‘Gooin t’ Schoo’: the subject of adult education in dialect poetry from the Lancashire cotton famine 1861-65

Abstract

‘The Beddin’s Goan’, published in the Blackburn Times in November 1862 by W. A. Abram, begins with the lines ‘EH! Robbut! th’ lan’lord’s bin tu-day, / Whol tha wor deawn at th’class’, encapsulating the links between unemployment, poverty and education which became apparent to thousands of industrial workers during the Lancashire Cotton Famine. Taking poems from the Cotton Famine poetry database I developed at the University of Exeter, this article considers how adult education and cultures of literacy are addressed in dialect poetry during the crisis. It finds that, in contrast to standard English poetry on the subject, dialect poetry displays inherent irony in its linguistic tensions, and is often more explicitly class conscious and socially resistant. Aspects of double address allow for a more complex commentary on programmes of social improvement, as do the greater variety of poetic voices. Despite the existence of vibrant literary salons and communities in towns such as Blackburn, it is important to recognise the multiplicity of style, diction, orthography, modes of address, subject matter and author profiles attendant on Cotton Famine poetry written in dialect. Dialect poems such as ‘Eawr Factory Skoo’ by Elijah Moss, ‘Lines Read before the Members of the Stalybridge Mechanics Institution’ and ‘Sewin Class Song’ by Samuel Laycock, and ‘Gooin t’ Schoo’ by Joseph Ramsbottom address advances in education and literacy precipitated by measures to counter social degradation during the crisis. For comparison, standard English contemporary poems on the subject of adult education and self-improvement including ‘Free Readings for the People’ (‘Sylvanus’), and ‘About the Fire’ (Anon) will also be discussed.