“What a bold, expansive gathering of John Harris’s poetry this collection is. Many know Harris’s work for its dramatic depictions of the tin and copper mines, but we’re given so much more here and for me the real treasure is in the intimate observations of life: watching the grief of a widow at prayer, or the poet reading a draft of a new poem to his wife, who pauses her evening work to listen. A terrific and thorough celebration of an often overlooked poet.” – Luke Thompson
The Trick of the Bard is the first extensive selection of John Harris’s poetry to be published since the late nineteenth century. John Harris (1820-1884), known as ‘The Cornish Poet’, is an overlooked figure in nineteenth century Cornish Literature. He was by turns a miner and a preacher who faced poverty so extreme he was reduced to composing poetry by scratching onto his own nails and using blackberry juice for ink. Harris’s writing is the product of one man’s creative triumph over adversity. His commitment to poetry led to him being the first labouring-class man to win the Shakespeare Tercentenary Prize in 1863.
Charles Causley describes Harris as capturing “with marvellous economy, the explosive charge contained in the sudden moment of revelation.”
This is startlingly evident in this extensive selection of poems that cover topics as diverse as mining, the Cornish landscape and the power and beauty of the natural world. Harris’s poems are informed by a religious zeal, musical ear and energy that propels the reader to points of enlightenment — whether it be the countryman’s wisdom about the natural world or the life-threatening peril of a life spent underground.
John Harris was born in Bolenowe, near Camborne, Cornwall, in 1820, the eldest of nine children. He came from a background of extreme poverty and from the age of ten was employed at the Dolcoath mine until 1857 when he was appointed a scripture reader at Falmouth. In 1879 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In all, he wrote fifteen books of poetry and died in 1884. He is buried at Treslothan Chapel, near the village of Troon.
Duncan Yeates is an academic, researcher and poet based in Cornwall. He has completed a doctorate on John Harris and is also a poet in his own right, featuring in Wave Hub: New Poetry from Cornwall (Francis Boutle, 2014). He publishes his own limited-edition pamphlets called Lallocropia and his work has also appeared in the journal of the short poem, Noon, edited by Phillip Rowland.
Limited edition of 200 copies, of which 100 are numbered. Numbered copies will be allocated on a first come basis.
