William Barnes

Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect (Dodo Press) William Barnes

Reverend William Barnes (1801-1886) was an English writer, poet, minister, and philologist. He wrote over 800 poems, some in Dorset dialect and much other work including a comprehensive English grammar quoting from more than 70 different languages. He first contributed the Dorset dialect poems for which he is best known to periodicals, including MacMillan?s Magazine. A collection in book form, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, was published in 1844. A second collection Hwomely Rhymes followed in 1858, and a third collection in 1863, a combined edition appeared in 1879. A ?translation?, Poems of Rural Life in Common English had already appeared in 1868. His philological works include: Se Gefylsta: An Anglo-Saxon Delectus (1849), Philological Grammar (1854), Tiw; or, A View of Roots and Stems of English as a Teutonic Tongue (1862), and a Glossary of Dorset Dialect (1863). Among his other writings is a slim volume A Few Words on the Advantages of a More Common Adoption of the Mathematics as a Branch of Education, published in 1834.