Joseph Skipsey
Who is Joseph Skipsey
Joseph Skipsey (17 March 1832 – 3 September 1903) was a Northumbrian poet during the Victorian period and one of a number of literary coal miners to be known as 'The Pitman Poet'. Among his best known works is the ballad "The Hartley Calamity", which imagined the last hours of several of those trapped underground during the Hartley Colliery Disaster of January 1862. This devastating mining accident killed a total of 204 men and boys and remains England's most catastrophic pit disaster.
Birth and early life
Joseph Skipsey was born in Percy Village (generally known after the name of the colliery Percy Main), in the Parish of Tynemouth on 17 March 1832. He was the eighth and final child of Cuthbert, an overman at Percy Main Colliery, and Isabella Skipsey.
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Joseph Skipsey Poems
- Uncle Bob
OLD Uncle Bob lay on the settle,
At eventide, while on the hob,
'Roe-tee-riti-too' sang the kettle,
And charmed the dear heart of old Bob.
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- My Loved One
MY loved one appears
In a vision by night,
The loveliest jewel
Ever gladdened the sight;
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- The Two-fold Suprise
SHE snapt her fingers, on her heel,
Her sweet boot-heel, she turned and left me;
What did I feel?â??What could I feel,
At what of paradise had reft me?
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- The Social Glass
AIRâ??'Rossen the Beau.'
COME fill up the glass, and tho' never
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- All Is Vanity
FROM all that I have seen or heard
This world, is but an empty show,
And only can the heart afford
What tends to bitter strife and woe;
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Joseph Skipsey Quotes
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Comments about Joseph Skipsey
- Nathanfrancis__: poems:
- Anniemcclanahan: 1892, coal-miner poet joseph skipsey
- Nlandlibs: “s” is for joseph skipsey, known as the pitman poet. this biography published in 1909 is by his longtime friend, robert spence watson. available to reserve from
- Workingclasslit: if you want a taster of what gordon's book will be like, check out our podcast episode in which we talk to him about the life and work of northumbrian poet and miner, joseph skipsey
- Lewistynemouth: reading danny lawrence’s comprehensive history of north shields.
didn’t know ‘the pineapple’ not only stood in 1832, but was scene of police shooting of cuthbert skipsey - north shields miner on strike, and father of poet joseph skipsey.
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