Skipsey

JOSEPH SKIPSEY (1832 - 1903)

The collier poet was born in the Percy parish of Tynemouth, where his father was shot dead in a clash between pitmen and special constables. Skipsey himself worked in the pits from the age of seven; he had no schooling but taught himself to read and write. In 1852, he walked most of the way to London, found work on the railways, married his landlady, and returned north to work in Scotland, and later at Choppington and the Pembroke collieries near Sunderland.

In 1859 he published a volume of Poems in Morpeth, but this seems not to be extant. It attracted the attention of James Clephan, the editor of the Gateshead Observer, who obtained a job for him as under store-keeper at Hawks Crawshay and Son in Gateshead. In 1863, after a fatal accident to one of his children in the works, he moved to Newcastle, where Robert Spence Watson (q.v.) secured him a job as assistant librarian to the Literary and Philosophical Society. The work did not suit him, however, and the pay was none too good. He returned to work in the mines until 1882. Skipsey became part of Spence Watson's wide circle of acquaintance; his table talk is said to have been trenchant and to the point. In 1883, he delivered a lecture 'The Poet as Seer and Singer' to the Newcastle Lit and Phil and subsequently published a number of books, including Carols from the Coalfields (1886) drawing praise from Rossetti and Oscar Wilde, who likened the poems to those of William Blake. Rossetti met Skipsey, apparently brought to London by Thomas Dixon (q.v.) and records: 'I found him a stalwart son of toil, and every inch a gentleman. In cast of face, he recalls Tennyson somewhat, though more bronzed and browned. He is as sweet and gentle as a woman in manner, and recited some beautiful things of his own with a special freshness to which one is quite unaccustomed.'

In 1889 Skipsey was appointed custodian of Shakespeare's birthplace at Stratford. on the recommendation of Burne-Jones, Tennyson, Rossetti, Bram Stoker and other eminent men. He resigned two years later, and the episode prompted Henry James to write his story 'The Birthplace'. Skipsey returned north and died at Harraton in 1903.

Basil Bunting (q.v.) contributed an interesting preface to the Ceolfrith Press edition of Skipsey's selected poems, and in comparing the poet with Burns, makes the telling point that Burns saw Ayr and Dumfries vividly, but from outside. Skipsey was so much inside the pit village, he hardly notices Cowpen or Percy Main at all. Dignified and austere as a man, Skipsey could be windy and rhetorical as a writer. 'The Hartley calamity', a tribute to the miners who died in the 1862 disaster, is both heartfelt and clumsy. He is at his best when describing his own experience as a pitman. Rossetti called him 'Joseph Skipsey, the Northern Collier Poet, a man of real genius.' This poem Rossetti considered the equal of anything in the language for quietly direct pathos.

    'Get up!' the caller calls, 'Get up!'
And in the dead of night,
    To win the bairns their bite and sup,
I rise a weary wight.
    My flannel duddon donn'd, thrice o'er
My birds are kiss'd, and then
    I with a whistle shut the door
I may not ope again.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
JOSEPH SKIPSEY (1832 - 1903) The collier poet was born in the Percy parish of Tynemouth, where his father was shot dead in a clash between pitmen and special constables. Skipsey himself worked in the pits from the age of seven; he had no schooling but taught himself to read and write. In 1852, he walked most of the way to London, found work on the railways, married his landlady, and returned north to work in Scotland, and later at Choppington and the Pembroke collieries near Sunderland. In 1859 he published a volume of Poems in Morpeth, but this seems not to be extant. It attracted the attention of James Clephan, the editor of the Gateshead Observer, who obtained a job for him as under store-keeper at Hawks Crawshay and Son in Gateshead. In 1863, after a fatal accident to one of his children in the works, he moved to Newcastle, where Robert Spence Watson (q.v.) secured him a job as assistant librarian to the Literary and Philosophical Society. The work did not suit him, however, and the pay was none too good. He returned to work in the mines until 1882. Skipsey became part of Spence Watson's wide circle of acquaintance; his table talk is said to have been trenchant and to the point. In 1883, he delivered a lecture 'The Poet as Seer and Singer' to the Newcastle Lit and Phil and subsequently published a number of books, including Carols from the Coalfields (1886) drawing praise from Rossetti and Oscar Wilde, who likened the poems to those of William Blake. Rossetti met Skipsey, apparently brought to London by Thomas Dixon (q.v.) and records: 'I found him a stalwart son of toil, and every inch a gentleman. In cast of face, he recalls Tennyson somewhat, though more bronzed and browned. He is as sweet and gentle as a woman in manner, and recited some beautiful things of his own with a special freshness to which one is quite unaccustomed.' In 1889 Skipsey was appointed custodian of Shakespeare's birthplace at Stratford. on the recommendation of Burne-Jones, Tennyson, Rossetti, Bram Stoker and other eminent men. He resigned two years later, and the episode prompted Henry James to write his story 'The Birthplace'. Skipsey returned north and died at Harraton in 1903. Basil Bunting (q.v.) contributed an interesting preface to the Ceolfrith Press edition of Skipsey's selected poems, and in comparing the poet with Burns, makes the telling point that Burns saw Ayr and Dumfries vividly, but from outside. Skipsey was so much inside the pit village, he hardly notices Cowpen or Percy Main at all. Dignified and austere as a man, Skipsey could be windy and rhetorical as a writer. 'The Hartley calamity', a tribute to the miners who died in the 1862 disaster, is both heartfelt and clumsy. He is at his best when describing his own experience as a pitman. Rossetti called him 'Joseph Skipsey, the Northern Collier Poet, a man of real genius.' This poem Rossetti considered the equal of anything in the language for quietly direct pathos. 'Get up!' the caller calls, 'Get up!' And in the dead of night, To win the bairns their bite and sup, I rise a weary wight. My flannel duddon donn'd, thrice o'er My birds are kiss'd, and then I with a whistle shut the door I may not ope again.
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