John Harris was a Cornish

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 poet.

Harris was born and raised in a two-bedroom cottage on the slopes of Bolenowe

Bolenowe

Bolenowe is a village in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is approximately one-and-a-half miles southeast of Camborne. It consists of cottages that are spread apart by large gardens, the only amenities are a post box and a red phone box that has now been decommissioned.-Notable residents:It is...

 Carn, a small village near Camborne

Camborne

Camborne is a town and civil parish in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is at the western edge of a conurbation comprising Camborne, Pool and Redruth....

, Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. At age twelve, he was sent to work at Dolcoath mine

Dolcoath mine

Dolcoath mine was a copper and tin mine in Camborne, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. Its name derives from the Cornish for 'Old Ground', and it was also affectionately known as The Queen of Cornish Mines. The site is north-west of Carn Brea. Dolcoath Road runs between the A3047 road and Chapel Hill...

 where he combined a life of painful labour with the production of poetry celebrating his native landscape around Carn Brea

Carn Brea

Carn Brea is a civil parish and hilltop site in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The hilltop site is situated approximately one mile southwest of Redruth.-Neolithic settlement:...

 and the scenic splendours of Land's End

Land's End

Land's End is a headland and small settlement in west Cornwall, England, within the United Kingdom. It is located on the Penwith peninsula approximately eight miles west-southwest of Penzance....

 and the Lizard

The Lizard

The Lizard is a peninsula in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The most southerly point of the British mainland is near Lizard Point at ....

. He could not afford pen and paper, so instead he improvised and used blackberry juice for ink and grocery bags for paper.

In the 1840s, he married Jane Rule, with whom he had four children: two sons and two daughters. When his second-born daughter, Lucretia, died during Christmas 1855, he produced a moving eulogy

Eulogy

A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. However, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...

. After this a friend found him a more congenial occupation as a Bible-reader or travelling comforter at Falmouth

Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....

, where he spent the second half of his life. During this period he produced his most important work, the loco-descriptive

Topographical poetry

Topographical poetry or loco-descriptive poetry is a genre of poetry that describes, and often praises, a landscape or place. John Denham's 1642 poem "Cooper's Hill" established the genre, which peaked in popularity in 18th-century England with the poetry of William Wordsworth...

 poem A Story of Carn Brea (1863). He died in 1884 having requested that he should be buried at Treslothan Chapel, near the village of Troon

Troon, Cornwall

Troon is a village in west Cornwall, England, UK near Camborne at .There were once important copper and tin mines near Troon, including the Grenville Mines. Wheal Grenville began to be worked in the 1820s though not productive until the 1850s, at which time the South and East mines were worked...

.

There has been some revival of interest in his work, and recently, the book The Cornish Poet was brought out by the John Harris Society, containing his collected works.

Sources

• Newman, Paul (1994) The Meads of Love: the Life & Poetry of John Harris 1820-1884. Redruth: Dyllansow Truran

External links

• John Harris: A Story of Carn Brea
• John Harris: 'The Cornish Chough'
• Brycchan Carey's Cornish Poetry Pages
• Troon, Cornwall
• The Land's End, Kynance Cove, and other poems, By John Harris
• ODNBarticle by Megan A. Stephan, ‘Harris, John (1820–1884)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12403, accessed 14 Sept 2007