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.
Prepared by Seth Pearsoll, University of Nebraska, December 2004.
© Seth Pearsoll, 2004