Edmond Holmes

Edmond Holmes (1850-1936), The Creed of My Heart, and other poems, 1912. Courtesy Internet Archive.

Edmond Gore Alexander Holmes (1850-1936) was an Irish poet, educationalist, and prose writer.

Life

Holmes was born at Moycashel, county Westmeath, Ireland.

He worked as a schools inspector, rising to become chief inspector for elementary schools in 1905. He resigned in 1911, over a confidential memorandum criticising school inspectors who had formerly been elementary school teachers. This angered the teachers' union and it led to the downfall of Robert Morant, the permanent secretary to the Board of Education, when it became public.

Holmes's subsequent writings on education are taken as an early statement of "progressive" and "child-centred" positions, and are still cited. Later works come close to theosophy.

Writing

Holmes's Creed of Buddha (1908) is well known.

He also wrote a pantheist text All is One: A plea for a higher pantheism.

Recognition

Words from his poem, The Triumph of Love, were set to music by composer Charles Villiers Stanford, a friend.

Publications

Edmond Holmes (1850-1936, The Triumph of Love, 1903. Courtesy Internet Archive.

Poetry

• Poems. London: H.S. King, 1876.
• Poems: Second series. London : C. Kegan Paul, 1879.
• The Silence of Love. London & New York: John Lane, 1899.
• The Triumph of Love. London & New York: John Lane, 1903.
• The Creed of My Heart, and other poems. London: Constable, 1912.
• Sonnets to the Universe. London: Arthur L. Humphreys, 1918.
• Sonnets and Poems: An anthology (selected by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson). London: R. Cobden-Sanderson, 1920.

Non-fiction

• A Confession of Faith: By an unorthodox believer. London & New York: Macmillan, 1895.
• Sursum Corda: A defence of idealism. London: Macmillan, 1898.
• What is Poetry? London & New York: John Lane, 1900.
• The Creed of Christ. London & New York: John Lane, 1905.
• The Creed of Buddha. London & New York, John Lane, 1908.
• What Is and What Might Be: a study of education in general and elementary education in particular. London: Constable, 1911.
• The Tragedy of Education. London: Constable, 1913.
• In Defence of What Might Be. London: Constable, 1914.
• The Nemesis of Docility: A study of German character. London: Constable; New York: Dutton, 1916.
• The Problem of the Soul: A tract for teachers. London: Constable, 1917.
• The Secret of Happiness; or, Salvation through growth. London: Constable, 1919.
• The Secret of the Cross: A plea for a re-presentation of Christianity. New York, E.P. Dutton, 1919.
• The Cosmic Commonwealth. London: Constable, 1920.
• In Quest of an Ideal: An autobiography. London: R. Cobden-Sanderson, 1920.
• All is One: A plea for the higher pantheism]. London: R. Cobden-Sanderson, 1921.
• Give Me the Young. London: Constable, 1921.
• Dying Lights and Dawning: The Martha Upton lectures. London & Toronto: J.M. Dent / New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1924.
• The Albigensian or Catharist Heresy: A story and a study. London: Williams & Norgate, 1925.
  • reprinted as The Holy Heretics: A story of the Albigensian Crusade. London: Watts, 1948.
• Experience of Reality. A study of mysticism. London: R. Cobden-Sanderson, 1928.
• The World of Self or Spirit: A scheme of life. London: Cobden-Sanderson, 1929.
• Philosophy Without Metaphysics. London: Allen & Unwin, 1930.
• The Headquarters of Reality. A challenge to Western thought. London, Methuen, 1933.

Edited

• Walt Whitman's Poetry: A study and a selection. London & New York: John Lane, 1902; New York: Haskell House, 1973.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of Irish poets

References

• Shute, Chris.Edmond Holmes and the Tragedy of Education (1998).
• Gordon, P. (1983). "The writings of Edmond Holmes: a reassessment and bibliography." History of Education 12(1): 15–24.
• Gordon, P. (1978). "The Holmes-Morant Circular of 1911: A Note." Journal of Educational Administration and History X(1): 36–40.

External links

Poems

• Edmond Gore Holmes in the Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse: "The Creed of My Heart," "Nirvana," "La Vie Profonde," "The God Within"

About

• review of "What is Poetry?" by Bliss Carman