TYNESIDE POETS!

TYNESIDE POETS!

Tuesday 1 July 2014

THE POET WHO SUNG ON THE BANKS OF THE TYNE



Enter St John's Churchyard, near Newcastle Central railway station, and you will find towards the rear an inscribed monument which covers the grave of the pastoral poet John Cunningham (1729-1773).


St John's Churchyard was noted for its 'poets' corner'. Unfortunately, apart from John Cunningham their memorial stones are now missing. They include two contemporaries to Robert Gilchrist -  William Watson (1796 - 1840) whose many songs included 'Dance to the Daddy', and timber merchant and songwriter Thomas Thompson (1773-1816), who was a mentor to Robert. Gilchrist composed a sentimental eulogy to Thompson upon his death in 1816.

Gilchrist wrote a number of eulogies to Newcastle's poets and civic dignataries and a fine one to Cunningham was published in Robert's Poems of 1826. It reads: