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William Allingham [1824-1889] IRL
Ranked #294 in the top 380 poets

Poet, diarist and editor. He wrote several volumes of lyric verse.

When he was thirteen years old became a clerk in the bank where his father worked as the  manager, he worked there for about six years, during that time, he used the words and images of poetry for the satisfaction of his soul.He loved poetry from an early age and we are told he would wander about Ballyshannon in the evening, listening to the girls singing old ballads at their cottage doors. He transcribed these ballads, and changed them to his liking and then had them printed in broadsheet form to sell in the locality.

When William was nineteen he became a Customs officer, and he was stationed at different places in Northern Ireland from then until he was thirty nine years old. Shortly after he obtained his appointment with the Customs he made his first trip to London and from then on he visted  regularly, contributing frequently to that city`s periodicals. There he made the personal acquaintance of Leigh Hunt, who treated the young writer with great kindness and he was also befriended by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

In 1850, William Allingham published his first volume of "Poems." It was followed by "Day and Night Songs" (1854) and by various other volumes including "Laurence Bloomfield in Ireland," a long poem which was regarded by Allingham himself as his most important work.

In 1863, he transferred from Ballyshannon to the Customs at Lymington, near Southhampton, England. The following year he was awarded a Civil List pension of £60 by the Government for his services to literature, and this was increased to £100 when he retired from the Civil Service in 1870.

William moved to London when he retired from the Civil Service, to become sub-editor of "Fraser`s Magazine" under J. A. Froude, whom he succeeded as editor in 1874.  

He published a further 6 volumes before his death in 1889.

William Allingham loved poetry, he loved Ireland and particularly his native Donegal. He used his words so well to convey his feelings and to give us images of Ireland and the lives of people. We have the fun and magic of `The Fairies`; a sense of pathos in `The Eviction`; satire in `Lord Crashton, the Absentee Landlord`; images and other emotions in poems such as `Adieu to Belshanny` and `Abbey Assaroe`. Reading William Allingham`s poetry we can see and feel the pictures as he paints them. He was a crafstman and an Irish poet to be remembered.

Victorian

YearsCountryPoetInteraction
1828-1882
ENG
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
→ illustrated William Allingham
1865-1939
IRL
William Butler Yeats
← influenced by William Allingham


WorkLangRating
Four Ducks On A Pond
eng
11
A Dream
eng
5
The Fairies
eng
2
A Gravestone
eng
1
A Memory
eng
1
A Seed
eng
1
Abbey Assaroe
eng
1
The Ruined Chapel
eng
1
A Day-Dream`s Reflection
eng
0
A Singer
eng
0
Adieu To Belshanny
eng
0
Aeolian Harp
eng
0
After Sunset
eng
0
Amy Margaret`s Five Year Old
eng
0
An Evening
eng
0
Autumnal Sonnet
eng
0
Daffodil
eng
0
Down On The Shore
eng
0
Half-waking
eng
0
In A Spring Grove
eng
0
In Snow
eng
0
Kate O`Belashanny
eng
0
Late Autumn
eng
0
Let Me Sing Of What I Know
eng
0
Lovely Mary Donnelly
eng
0
Meadowsweet
eng
0
On A Forenoon Of Spring
eng
0
Places And Men
eng
0
Robin Redbreast
eng
0
Song
eng
0
St. Margaret`s Eve
eng
0
The Abbot Of Innisfallen
eng
0
The Boy
eng
0
The Bubble
eng
0
The Dirty Old Man
eng
0
The Elf Singing
eng
0
The Eviction
eng
0
The Girl`s Lamentation
eng
0
The Lepracaun Or Fairy Shoemaker
eng
0
The Little Dell
eng
0
The Lover And Birds
eng
0
The Maids Of Elfin-Mere
eng
0
The Nobleman`s Wedding
eng
0
The Touchstone
eng
0
The Winding Banks Of Erne
eng
0
The Winter Pear
eng
0
These Little Songs
eng
0
To The Author Of `Hesperides
eng
0
Wayside Flowers
eng
0
Wishing
eng
0
Writing
eng
0

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