Of Poets and Ballads

In R. M. Ballantyne's literary life, poetry played a large role. As most readers know, the epitaph "Ballantyne the Brave" comes from a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, found on the front page of his classic Treasure Island. Josh has posted this poem before, but if you have not yet read it, please do.

Poetry has played a significant part of our history. Before writing and reading were commonly developed, bards put history to rhyme, passing orally from father to son tales of their ancestors' deeds. (Bards were simply poets who memorized and then dramatized their accounts before admiring crowds of countrymen). These stirring accounts bequeathed a beautiful heritage of manliness and courage. For centuries, bards from ancient Britain, Scotland, and Ireland have inspired their countrymen to war and dolefully sang the praises of their country.

However, oral tradition is not the only avenue for poetic expression. The increasing use of the written word created new depths of rhyme and verse to be explored. We have a wonderful heritage from the pens of Longfellow, Stevenson, Scott, Burns, Shakespeare, and the list goes on!

Classics such as The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, The Village Blacksmith, or The Courtship of Miles Standish are some of my favorites. I find a certain fascination when reading a story recounted in perfect rhyme and meter, showing the care and time which the author spent with his work. A tale, preferably historic, which is recounted in a poem is of more interest to me than a descripatory work upon some general subject, such as an "Ode to Flowers". (Not that there's anything wrong with flowers).

From childhood, Ballantyne and his family were necessarily immersed in poetry. Alexander "Sandy" Ballantyne, father to our hero, was, along with his brother, the publisher of Sir Walter Scott. Robert also worked in their publishing house and knew the great Scottish author. Scott wrote hundreds of pages filled with beautiful poetry, some of which Ballantyne almost certainly read. To learn more of the Ballantynes' work with Scott, Josh wrote a great article about it here.

Our hero also tried his hand at poetry. Most likely you have, at least in early childhood, heard the poem The Three Little Kittens. What is not common knowledge is the fact that R. M. Ballantyne popularized this nursery rhyme, both by incorporating the poem into a story and by embellishing the book with drawings from his own pen. A few other lesser-known rhymes also originated from Ballantyne who, through the psydonym of Comus, wrote such works as Mister Fox, The Kitten Pilgrims, and The Robber Kitten. I hope to discuss his nursery rhymes extensively in following posts.

Ballantyne often used poetry in his books to illustrate select points. A snatch of verse here, a few lines there, or occassionally a longer passage would fill his pages. The Giant of the North, which speaks of Arctic exploration and discovery is just one example. A young Englishman named Alf extensively quotes a poet named Buzzby, of whom I can find no record, but whom Alf describes as only second to Tennyson. A humorous instance is Buzzby's poem "The Bliss of Ignorance", which Alf used to sarcastically contrast the view that ignorance can be a blissful existence.

Two of Ballantyne's books, Norsemen in the West and Erling the Bold, are based upon a different type of poetry. A "saga" is a Norse tale of historic achievements, usually written in rhyme. Both books mentioned are adaptions of ancient Norse sagas. However, that doesn't mean that they're just long poems! On the contrary, Ballantyne took the facts which the sagas set down, developing story and characters, combining all into highly fluid and interesting tales.

Below is a small translated sample of the saga upon which Norsemen in the West was based. It speaks of the first Norse settlement in North America, outside of Greenland, in the late 1000's.

When western waves were all unkown,
And western fields were all unsown,
When Iceland was the outmost bound
That roving viking-keels had found-
Gunbiorn then--Ulf Kraka's son--
Still farther west was forced to run
By furious gales, and there saw land
Stretching abroad on either hand.

Although sometimes the poetic flow is a little stretched, this probably was caused by word-length differences between English and Norse. All things considered, the sagas keep a decent meter and a regular rhyme scheme. These factors made the sagas much easier to remember than the same information put into book format.

In his early days before becoming a published author, Ballantyne tried his own hand at a little poetry. Below is the first portion of a poem written while Ballantyne lived in the wintry lands of Canada, working for the Hudson's Bay Company as a clerk:

Upon the shores of Hudson's Bay,
Where Arctic winters, stern and grey,
Freeze the salt-waters of the Deep
In a long, silent icy sleep;
Where willows and the stunted pine
Can scarcely live in such a clime,
Where Arctic fox and polar bear,
Clad in a coat of snow-white hair,
Prowl forth to snuff the tainted gale
And feast on walrus or the whale;
With snow and ice encompassed round,
And built on low and swampy ground,
Through which Haye's River takes its way
And slowly joins the frozen Bay;
There in its cold and icy lands,
Silent and grim, York Factory stands.

Although I have not found the rest of this unpublished poem, it is a little window into his life at the time, and Ballantyne's perspective on his surroundings. Not a masterpiece, it does show some promise of later literary achievements. The full poem was two-hundred lines in length.

Another poem written by a much older Ballantyne is found on the opening page of his book The Life of a Ship. The Great Blue Ocean was written as a song, and contains three verses. Because this poem has previously been posted, I will simply provide a link to the full text, which I would recommend reading.

Do you enjoy reading poetry? Or writing it? Perhaps you haven't before, but now have been inspired! I'd love to see any of your poems about Ballantyne, his books, other authors, their books, or even books in general! If I like the work, I may post samples on this blog. Please send it to me!

Tutela ex Vulnero,

John