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THOMSON, JAMES (1834-1882)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 874 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THOMSON, See also:JAMES (1834-1882) , See also:British poet, best known by his See also:signature " B.V.", was See also:born at See also:Port-See also:Glasgow, in See also:Renfrew-See also:shire, on the 23rd of See also:November 1834, the eldest See also:child of a See also:mate in the See also:merchant See also:shipping service. His See also:mother was a deeply religious woman of the Irvingite See also:sect. On her See also:death, James, then in his seventh See also:year, was procured See also:admission into the Caledonian See also:Orphan See also:Asylum. In 185o he entered the See also:model school of the Military Asylum, See also:Chelsea, from which he went out into the See also:world as an assistant See also:army schoolmaster. At the See also:garrison at Ballincollig, near See also:Cork, he encountered the one brief happiness of his See also:life: he See also:fell passionately in love with, and was in turn as ardently loved by, the daughter of the armourersergeant of a See also:regiment in the garrison, a girl of very exceptional beauty and cultivated mind. Two years later he suddenly received See also:news of her fatal illness and death. The See also:blow prostrated him in mind and See also:body. Henceforth his life was one of gloom, disappointment, misery and poverty, rarely alleviated by episodes of somewhat brighter See also:fortune. While in See also:Ireland he had made the acquaintance of See also:Charles See also:Bradlaugh, then a soldier stationed at Ballincollig, and it was under his auspices (as editor of the See also:London Investigator) that Thomson first appealed to the public as an author, though actually his earliest publication was in See also:Tait's See also:Edinburgh See also:Magazine for See also:July 1858, under the signature " Crepusculus." In 186o was established the See also:paper with which Bradlaugh was so See also:long identified, the See also:National Reformer, and it was here, among other productions by James Thomson, that appeared (1863) the powerful and sonorous verses " To our Ladies of Death," and (1874) his See also:chief See also:work, the sombre and imaginative See also:City of Dreadful See also:Night. In See also:October 1862 Thomson was dismissed the army, in See also:company with other teachers, for some slight See also:breach of discipline. Through Bradlaugh, with whom for some subsequent years he lived, he gained employment as a See also:solicitor's clerk. From 1866 to the end of his life, except for two See also:short absences from See also:England, Thomson lived in a single See also:room, first in Pimlico and then in Bloomsbury.

He contracted habits of intemperance, aggravated by his pessimistic turn of mind to See also:

dipsomania, which made a successful career impossible for him. In 1869 he enjoyed what has been described as his " only reputable See also:appearance in respectable See also:literary society," in the See also:acceptance of his long poem, " See also:Sunday up the See also:River," for See also:Fraser's Magazine, on the See also:advice, it is said, of Charles See also:Kingsley. In 1872 Thomson went to the western states of See also:America, as the See also:agent of the shareholders in what he ascertained to be a fraudulent See also:silver mine; and the following year he received a See also:commission from the New-See also:York World to go to See also:Spain as its See also:special correspondent with the Carlists. During the two months of his stay in that distracted See also:country he saw little real fighting, and was himself prostrated by a See also:sunstroke. On his return to England he continued to write in the Secularist and the National Reformer, under the See also:initials " B.V."' In 1875 he severed his connexion with the National Reformer, owing to a disagreement with its editor; henceforth his chief source of income (1875-1881) was from the monthly periodical known as See also:Cope's See also:Tobacco Plant. Chiefly through the exertions of his friend and admirer, See also:Bertram See also:Dobell, Thomson's best-known See also:book, The City of Dreadful Night, and other Poems, was published in See also:April 188o, and at once attracted wide See also:attention; it was succeeded in the autumn by See also:Vane's See also:Story, and other Poems, and in the following year by Essays and Phantasies. All his best work was produced between 1835 and 1875 (" The See also:Doom of a City," 1857; " Our Ladies of Death," 1861; Weddah and Om-el-Bonain; " The Naked Goddess," 1866-1867; The City of Dreadful Night, 1870-1874). He died at University See also:College See also:Hospital, in See also:Gower See also:Street, on the 3rd of See also:June 1882, and was buried at See also:Highgate See also:cemetery, in the same See also:grave, in unconsecrated ground, as his friend See also:Austin See also:Holyoake. To the productions of James Thomson already mentioned may be added the See also:posthumous See also:volume entitled A See also:Voice from the See also:Nile, and other Poems (1884), to which was prefixed a memoir by Bertram Dobell. This volume contained much that is interesting, but nothing to increase Thomson's reputation. If an See also:attempt be made to point to the most apparent literary relation-See also:ship of the author of The City of Dreadful Night, one might venture the See also:suggestion that James Thomson was a younger See also:brother of De Quincey. If he has distinct See also:affinity to any writer it is to the author of Suspiria de profundis; if we look further afield, we might perhaps discern shadowy prototypes in See also:Leopardi, See also:Heine and See also:Baudelaire.

But, after all, Thomson holds so unique a See also:

place as a poet that the effort at See also:classification may well be dispensed with. His was no literary See also:pessimism, no assumed gloom. The poem " See also:Insomnia " is a distinct See also:chapter of See also:biography; and in " Mater Tenebrarum " and elsewhere among his writings passages of self-See also:revelation are frequent. The merits of Thomson's See also:poetry are its imaginative See also:power, its sombre intensity, its sonorous See also:music; to these characteristics may be added, in his lighter pieces, a Heine-like admixture of See also:strange gaiety, pathos and See also:caustic See also:irony. Much the same may be said of his best See also:prose. His faults are a monotony. of epithet, the not infrequent use of See also:mere See also:rhetoric and verbiage, and perhaps a prevailing lack of the sense of See also:form; besides an occasional vulgar recklessness of expression, as in parts of Vane's Story and in some of his prose writings. See the Life, by H. S. See also:Salt (1905 edition).

End of Article: THOMSON, JAMES (1834-1882)

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