Dawson, James (M)

Surname: Dawson
Forename(s): James
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 back to Hartshead by March 1867, according to the Chambers’s Journal ledger (NLS Dep 341/310). By 1 July 1871, the ledger address again lists him in Manchester (122 Water St) (NLS Dep 341/310). 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: 59
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
A Death-Watch 1868-02-08 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7624
Bereaved 1868-08-01 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7649
From A Sick-Bed 1868-09-19 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7656
An Autumn Evening 1868-11-28 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7666
Evening 1869-01-02 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7376
In an Old Church 1869-01-16 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7378
In the Twilight 1869-03-20 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7387
A Twilight Picture 1869-04-10 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7390
Mid-Day in Summer 1869-05-08 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7394
The Dead Invalid 1869-06-12 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7399
A Sea-side Sketch 1869-08-14 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7406
A Fishing-Town 1869-09-11 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7679
Wallis’s Picture of Chatterton 1869-10-16 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7684
Autumn Evening 1869-10-30 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7686
Dead 1869-11-13 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7688
Evening 1870-01-22 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7236
A Landscape 1870-04-23 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7249
A Spring Sketch 1870-05-28 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7254
A Sea-Town 1870-06-11 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7256
An Early Summer Morning 1870-07-30 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7264
An August Twilight 1870-08-06 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7265
At War 1870-08-27 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7268
Evening 1870-10-01 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7272
Twilight 1870-10-08 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7273
An Autumn Morning 1870-10-29 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7276
A Winter Evening 1870-12-10 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7282
At Evening 1870-12-17 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 7283
An Old Sea-Port. Evening Sketch 1871-02-11 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6750
Spring 1871-04-01 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6757
Resignation 1871-04-15 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6760
A Valley Scene 1871-06-03 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6764
Evening 1871-06-10 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6765
Sonnet 1871-07-01 Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal Poet 6768
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