Paisley Poets

13/02/2024

Happy Valentine's day 💘💌💘

29/01/2024

Hi folks, Can yo name this famous Paisley landmarks

29/04/2022

Paisley poets new header

28/04/2022

Thou Bonnie Wood O' Craigielea

The words to this song were written by Robert Tannahill (1774-1810) from Paisley.
His songs have been described as "gentle, artless lyrics set to traditional music." In this song, the melody is by James Barr.

Thou Bonnie Wood O’ Craigielea

Chorus

Thou Bonnie Wood O' Craigielea,
Thou Bonnie Wood O' Craigielea,
Near thee I've spent life's early day,
And won my Mary's heart in thee.

The broom, the brier, the birken bush,
Bloom bonnie on thy flow'ry lea;
And a' the sweets that ane can wish,
Frae Natur's hand are strew'd on thee.

Chorus

Far ben thy dark green plantin's shade,
The cushat croodles am'rously;
The mavis down thy bughted glade,
Gar’s echo ring frae ev'ry tree.

Chorus

When winter blaws in sleety showr's
Frae aff the norlan' hills sae hie,
He lightly skiffs thy bonnie bow'rs,
As laith to harm a flow'r in thee.
Tho' fate should drag me south the line,
Or o'er the wide atlantic sea,
The happy hours I'll never mind,
That in youth ha'e spent in thee.

Chorus

23/09/2021

Halloween is fast approaching. The night when the veil between the living and the dead is at it's thinnest. Meet Paisleys dead and undead!

16/09/2021

About Tannahill & Macdonald
The Tannahill Macdonald Club was established in 1874 to keep the memories of Robert Tannahill and Hugh Macdonald evergreen

Robert Tannahill Poet
Robert Tannahill (June 3, 1774 – May 17, 1810) was a Scottish poet of laboring class origin. Known as the ‘Weaver Poet’, he wrote poetry in English and lyrics in Scots in the wake of Robert Burns,

14/07/2021

Paisley Poets Wee Hoose please post your favorite poem or song favoret poem or song,

03/06/2021

Robert Tannahill Born, 3rd June 1774, centenary of his birth,

30/05/2021

WILLIAM GLASSFORD.

was a native of Paisley, and was born in 1762. He lived in Well Street; where he had a shop for groceries. He died in 1822, aged 60 years.
Io 1808 he published a small collection of poems, extend­ing to sixteen pages, under the title of " Poems upon Engaging Subjects." These were-" A New Year's Gift to the Public," "On War: France, and Bonaparte,"" On the Good Soldier," " On the New Light." His rhyming is of the poorest description.
Mr.: Motherwell says of him, in the Paisley magazine " William was a dirty, daidlin', snuffy body, fond of a dram, and fond to dispose of his rhyme, which he hawked through the town. Of his penny and twopenny.
publications we have none save that one which is very fascinatingly entitled, 'Poems on Engaging Subjects.' William kept a small grocer's shop in Lonewells, Paisley at least his better half did so for him, for the poet scorned mechanical toils."
Mr. David Semple, in his " Poems and Songs of Tanna­hill," page 1 2 r, states that Mr. Glassford " was one of the minor rhymesters of Paisley, and frequently rested on the door-steps (either' laughing'' or 'greetin' fou '), opposite the house of Professor Wilson, author of 'The Isle of Palms.' Willie delighted in children, or children believed in Willie; and he would form them into a ring round him, and sing, or rather croon, what he called his ' sublime stanza,' the description of' oor ain toun ‘: -

' The bonnie toun o' Paisley,
It stan's upon a hill;
Dy it rins the River Cart,
And ca's the Seedhill Mill.'

"Willie, then, pointing oot over to Professor Wilson's house, said-' If I had been born in that big house, I would have been a gran' poet.'"

30/05/2021

PAISLEY POETS.

