Poems
Let Me Sing Of What I Know
A wild west Coast, a little Town,
Where little Folk go up and down,
Tides flow and winds blow:
Night and Tempest and the Sea,
Human Will and Human Fate:
What is little, what is great?
Howsoe’er the answer be,
Let me sing of what I know.
Where little Folk go up and down,
Tides flow and winds blow:
Night and Tempest and the Sea,
Human Will and Human Fate:
What is little, what is great?
Howsoe’er the answer be,
Let me sing of what I know.
Analysis (ai): The poem centers on a localized coastal setting as a lens for broader existential questions, framing personal observation as a valid source of truth. It refrains from grand declarations, instead grounding insight in daily rhythms and elemental forces. Unlike Allingham’s more folklore-infused or lyrical works, this piece adopts a quieter, almost meditative tone.
- Structure and Diction: Written in irregular stanzas with a loose ballad-like rhythm, the poem avoids strict meter, suggesting conversational ease. Repetition of “little” and elemental imagery establishes a humble scope, while rhetorical questioning introduces philosophical weight without abstraction.
- Relation to Author’s Oeuvre: Compared to Allingham’s romanticized Irish landscapes or musical verse, this poem is terser and more reflective, standing apart in its restraint. It aligns with his lesser-known reflective pieces that prioritize introspection over narrative or musicality.
- Historical Context: Mid-Victorian poetry often favored moral clarity or ornate description; this poem diverges by embracing ambiguity and scale-relativity. Its focus on incongruity between human effort and natural forces resonates with growing 19th-century skepticism.
- Modern Resonance: Without formal experimentation typical of post-1900 works, it prefigures modernist concerns with subjectivity and the limits of knowledge. The speaker’s insistence on “what I know” anticipates 20th-century emphasis on personal epistemology over universal claims.
- Less-Discussed Angle: The repeated query “What is little, what is great?” may critique social hierarchies more than metaphysical ones—suggesting that the lives of “little Folk” hold equal significance to historical or heroic narratives. This democratic impulse is understated but central.
William Allingham (19 March 1824 – 18 November 1889) was an Irish poet, diarist and editor. He wrote several volumes of lyric verse, and his poem “The Faeries” was much anthologised. But he is better known for his posthumously published Diary, in which he records his lively encounters with Tennyson, Carlyle and other writers and artists. His wife, Helen Allingham, was a well-known artist, watercolourist and illustrator.
