Rhyming weavers, and other country poets of Antrim and Down

by ed. John Hewitt

"During the nineteenth century there was a remarkable flowering of peasant verse in the Ulster counties of Antrim and Down. Witty, irreverent and deeply egalitarian, these poems were written by working people - hand-loom weavers, small farmers and country school-masters - for people much like themselves. The poets wrote in the 'lively tongue' of the Ulster-Scots vernacular and drew their themes from the landscape and life of the community at a time when the making of flax into linen played a basic part in the economic and social pattern." "John Hewitt's Rhyming Weavers is both a study and a celebration of the lives and work of these country poets. His extended introduction provides an account of the context in which the poets wrote and is complemented by a select anthology that includes poems by well-known local bards such as David Herbison, James Orr and Samuel Thomson." First published in 1974, Hewitt's anthology was an act of recovery, an excavation of a vibrant aspect of Ulster's literary history. Reissued now, thirty years later, with a new foreword by Tom Paulin, Rhyming Weavers remains a seminal work, making an important contribution to Ulster-Scots writing and to debates about language and identity in these islands.

135 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1974

Reviews

[Rowan McCollum · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite anthologies! Hewitt's introduction is dense but accessible for those unfamiliar, and it is well worth spending time in the glossary becoming familiar with Ulster-Scots vernacular to fully enjoy the small collection after Hewitt's study. This is regional writing in the purest form, you will seldom find authors that so wonderfully capture the character of their experience as these poets do.