poem dealing with the poet's fear of his approaching death. One of the songs celebrates liberty in Hungary - showing Elliott's interest in international affairs.
"Small Poems" contains 128 poems and displays Elliott's poetry at its best. Some items are epigrams and many other poems deal with characters important to Elliott or with incidents in the poet's life. Notable examples are "The Peoples' Anthem" and "Let Me Rest." One of the epigrams is typical of the poet's thinking:-
It means that men are brothers;
That every man should have his own,
And nobody another's.
"The Year of Seeds" consists of 50 sonnets of variable quality. In some notes Elliott gives his thoughts on the sonnet form. "The Year of Seeds" is explored in another article in the Ebenezer Research Foundry.
"Ballads" This section contains 5 ballads. The ballad "One Of The Homes" is followed by "Devil Byron" with 39 verses. Elliott disliked Byron after the lord ignored him when they bumped into each other in Rotherham in 1813. A footnote gives the source of the poem as a charcoal burner who worked near Byron's stately home.The next ballad, "Tom and Bet," is described as a temperance ballad, and again the Corn Law Rymer supplies notes on the poem's origins. "The Gypsy" comes next and notes explain the place names of Stannington and Rivelin, both within an easy walk of the bard's home in the Sheffield village of Upperthorpe. The final ballad is "Epistle" which begins:-
"Write me a poem!" I obey.
More information about the mysterious Ellen Rendall
Elliott wrote to Rendall in January 1849 giving her address as 1, Adam St, Adelphi, London - a rather wealthy address.The letter (in the Brotherton Library, Leeds University) mentions that Elliott had met Rendall and had read poetry to her though where they met is not stated. Elliot in the letter thanks his friend for sending him an article on Keats, states that she has poetry in her and discusses at length two poems by Linton which Ellen had posted to him. Linton was an influential character in the Chartist Movement. William James Linton, 1812 to 1897, was a poet, writer, engraver, landscape painter and a political reformer. He also founded The English Republic, a short-lived radical journal. He was born in London but later in life emigrated to the United States where he died.
Lyrics from “Life
According To Law,” – an unfinished opera
Young Poets' Plaint The first line reads “God, release
our dying sister!”
Artisan's Outdoor Hymn
The Poor Man’s Day
Seven verses sung to the tune
Grahame. The title of the poem refers to the Sabbath which brings rest and
happiness to the “trampled poor.” Written 1840.
Chorus The first two lines are “These
pauper kings, these tax-fed things,/What say these murderous robber-kings?”
Dirge Short poem about a conversation with
God about toiling for bread
Hymn (To live in
vain! To live in pain!)
Young Poet Nine lines. “Let us pray"
appears as a refrain.
Prayer Elliott’s short version of the Lord's Prayer
Miscellanies
Queer Bobby in 1837. But
Not The Bobby Of 1846
This is a poem about butcher’s bums – it’s crude and suggests
Elliott was losing it owing to poor health. There is a long footnote from Upperthorpe
dated 1837 about Peel and knitting!
The Imitated Lane
Ode On The Marriage
Of Victoria The First Fifteen
verses long. Written 1840.
The Sun's Bird The last line of each verse (4 in all) reads
'Bird of the Sun! Bird of the Sun!'
Tom And John Tom is old and blind and has to beg.
John is young and well-off. A footnote
says the poem is based on the life of “a late bread taxing palaces-pauper"
who unable to give his estates to his many sons and was hectored by them.
Hymn (Men! ye, who
sow the earth with good!) Verse
2 has a long footnote addressed to the philosophers of the Gun and Standard who
pray for the destruction of trade. Triggered by “To famish Skill and Toil,” Verse 4 also conjures a long footnote
triggered by 'forkful mind,” Poem is dated Dec
1844
England in 1844 Verse 3 has a footnote about
4000 poachers
Sunderland's Glory
Title has a footnote: “ Printed some years before the fall, in honour
of Monopoly's greatest and worthiest champion.” Another poem that is a little
crude. Last line of each verse “Buckingham's bum! A second footnote is about
railway madness and shares.
Joint-Stock in
December 1845
Doggerel For Dupes A clumsy poem about selling canal and
railway shares.
****
Speech Delivered At
The Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield, 3rd
December 1845, At A Meeting Of The Ashton-Under-Line, And Manchester
Shareholders There are two
footnotes.
The Bard Among His Betters The
article tells of Elliott's jury
service and the attitudes of landlords. "Throughout my long life I have only met
with one landowner who did not talk as if he thought he had a right to trample
on all who are not landowners. My poor
father (the rebel) was right, after all! and so they hunted him out of society for
his honesty and wisdom."
