Moore Biography

— The Corvey Poets Project at the University of Nebraska —

British Poetry of the later Eighteenth and Earlier Nineteenth Centuries

Bibliographical and Contextual Apparatus

Moore, Thomas.

Odes Upon Cash, Corn, Catholics and Other Matters. Selected from the Columns of the Times Journal. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Pasternoster-Row, 1828. Pp. 183.

Biographical Information

At the height of his poetic career, Thomas Moore enjoyed literary success and respect akin to his contemporaries Lord Byron and Shelley. A poet of wide-ranging capability, his writings often caused him considerable controversy and scandal. His poetic contributions are still considered important enough that he remains, to this day, Ireland's National Poet.

Thomas Moore was born on May 28, 1779 in Dublin, Ireland. At the time of Moore's birth, Ireland was poor and oppressed. The population was comprised mainly of Catholic farmers who were ruled by a minority of Protestant Anglo-Irish city-dwellers. In the late eighteenth century, Catholics had no right to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries, to educate their children, to engage in most professions or to bear. In fact, Moore's birth was not officially recorded because he came from a Catholic family. At this time, Catholics were not allowed to officially record the births of their children. Instead, his mother privately had a small medal medallion cast to mark the date. Having been born into a culture of oppression is often cited as the direct cause for the biting, political nature of Moore's poetic works.

Moore's upbringing was very poor but very content. At the age of 5, he was able to enroll in a reputable school known as The Classical English School where he earned excellent grades. Two years later, provisions against educating Catholic children were slightly eased and at the age of 7, Moore's parents removed him from the English School and put him into the newly eligible and widely sought after, Trinity Prep College. At Trinity Prep College, Moore excelled at almost all subjects. He quickly picked up Greek, Latin, French and Italian. It was also at Trinity College that he encountered his first "real" poet. This poet was teacher Samuel Whyte who dabbled in music, theater and poetry. Moore's parents familiarized him with each of these arts but Whyte swayed him specifically toward literature and at 14, he published his first verses in a new publication, Anthologia Hibernica. Even at this early age, he was well received.

Moore continued school on through college and tried without success to get a scholarship to Trinity College because of his Catholicism. After continued attempts Moore was finally accepted (without scholarships) and in 1795 entered Trinity College. He did not work very hard at his prescribed curriculum because of various distractions, two of which included a personal project of translating Greek verse into English (which would later become Anacreon) the meeting of two politically active friends, Robert Emmet and Edward Hudson. These two friends were active in a group known as the United Irishmen, and Moore, though never deeply involved because of the wishes of these two friends, became regularly fired up at the prospect of speaking out against oppression.

In 1799, Moore, finished his college education and took his first trip outside of Ireland to London. He entertained the idea of studying law, but did not seriously pursue it. Most of his time in London was spent making useful friends and continuing his translation of Anacreon. It was during this period that Moore began to establish his friendship with Lord Byron, who would soon consider him one of the most important upcoming poets of the English language. He was also one of the few people who admitted having admiration for the work of Shelley. Thomas Moore's Odes to Anacreon was published in 1800 and was very well received. This publication opened the way for more serious publication opportunity and allowed Moore to come into contact with people of considerable influence.

Moore continued to write and earned more notoriety. At one point, his connection with a group known as the Irish Ordinance Board, a committee concerned with the cultural and theatrical life in Dublin, tried to create an Irish Poet Laureate title explicitly for honoring Moore. Moore declined on the basis that he would have to tone down his increasingly political poetry. He also saw the implicit silliness of the matter, as he was only 24 years old. Instead of taking this title, he was able to garnish some important government posts which gave him financial support in the way of a registrar position in Bermuda. Since there were no direct routes to Bermuda, Moore had to go by way of the United States. He grew quite bored with this post after several months and handed the position over to a deputy in a move that would come back to haunt him. Several years later, that same deputy defaulted on a debt of £6000. Since he was the deputy of Moore, Moore was responsible for paying. In order to avoid arrest, Moore fled to Switzerland and Italy.

In 1817, Moore published Lalla Rookh with unheard of success. He received a record amount of £3000 for the work and it was translated into almost every known language. It is said that his popularity surpassed that of Lord Byron by a considerable amount.

Although Moore was being paid extremely well for his works, the Bermuda problem kept him from maintaining any real wealth. During this time, he was exiled until he could come up with the appropriate funds. Moore continued to rely on the kindness of friends and readers to support him and now had to depend on writing for his survival.

Thomas Moore continued to write and live in London after his debts were paid. London would also be the place where Thomas Moore would degenerate into senility, which would prove to be his final undoing. His last work was the multi-volume collection History of Ireland. On February 25, 1854, Thomas Moore lapsed into total dementia and died.

During the course of his life Moore created a large body of work. He displayed much versatility as a poet and his writings range from lyric to satire, from prose romance to history and biography. His politics were inseparable from the work that he produced and because of this he was often in the midst of controversy and scandal.

Sources

DeFord, Miriam Allen. Thomas Moore. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1967.
Jones, Howard Mumford. The Harp that Once-. New York: Henry Holt. 1937.
Jordan, Hoover H. Bolt Upright: The Life of Thomas Moore. 2 vols. Austria: Universtat Salzburg. 1975.
Moore, Thomas. Odes Upon Cash, Corn, Catholics and Other Matters. London: Longman. 1828.
Moore, Thomas. The Journal of Thomas Moore 1818-1841. Ed. Peter Quennell. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd., 1964.