JAMES M'ALPIE, THE FIRST POET,

JAMES M'ALPIE, the first Poet belonging to Paisley of whom I have found any record, held the high position of sheriff clerk, and sometimes acted as sheriff-substitute of Renfrew­shire, at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. In the roll of the inhabitants of Paisley, taken in 1695, in connection with the poll tax, then to be raised, James McAlpine is designated" writer clerk to the of Paisley." The late William Motherwell, who was sheriff­ clerk depute in Paisley, published, in 1828, a small volume of James McAlpine’s poetry, the manuscript of which he found in a neglected bundle of old records in the sheriff-clerk's office at Paisley. Motherwell states: " They were written on loose scraps of paper, and, in some instances, on the back of drafts of official documents." The number of these pieces published by Mr. Motherwell is twenty-one. They are as follows :-" Inscription on the stone erected to the me­mory of James Algie and John Park; Song," What means this Presbyterian rage ; " " 0 yes, 0 yes, 0 yes, consider well ; " " Answer to scurrilous Valdes against the Magistrates and Schoolmaster of Paisley ; " Instead of rendering thanks to God ; " " A mournful sonnet be a Lover to his mistress ; " answer-" A letter from a Lover to his Mrs. ; " "Me seed some lines drop from pen ; " " I am obliged against my will ; " " Introduction against Popery ; " dialog betwixt Simson and Lovie ; " " Right Reverend Sir, ye are to blame;" Her Majesty's answer to the Scots young women's address;" Whoever ye are that wrote the letter " G:reat Good and Just, where is our lot now cast ; "
" To a Doctor; " " Acrostick ; " " Claud Alexander; " " On the Elders;" "Reproof and Advice to the Scots." It will be observed that James McAlpine is the author of the well-known inscription on the stone, now in the Martyrs ‘Church burying-ground, erected to Mr. Motherwell states that McAlpine’s poems are chiefly of a local or political nature. The allusions in the first are too obscure and insignificant to be now understood; and the interest of the other has faded with the memory of the events in which they originated. tie appears to have been a firm and consistent Jacobite. Some lines he has written possess considerable vigour; others are not devoid of humour, though, it must be confessed, they smack of a coarseness.

30/05/2021

30/05/2021

James Maxwell

In Paisley, at which a hundred gentlemen were present, that on the toast of the " Poets of Paisley " being proposed, ninety-nine stood up in response. Motherwell, himself one of the fraternity, has described Paisley as a " nest of singing birds."
My aim in this work has been to gather together the names of those who have distinguished themselves in Paisley by their contributions to poetic literature, to give brief biographical notices of them, and to exhibit a few select specimens of their poetical compositions.
I generally leave the reader to form his own opinion of the merits of the various pieces ; but it should always be kept steadily and prominently in view, that every word and line of these numerous effusions, depicting in musical language our Hills, Glens, Waterfalls, Linns, heathery braes, flowery dales, and warbling birds, or narrating the heroic deeds and achieve­ments of our people, the loves of their brave sons and beautiful daughters, their joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, triumphs and failures, and all their musings on this many-sided world of ours, have only been put into song after much reading, close observation, great thoughtfulness, and keen mental application.
The poets I have taken notice of in these pages were either natives of Paisley or residents in our town for some considerable time, who thereby became townsmen.
When I commenced, as a labour of love, the penning of these pages, I expected that my subject-matter would have been embraced in one volume of ordinary size; but the number of Paisley poets is so great-extending to upwards of 220-that justice to my subject has rendered a second volume a necessity.
I have only further to add that I am exceedingly grateful to all those who have responded so cordially to my requests for information regarding many of the doubtful points set forth in these volumes. It would be impossible to name all, and invidious to name a few.
To all lovers of verse, and all lovers of our good town, I commit these proofs of literary skill on the part of Paisley's Sons of Song.