Was It A Dream A long rambling poem about a dream. Meant to be satirical.
Bets, Bubbles, Banking, And Bloodshed
As a sequel to “Was It A Dream,” I append the following letters:
To Edward Smith Esq (Letter begins Sir,- I wish your friend, Samuel Bailey ...
would write another book on banking). Mainly deals with joint-stock
banking.
To Edward Smith Esq (Letter begins Sir,- Robert Owen might rejoice). Very
long letter. Joint stock, is banking honest, what is false money, USA banking,
Bank of England, Lord Bentinck, “Killafew's" notes , bullion, foreign
wars.
To The Editor Of The [Sheffield] Independent
(Letter begins Sir, - Your correspondent “PF"
appears to have written his last letter with an iron pen dipped in gall.)
About bills of exchange, criticizes
attack on Bank of England. Letter dated 20 May 1846 from A Constant Reader
To Edward Smith Esq (Another long Letter
begins Sir, - I am not sorry that I am
unable to extol the merits of sham money). Refers to an 1832 letter about bullion.
Reveals Smith to be a banker.
To the Editor of The Sheffield Independent
(Letter begins Sir, - your
correspondent A Constant Reader wishes to know what is money? and what is a
pound?)
The Currency Question. Sir Charles Wood ( Longish letter dated 6th
December 1847 begins: re discounted endorsements of
joint-stock banks). Mentions free trade, Lord Russell. Letter is signed: I am, Sir Charles,
very respectfully, (or rather I was) once a bullion merchant.
CRITIQUE written by the late Robert Southey for the quarterly review, but rejected by the editor, after the author had corrected a proof for the Press. This is a very long article - perhaps that's why it was rejected!
Truth More Strange
Than Fiction (The poem has a longish footnote dated August 21st
1847)
Erin, A Dirge, For April, 1847
To The Devil
Say “No!” And Lie For once a
short, interesting & international poem! The text is given below:-
Said he that we are
loath, abhorred?
That Britain's name is
now a word
For scorn to spit on?
Can it be true, that
for the right
Poles, Germans,
Romans, Magyars fight,
And not one Briton?
To wrong the right,
and raise the wrong,
Against the weak, we aid the strong!
Lectures
A Lecture On The
Principle That Poetry Is Self-Communion (Written for the Hull Mechanics
Institute)
A Lecture On The
Poets Who Succeeded Milton, And Preceded
Cowper And Burns (Written For The Sheffield Mechanics Institution)
A Lecture On Cowper And Burns, The Two Earliest Great Poets Of The Modern School (Written For The Sheffield Mechanics Institution)
REVIEWS OF MORE
VERSE AND PROSE OF THE CORN LAW RHYMER
The Spectator April 20th !850 for a review of volume 2
The Examiner 1850 p188. A Huddersfield newspaper
The Westminster Review vol 53 1850
The Athenaeum Jan 26th 1850 p97 and April 13th 1850 p395
From the dates listed above, we can deduce that vol 1 was published in January and volume 2 followed early April.
The reviewer in Harper's Magazine criticises Elliott's new work as "unpoetical and trivial." He goes further: "Much of the poetry in these volumes would have been better unpublished." True, I think of vol 2 but hard on the first volume. The Westminster Review quoted several poems and stated: "Though wanting occasionally in concentration of thought, many of these sonnets are very exquisite. The soul of the poet is often moved to passion, and some of his descriptions are so true a rendering of the spirit of beauty,
as seen in nature, that they leave us nothing to desire." The Athenaeum was mostly positive: "This volume contains as many examples of wild music & general enthusiasm, and fiery, fierce satire as any of its predecessors." However, the "Ballads" were "more rough than mischievous but deficient in clearness of narration." Turning his attention to "Eveline," the reviewer added "To us it appears but an extravagent romance, clogged and cumbered with weighty words and innocent of character."
Another view of "More Verse And Prose" comes from the writer and critic, Bedingfield, who wrote that all major poets could be described as being people of genius. He was unwilling to call Elliott a genius, though, rating him a second class genius! The critic continued: "Unequal in his best passages, and in the vigour of his life, he frequently, in these volumes, betrays the inroads which time makes on the intellect and the fancy, and wearies us with the dilution of his genius in feeble and ill-judged verses." He added "To imagination and intellect Elliott has scarcely any claims, but 'More Verse And Prose' will have charms for those who do not require the highest elements of poetry."
