Dawson, James (M)

b. 1840. d. 1906. Nationality: English.
Working-class poet (writing in dialect as well as standard English), farm labourer, and journalist. Alternative signature: “James Dawson, Jun.” Farmer’s son, originally from Hartshead, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. Moved to Manchester to begin a career in journalism, returning later to Hartshead by August 1873, according to the *Chambers’s Journal* ledger (NLS Dep 341/368). Member of Manchester Literary Club. Author of *Fact and Fancies From the Farm: Lyrical Poems* (John Camden Hotten, 1868); in the preface he describes himself as a farm labourer and asks his readers not to expect “the grace and finish of the classical scholar” (p. v). Dawson sent a copy of his book to Dickens, who praises it to Dawson as “a remarkable production” (*The Letters of Charles Dickens*, ed. Graham Storey, vol. 12, Clarendon Press, 2002, p. 223). Biographical information: Reilly, *Mid Victorian Poetry*, pp. 127-8; Goodridge. (AC)

Poems associated with this person

Total poems: 27
Poem title Date Periodical Roles id #
Wordsworth and Hartley Coleridge: in Grasmere Churchyard, Westmoreland 1866-01 Macmillan’s Magazine Poet 14199
Grandad’s Burial 1866-02 Macmillan’s Magazine Poet 14200
Spring 1867-03-16 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7373
An August Twilight 1870-08-06 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7265
In Cheshire 1871-09-23 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6791
Twilight 1872-01-13 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6806
Winter 1872-02-10 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6810
The Poet 1872-03-16 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6814
The Song She Sang 1872-04-20 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6819
Looking Back 1872-06-29 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6833
In Deep Sorrow 1872-11-02 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6865
Memory 1873-04-05 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6910
A Sprig of Thorn 1873-08-09 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6925
A Summer Memory 1873-08-23 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6927
November 1873-11-22 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6937
Our Lost Pet 1873-11-29 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6938
Inevitable 1873-12-13 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6940
Walking Out 1874-01-03 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6987
Early Spring 1874-03-07 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6996
A Sketch at Evening 1874-04-18 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7002
Summer Noon 1874-07-18 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7015
Recovered 1874-09-05 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7021
Evening 1874-10-03 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7025
Hopelessness 1874-10-31 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7028
The Old Trysting-Place 1874-11-21 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7031
Evenfall 1880-03-20 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7297
The Secret Mourner 1890-08-30 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 13156