Susanna Blamire

Susanna Blamire (1747-1794). Crayon portrait by Giacomo Cambruzzi (1744-1803), circa 1777. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Susanna Blamire
Born	1747
Died	Template:Death year and age
Nationality	English
Occupation	poet

Susanna Blamire (1747 - 5 April 1794) was an English poet who was called "The Muse of Cumberland."

Life

Overview

Blamire was of good Cumberland family, and received the sobriquet of "The Muse of Cumberland." Her poems, which were not collected until 1842, depict Cumbrian life and manners with truth and vivacity. She also wrote some fine songs in the Scottish dialect, including "Ye shall walk in Silk Attire," and "What ails this Heart o' Mine."

Youth

Blamire, the daughter of a Cumberland yeoman, was born in 1747 at Cardew Hall, about 6 miles from Carlisle. At the age of 7 she lost her mother, and on her father's second marriage was committed to the charge of her widowed aunt, Mrs. Simpson of Thackwood. Mrs. Simpson seems to have been an excellent example of the qualities engendered by the life of a yeoman farmer. With an independent character, strongly marked individuality, and great practical sense, she led a busy life in the management of her farm and household. Blamire's education was conducted according to these principles.

She went to the village school at Haughton Head, where the fee was a shilling a quarter. There she learned the rudiments of knowledge, and her own taste for reading enabled her to grow up with a cultivated mind. She was fond of poetry, and began to write in imitation of her favourite authors. Her earliest poem, written at the age of 19, was suggested by Gray's "Elegy," as is shown by its title: "Written in a Churchyard, on seeing a number of cattle grazing in it."

Adulthood

Blamire's life was uneventful, and there are scarcely any records of it left. She lived in an obscure part of England amongst her own relatives, and her correspondence has not been preserved. Her poems were fugitive pieces, some of which appeared in magazines, but were never signed by her name, They were not collected till long after her death, when her memory had almost faded away, and personal details were vague.

She is described as of "graceful form, somewhat above the middle size, and a countenance, though slightly marked with the smallpox, beaming with good nature; her dark eyes sparkled with animation." Her country neighbours called her a "bonnie and varra lish young lass." She lived among the rustics, entered into their enjoyments, and sympathised with their troubles.

She was fond of society, and was in great request at the "merrie-neets," or social gatherings, where she mixed with every class. A good farmer said sadly after her death: "The merrie-neets won't be worth going to since she is no more." The genuine gaiety and sprightliness of her disposition may be judged by the fact that if she met a wandering musician on the road she was known to dismount from her pony, ask for the music of a jig, and dance, till she was weary, on the grass.

Susanna's eldest sister married Colonel Graham of Gartmore in 1767. (A Graham of Gartmore was the author of the song, "Oh, tell me how to woo thee," and the traditions of culture were common to the family of Graham.) Through her sister's marriage Susanna was introduced into a circle which sympathised with her poetical tastes. She often paid visits to Scotland.

Once she went to see a relation who lived at Chillingham, and while there she attracted the attention of Lord Tankerville and his family. At his request she wrote scharacteristic sketch of rustic life, a dialogue beginning, "Why, Ned, man, thou luiks sae down-hearted." Her poems were mostly written in this way, on the spur of the moment, and very few were revised with a view to publication. Her poetical gift was, in fact, regarded by her as an accomplishment which she sometimes used to please her friends.

It was the custom for the wealthier families in Cumberland to take lodgings in Carlisle for the winter months. There Blamire made the acquaintance of someone like-minded, Catherine Gilpin of Scaleby Castle, a member of the family which produced Bernard Gilpin, the apostle of the north. Gilpin was also a poet. The 2 ladies lodged together in Carlisle, and wrote poems in common, so that it is difficult in all cases to distinguish the authorship.

What little else is known about Blamire is gathered from her poems. "Stoklewath; or, The Cumbrian village," a poem which recalls Goldsmith's Deserted Village, gives a faithful picture of the surroundings of her ordinary life. A poetical "Epistle to Friends at Gartmore" describes the homely occupations of her days at Thackwood. In it she speaks of keen suffering from rheumatism, and her poems bear increasing signs that they were written in the intervals of bodily pain.

Her ailments gained upon her, and she died in Carlisle on 5 April 1794 in her 47th year.

