Francis Ledwidge

Francis Ledwidge (19 August 1887 - 31 July 1917) was an Irish poet from County Meath, sometimes known as the "poet of the blackbirds", killed in action during World War I.

Early life

Ledwidge was born at Janeville, Slane in Ireland, the eighth of nine children, a large and poverty-stricken family. His parents, Patrick Ledwidge (the Ledwidge name comes from an English village in Shropshire, Ledwyche, former residence of the Anglo-Norman family that was granted land in Meath after the Norman invasion) and wife Anne Lynch (1853-1926), believed in giving their children the best education they could afford, but when Francis was only five his father Patrick died prematurely, which forced his wife and the children out to work at an early age. Francis left the local national school aged thirteen, and while he continued to self-educate himself, he worked at what work he could find, as farm hand, road mender and supervisor of roads, as copper miner (sacked for organising a strike having been a trade union activist since 1906) and shop assistant. Appointed secretary of the Slane branch of the Meath Labour Union (1913-14) he had aspirations of permanent white-collar work [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, (2004), vl. 33, p.45 ] .

Young poet

Strongly built, with striking brown eyes and a sensuous face, Ledwidge was a keen poet writing where ever he could even on gate posts. From the age of fourteen his works were published in his local newspaper, the ‘’Drogheda Independent’’ reflecting his passion for the Boyne Valley. While working as a road labourer he won the patronage of the writer, Lord Dunsany, after he wrote to him in 1912, enclosing copybooks of his early work. Dunsany, a man of letters already well-known in Dublin and London literary and dramatic circles, and whose own start in publishing had been with a few poems, promoted him in Dublin and introduced him to W.B. Yeats with whom he became acquainted.

Dunsany supported Ledwidge with money and literary advise for some years, providing him with access to and a workspace in Dunsany Castle's Library where he met the Irish writer Katharine Tynan, corresponding with her regularly [A Dictionary of Irish History since 1800, D. J. Hickey & J. E. Doherty, Gill & MacMillan (1980)] . Dunsany later prepared his first collection of poetry "Songs of the Fields", which successfully appealed to the expectations of the Irish Literary Revival and its social taste for rural Irish poetry.

Home Rule and WWI

Ledwidge was a keen patriot and nationalist. His effort to found a branch of the Gaelic League in Slane were thwarted, by members of the local council. The area organiser encouraged him to continue his struggle, however Francis gave up. He did manage to act as a founding member with his brother Joseph of the Slane Branch of the Irish Volunteers (1914), a nationalist force sworn to defend the introduction of Home Rule for Ireland, by force if need be.

On the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the Irish Volunteers split into two factions, the National Volunteers who supported John Redmond’s appeal to support the Allied war cause and those who did not. Francis was originally of the latter party, however, having defended this position strongly at a local authority meeting, he enlisted (24 October 1914) in Lord Dunsany’s regiment, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 5th battalion of the 10th (Irish) Division but against the urgings of Dunsany who opposed his enlistment and had offered him a stipend to support him if he stayed away from the war. Some have speculated that he went to war because his sweetheart Ellie Vaughey had found a new lover, John O'Neill, whom she later married, but Ledwidge himself wrote, and forcefully, that he could not stand aside while others sought to defend Ireland's freedom.

Poetry and war

Ledwidge seems to have fitted into Army life well, and rapidly achieved promotion to lance corporal. In 1915, he saw action at Suvla Bay in the Dardanelles, where he suffered severe rheumatism. Having survived huge losses sustained by his company in the Battle of Gallipoli, he became ill after a back injury on a tough mountain journey in Serbia (December 1915), a locale which inspired a number of poems.

Ledwidge was dismayed by the news of the Easter Rising, and was court-martialled and demoted for overstaying his home leave and being drunk in uniform (May 1916). He gained and lost stripes over a period in Derry (he was a corporal when the introduction to his first book was written), and then, returned to the front, received back his lance corporal's stripe one last time in January 1917 when posted to the Western Front.

