Francis Ledwidge
Francis Edward Ledwidge (19 August 188731 July 1917) was a 20th-century Irish poet. From Slane, County Meath, and sometimes known as the "poet of the blackbirds", he was later also known as a First World War war poet. He befriended the established writer Lord Dunsany, who helped with publication of his works. He was killed in action at Ypres in 1917.Born to a poor family in Slane, County Meath, Ledwidge started writing at an early age, and was first published in a local newspaper at the age of 14. Finding work as a labourer and miner, he was also a trade union activist, and a keen patriot and nationalist, associated with Sinn Féin. He became friendly with a local landowner, the writer Lord Dunsany, who gave him a workspace in the library of Dunsany Castle, and introduced him to literary figures including William Butler Yeats, Æ and Katherine Tynan, with whom he had a long-term correspondence. He was elected to a local government post and helped organise the local branch of the Irish Volunteers, while Dunsany edited a first volume of his poetry and helped him secure publication for it.
Despite having sided with the faction of the Irish Volunteers which opposed participation in the war, and against the wishes of Lord Dunsany, he enlisted in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in October 1914, and continued to write poetry on campaign, sending work to Dunsany and to family and other friends. Having been posted to several theatres of the war, he was killed in action in July 1917 during the early phase of the Battle of Passchendaele. At the time of his death, he and Dunsany were in advanced preparation for a second volume of his work, and Dunsany later arranged for a third volume, and a collected edition of 122 poems in 1919. Some musical settings of his work were also composed. Further poems, from the archives at Dunsany Castle and some material held by families of relatives and friends, were published by Ledwidge's biographer, Alice Curtayne, in 1974, by enthusiast Hubert Dunn and by the two major Ledwidge memorial groups, in 1997 and 2022 respectively.
A museum of his life and work was opened in his birthplace cottage in 1982 and was the site of multiple events in the decades after; it remains operational as of 2022. Ledwidge was selected as one of twelve prominent war poets - and the only Irish one - for the exhibition ''Anthem for Doomed Youth'' at the Imperial War Museum in London in 2002. He has been memorialised at events at the Slane museum, in Ypres and in Inchicore, Dublin, with his official centenary commemoration at Slane in 2017 and his work set to music and performed by Anúna at the former Inchicore barracks the same year. A few Ledwidge manuscripts are held in the National Library of Ireland, and the main surviving collection, including his early works, in the archives of Dunsany Castle, along with letters. Selections of both handwritten and typed manuscripts have been shown publicly at the ''Anthem for Doomed Youth'' exhibition and at a book launch at Slane Castle in 2022, and privately to scholars and members of the Ledwidge Cottage Museum committee. Provided by Wikipedia
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The complete poems of Francis Ledwidge by Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917
Dublin : Poolbeg Press, 1998Call Number: Loading…
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Last songs by Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917
London : H. Jenkins, 1918Call Number: Loading…
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Last songs, by Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917
London, Herbert Jenkins Limited, 1918Call Number: Loading…
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The complete poems of Francis Ledwidge by Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917
New York : Brentano's, 1919Call Number: Loading…
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Songs of peace, by Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917
London, Herbert Jenkins Limited, 1917Call Number: Loading…
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Songs of the fields. by Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917
London : H. Jenkins, limited, 1916Call Number: Loading…
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Above the dreamless dead : World War I in poetry and comics by Mills, Pat, Ennis, Garth, Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928, Sorley, Charles Hamilton, 1895-1915, Rosenberg, Isaac, 1890-1918, Gibson, Wilfrid Wilson, 1878-1962, Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936, Sassoon, Siegfried, 1886-1967, MacGill, Patrick, 1890-1963, Owen, Wilfred, 1893-1918, Sitwell, Osbert, 1892-1969, Brooke, Rupert, 1887-1915, Thomas, Edward, 1878-1917, Graves, Robert, 1895-1985, Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917
New York : First Second, 2014
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A blackbird singing : song from "Over the rim of the moon" by Head, Michael, 1900-1976
New York : Boosey & Co., 1924Other Authors: “…Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917…”
No. 2 in A♭.
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The homecoming of the sheep by Head, Michael, 1900-1976
London : Boosey & Hawkes, 1966Other Authors: “…Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917…”
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Over the rim of the moon : song cycle by Head, Michael, 1900-1976
London ; New York : Boosey & Hawkes, 1930Other Authors: “…Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917…”
New ed.
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The ships of Arcady : song from the song cycle "Over the rim of the moon" by Head, Michael, 1900-1976
New York : Boosey & Co., 1919Other Authors: “…Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917…”
No. 2 in D.
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A blackbird singing : song from "Over the rim of the moon" by Head, Michael, 1900-1976
New York : Boosey & Co., 1924Other Authors: “…Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917…”
No. 1 in E.
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A bittern cry : in honour of Francis Ledwidge
Ireland : The Francis Ledwidge Museum, Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann & Meath County Council, 2017Other Authors: “…Ledwidge, Francis, 1887-1917…”
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Great poets of World War I : poetry from the great war by Stallworthy, Jon
New York : Carroll and Graf, 2002Other Authors:Call Number: Loading…
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