Alexander Smith
Alexander Smith- A Famous Scottish Poet
Alexander Smith (1830-1867) On December 31st, 1830, Alexander Smith was born in a thatched house in Kilmarnock, near Glasgow, Scotland. He was the son of John Smith, a lace-designer, and Christina Murray Smith. Alexander Smith's mother was a highlander who spent much time entertaining her son with Gaelic songs and legends. John Smith had a number of children and, with a modest income, they could not afford to send Alexander to college. Instead he was sent to work in a linen factory, in nearby Glasgow, to train as a pattern designer.
Lack of education did not deter Smith from writing and he had his early poems published in the Glasgow Citizen. The editor, James Hedderwick, became an appreciative and encouraging friend of Alexander. His early poetry was well received and in 1853 he published "A Life Drama and other Poems" which proved very successful running several editions.
In 1854 Alexander Smith was appointed secretary to Edinburgh University and was, by then a leading representative of a group of poets referred to as the "Spasmodic" School of Poetry. The term "Spasmodic" was used disdainfully by contemporary reviewers to describe a group of artists which included; the Scottish author George Gilfillan , the English poet, and author of Festus, Philip James Bailey, John Stanyan Bigg , Gerald Massey, the self-taught Egyptologist and poet, and the poet and critic Sydney Thompson Dobell.
William Edmonstoune Aytoun satirised Smith, P. J. Bailey and Sydney Dobell and the group in his "Firmilian: a Spasmodic Tragedy"(1854) and it is often credited the very sudden fall from fashion of the verse of the Spasmodic school. The publication certainly made fun of the school and it is said that it caused it to be "laughed down as bombast".
1854 must have been an eventful year for Smith, the rise of the popularity of his poetry, his appointment at Edinburgh University and then the rather abrupt end of the "Spasmodic" School's popularity at the hands of Aytoun. It was also in this year that Sydney Thompson Dobell moved to Edinburgh and the two became very close friends. Dobell was highly political and eager for reform and the the Crimean War inspired the two poets to collaborate on a book of War Sonnets which was published in 1855.
In 1857 Smith published "City Poems" and in 1861 he published a Northumbrian epic poem titled "Edwin of Deira". Smith then turned his attention, from poetry, to prose, and in 1863, he published the novel "Dreamthorp: Essays written in the Country". During the summer of 1864 Smith spent much of his time on the Isle of Skye and in 1865 he published, what was to become his most successful work, "A Summer in Skye" in which he recounted his travels on Skye.
Alexander Smith wrote two further novels, "Miss Dona M'Quarrie" and, his final work, an experiment in fiction entitled "Alfred Hagart's Household" (published in 1866.
On the 5th of January, 1867, Alexander Smith died in Wardie, near Edinburgh.
Read the Poems of Alexander Smith in our Scottish Poetry section
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