Ledwidge continued to write when feasible throughout the war years, though he lost much work, for example, in atrocious weather in Serbia. He sent much of his output to Lord Dunsany, himself moving on war assignments, as well as to readers among family, friends and literary contacts.

On 31 July 1917, a group from Ledwidge's battalion of the Royal Inniskillen Fusiliers were road-laying in preparation for an assault during the Third Battle of Ypres , near the village of Boezinghe, northwest of Ieper (Ypres). While Ledwidge was drinking tea in a mud hole with his comrades, a random shell exploded alongside, killing the poet and five others. A chaplain who knew him, Father Devas, arrived soon after, and recorded "Ledwidge killed, blown to bits."

The poems Ledwidge wrote on active service revealed his pride at being a soldier, as he believed, in the service of Ireland. He wondered whether he would find a soldier's death. The dead were buried at Carrefour de Rose, and later re-interred in the nearby Artillery Wood Military Cemetery, Boezinghe. A stone tablet commemorates him in the Island of Ireland Peace Park, Messines, Belgium. His work as “peasant poet” and “soldier poet”, once a standard part of Irish school’s curriculum, faded from view for many decades of the 20th century. Its intensity coupled with a revived interest in his period, has restored it to life again.

Publications and reception

Much of Ledwidge's work was published in newspapers and journals in Ireland and the UK. The only work published in book form during Ledwidge's lifetime was the original "Songs of the Fields" (1915), which was very well received. The critic Edward Marsh printed three of the poems in the "Georgian Poetry" series, and remained a correspondent for the remainder of Ledwidge's life. A second volume, "Songs of Peace" was in preparation when Ledwidge died; patron and friend Lord Dunsany wrote the introduction while both were in Derry in September 1916.

Following the war, Dunsany arranged for more of Ledwidge's work to be published, first in a third and final new volume, "Last Songs", and then later in an anthology in 1919; he commented on the work with words such as:

" [I was] "astonished by the brilliance of that eye and that had looked at the fields of Meath and seen there all the simple birds and flowers, with a vividness which made those pages like a magnifying glass, through which one looked at familiar things for the first time."

*Later collections:
*Alice Curtayne: ‘’The complete poems of Francis Ledwidge’’ (1974) who also wrote a comprehensive biography of the poet, including some previously unpublished work
*Liam O'Meara: ‘’The poems of Francis Ledwidge’’ (1997), (ISBN 1 870 49147 5), including some previously unpublished work
*Ulrich O’Connor: ‘’The best of Francis Ledwidge’’, The Inchicore Ledwidge Society, Risposte Books (2004), ISBN 1 901 59610 9
*Hubert Dunn:‘’The Minstrel Boy’’, (2006) some more poems released in a commemorative volume
*Dermot Bolger: A new volume by long-time Ledwidge admirer, Dublin poet Dermot Bolger, "A Ledwidge Treasury", is due for release in July 2007, following newspaper writings, an exhibition (travelling May - August 2007, in Ireland and Belgium) and a short play by Mr. Bolger inspired by Ledwidge's death.

Works

*"Songs of the Fields" (1915)
*"Songs of Peace" (1917)
*"Last Songs" (1918)

Quotes

cquote|Oh what a pleasant world 'twould be, How easy we'd step thro' it, If all the fools who meant no harm, Could manage not to do it!

He shall not hear the bittern cry in the wild sky, where he is lain, Nor voices of the sweeter birds Above the wailing of the rain Nor shall he know when the loud March blows Thro' slanting snows her fanfare shrill, Blowing to flame the golden cup Of many an upset daffodil.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Lament for Thomas MacDonagh

Trivia

* Ledwidge was the subject of an RTÉ documentary entitled "Behind the Closed Eye", first broadcast on January 18, 1973. It won awards for Best Story and Best Implementation Documentary at the Golden Prague International Television Festival. [Bruce, Jim, "Faithful Servant: A Memoir of Brian Cleeve" Lulu, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84753-064-6, (p.185)]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.francisledwidge.com/ FrancisLedwidge.com]
*Fermanagh Herald, 31 Jan 2007, Books, Michael Breslin