Writing

Blamire was a true poet, and deserves more recognition than she has yet received. Her sphere is somewhat narrow, but everything that she has written is genuine and truthful. She has caught the peculiar humour of the Cumbrian folk with admirable truth, and depicts it faithfully so far as was consistent with her own refinement.

Blamire's works encapsulate perfectly the transition from the neoclassical poetry of the Augustan Age to the Major Romantics. She used Gothic allegories in Standard English and songs in Lowland Scots to express passionate emotions - her song "What ails this Heart o'Mine" being among the most heart-rending ever written. And like Wordsworth and Coleridge in their Lyrical Ballads of 1798, she wrote amusing vignettes about local people and scenes, though in Cumberland dialect.

As a songwriter she deserves to rank very high. She preferred to write songs in the Scottish dialect, and 3 at least of her songs are exquisite, "What ails this heart o' mine?", "And ye shall walk in silk attire," and "The Travelers Return." Another beautiful song, "The Waefu' Heart," is, with great probability, attributed to her.

Blamire did not write for fame, and fame was slow in coming to her. Her song, "The Traveller s Return," or "The Nabob" (as it was sometimes called), was printed with her name in various collections of Scottish songs. It fell into the hands of a gentleman in India, Patrick Maxwell, and fascinated him by its appropriateness to his own thoughts. When he returned to England he devoted himself to the discovery of Blamire's writings. In 1829 he found that Robert Anderson, the author of Cumberland Ballads, possessed a few of her poems in manuscript and a few materials for a memoir. He continued his search among the members of Blamire's family and the families of her friends.

Maxwell filled with like enthusiasm a medical student whom he met in Edinburgh, Dr. Lonsdale, a native of Carlisle. By their combined energy what remained of Blamire's manuscripts were gathered together, and such records of her life as still survived were collected. The fruit of their labors was at length published: The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire, "The Muse of Cumberland," now for the first time collected by Henry Lonsdale, M.D., with a preface, memoir, and notes by Patrick Maxwell, Edinburgh, 1842. To this collection a few additions have been made in The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland, edited by Sidney Gilpin, London, 1866.

Critical reputation

Peter Maxwell claimed that Blamire was "unquestionably the best female writer of her age". He attributed to her The Siller Croun. Charles Dickens in The Old Curiosity Shop (1841, end of chapter 66) had quoted its first 2 lines:

'Sir' said Dick [Swiveller], ... 'we'll make a scholar of the poor Marchioness yet! "And she shall walk in silk attire, and siller have to spare," or may I never rise from this bed again!'

Hugh MacDiarmid praised her in a radio broadcast in 1947, as "this sweet Cumbrian singer". He insisted that her Scottish songs are "the high-water mark of her achievement … so good that they can be set beside the best that have ever been produced by Scotsmen writing in their own tongue".

Jonathan Wordsworth, in 1994, dubbed her "The Poet of Friendship", predicting on BBC Radio Cumbria in 1998 that "Susanna will eventually be seen as important as the other Romantic poets writing during the eighteenth century, and should be more widely read". In The New Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry he likened Blamire's social position to that of Jane Austen:

‘the well-to-do maiden aunt’s life of good works and humorous observation'.

Columnist Paul Johnson in 2007 described Blamire in The Spectator as "that fine and underrated poetess."

Publications

Poetry

• Poetical Works (edited by Henry Lonsdale). Edinburgh : John Menzies / London: R. Tyas / Glasgow: D. Robertson / Carlisle, UK: C. Thurnam, 1842.
• Songs and Poems (with Catherine Gilpin; edited by Sidney Gilpin). London : Routledge, 1866.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• Poets from Cumbria
• List of British poets
• List of English-language songwriters

References

•  Creighton, Mandell (1886) "Blamire, Susanna" in Stephen, Leslie Dictionary of National Biography 5 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 191-192  . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 17, 2017.
• Christopher Hugh Maycock, A Passionate Poet: Susanna Blamire (1747-94) (Hypatia Publications 2003)

External links

Poems

• Song: "And ye shall walk in silk attire" in A Book of Women's Verse
• Susanna Blamire 1747-1794 at the Poetry Foundation
• Susanna Blamire (1747-1794) at English Poetry, 1579-1830 (profile & 5 poems)
• Susanna Blamire at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
• Susanna Blamire at PoemHunter (94 poems)
• Susanna Blamire at AllPoetry (96 poems)

Books

• Susanna Blamire at Amazon.com

About

• Susanna Blamire at the Orlando Project

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Blamire, Susanna