30/05/2021

In Paisley, at which a hundred gentlemen were present, that on the toast of the " Poets of Paisley " being proposed, ninety-nine stood up in response. Motherwell, himself one of the fraternity, has described Paisley as a " nest of singing birds."
My aim in this work has been to gather together the names of those who have distinguished themselves in Paisley by their contributions to poetic literature, to give brief biographical notices of them, and to exhibit a few select specimens of their poetical compositions.
I generally leave the reader to form his own opinion of the merits of the various pieces ; but it should always be kept steadily and prominently in view, that every word and line of these numerous effusions, depicting in musical language our Hills, Glens, Waterfalls, Linns, heathery braes, flowery dales, and warbling birds, or narrating the heroic deeds and achieve­ments of our people, the loves of their brave sons and beautiful daughters, their joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, triumphs and failures, and all their musings on this many-sided world of ours, have only been put into song after much reading, close observation, great thoughtfulness, and keen mental application.
The poets I have taken notice of in these pages were either natives of Paisley or residents in our town for some considerable time, who thereby became townsmen.
When I commenced, as a labour of love, the penning of these pages, I expected that my subject-matter would have been embraced in one volume of ordinary size; but the number of Paisley poets is so great-extending to upwards of 220-that justice to my subject has rendered a second volume a necessity.
I have only further to add that I am exceedingly grateful to all those who have responded so cordially to my requests for information regarding many of the doubtful points set forth in these volumes. It would be impossible to name all, and invidious to name a few.
To all lovers of verse, and all lovers of our good town, I commit these proofs of literary skill on the part of Paisley's Sons of Song.

29/05/2021

JAMES MAXWELL.
JAMES MAXWELL," Poet in Paisley," as he invariably epresented himself in his many publications, was the most prolific and inveterate rhymester that Paisley, or, I believe, any other place, ever possessed. He was born at Auchenback, in the neighbourhood of Po***ck House, parish of Mearns, on 9th May, 17 20.
Among his many poetical pamphlets is an autobiography of himself, entitled, "A brief Narrative, or some remarks on the Life of James Maxwell, poet in Paisley, written by himself at the beginning of his entering the seventy-sixth year of his age. Paisley: printed by John Neilson, 1795." We learn from this doggerel rhyming autobiography that at the age of twenty he went to England with a hardware pack, but not being successful he learned the weaving trade, at which he remained twenty years.
But as trade became much depressed, he took a situation as clerk to a tradesman, and, when the latter gave up business, he received the appointment of usher to a school. In consequence of a relation dying in Jamaica, he came to Paisley, and his journey on foot was performed at the rate of 200 miles a week.
His wife, however, declined to ac­company him to Scotland, and went to London, where one of their sons was in business. Sometime afterwards she died there. When he reached Paisley, he found that all his relatives and acquaintances were dead, and he therefore went back to England. He shortly afterwards returned to Paisley, and "set up a school." But he did not long remain in this position, for he says- He remained in South Knapdale-for that was the name of the parish-four and a half year, but as the salary promised to him was not well paid, he returned to Paisley in 1782. In the following year trade. Was bad, and he was by poverty reduced to great distress. Mr. Maxwell says- He accidentally met on the street, Mr. Maxwell of Castlehead, who gave him five shillings to purchase pamphlets to sell them again, which he did successfully along with his own publications. Maxwell still further experienced the generous kindness of the Laird of Castlehead.

Mr. Motherwell of other published poems of Maxwell's, From the foregoing list of poetical effusions produced by James Maxwell, poet in Paisley, -an appellation by which he gloried in designating himself, His poem descriptive of Paisley and places adjacent, consisting of sixteen pages, is a very fair specimen of his poetical talents, and from it I give some extracts: -

" Of Paisley sing, my Muse, how richly blest!
Superior far to all the neighb'ring west,
Its situation fixt, by Heav'n's decree,
On easy rising ground, whence men may see
The neighb'ring country far and near around,
In temp'rate air and pleasant fertile ground.
The buildings various, fitted to each trade,
The spacious streets with good hard metal laid;

But should I tell how Paisley is increast
In fifty years, 'twould seem a flattering jest.
Few would believe in such a space of years
That multiplied by twenty it appears.
Here doth the source of brightest genius dwell;
For handycraft, no place can this excel;

26/12/2020

View of The Coats Memorial Church Form The River

22/08/2020