ABSTRACT
Commencing with the work of William Barnes (1801’1886) this short survey considers that of six noted dialect poets from the 18th century to the early 20th century.
The rise of standard English is briefly sketched and the way in which it gradually devalued regional dialects, not only in common speech but also for literary purposes. Barnes’s achievement was in breaking through the prevailing attitudes of many middle-class readers by showing how a hitherto despised language could be shaped into a genuine art form.
The discussion then proceeds to trace the dialect work of 18th-century Scots poets, especially Burns, and that of later English practitioners such as Tennyson and Thomas Hardy, both of whom were influenced by Barnes. A more urban vernacular note was sounded by Rudyard Kipling in his Barrack Room Ballads (1892) and the 20th-century Scots poet Hugh MacDiarmid.
Some dialect poets, like Barnes, remained relatively obscure, while Tennyson became Poet Laureate and Kipling a Nobel Prize-winner. And though simply to write in dialect always carries political implications, some of these poets also had extra-literary aims. Barnes’s poetry was part of his (failed) programme to “Saxonize” the language; MacDiarmid’s to revolutionize an independent Scots nation.
The discussion concludes with a brief consideration of the drawbacks and advantages of writing poetry in dialect.
