In Praise Of Vernacular Poets

We should not decry the writing of vernacular poets simply because they do not write in standard English.

At one time it was considered perfectly normal for the middle and upper class English to write poetry and to hold social evenings devoted to the latest poems. Interest in the poets of earlier times was seen as an essential part of this lifestyle and it was felt that no-ones education was complete unless they had a passing familiarity with the poets of the past and a working knowledge of the different styles of poetry then in vogue.
The outpouring of poetic works was prodigious and it was not considered out of the ordinary to have had your work published. Of course a lot of this was self publication or what we would now call vanity publishing and most of it has passed into that comfortable obscurity that is the rightful home of mediocrity.
However some of that poetry has stood the test of time and the writers have earned themselves the title A Poet (with capital letters!) and their work is pored over at schools and found in that mysterious library category; Literature. Poets such as Felicia Hemans [http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Felicia_Dorothea_Hemans ], George Gordon Byron [http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/George_Gordon_Byron ], Caroline Lamb [http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Lady_Caroline_Lamb ]
What is often overlooked in this Poetic Pantheon is the place of the working class poets. Just like their more privileged compatriots but with less leisure in which to do so, significant numbers of those who earned their living in the mills and mines, the ships and shops, also had an interest in poetry. This interest more often took the form of reading or listening to recitals in concert halls, pubs, clubs and even in open air meetings, but there were a significant number who wrote. True that writing was often in the local language or dialect with its own words and phrasing, often using the rhythms of the workplace. That should not be surprising since education was not standardised and neither was language. True their was the King’s English but that was kept for formal transactions and most people of all classes were much more comfortable in their local and regional modes of speech since they very rarely needed to get involved in formal dealings or to leave their own region. It was not until the industrial and the motor-age that greater mobility led to the standardisation of language.
So these ‘working class’ poets would tell the stories of their own lives or those of their neighbours using their own language and that of their target audience. This did not make the poetry they produced any less meritorious than their more learned cousins. Indeed considering the conditions under which they wrote their work is more creditable if not as aesthetically pleasing. Who would not count Robert Burns [http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Robert_Burns ] and William Barnes [http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/William_Barnes ] as Poets (in capitals)? Some of them used their poetic success to tell of the hardship and social conditions of the time and to campaign for reform. People like Ben Preston, [http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Benjamin_Preston ] Edwin Waugh [http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Edwin_Waugh ] and Ben Brierley [ http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Ben_Brierley ]were in their way as effective in social reform as William Wilberforce and Elizabeth Fry. Indeed some would say their achievements were even greater given the fact they had to be bi-lingual in both types of English.
As with their more accepted contemporaries some of these vernacular poets did indeed blossom and bloom. Some for a brief while before passing away into their own niche in obscurity and others transformed into hardy perennials who deserve the same exalted stature of Poet. Indeed as the microscope of nostalgia examines the lifestyles of these, happily, bygone years the value and impact of the vernacular poet is being re-assessed and more of them are being brought out of obscurity and seen as well worth reading and study in their own right and a few are being acknowledged as Great Poets (double capitals)
The vernacular poet of the past is worthy of respect and wider reading as are the vernacular poets of the present era such as Tupac Shakur [http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Tupac_Shakur ]