imported>GreenC bot: Rescued 2 archive links; reformat 2 links. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:USURPURL and JUDI batch #20

2024-12-22T02:09:36Z

Rescued 2 archive links; reformat 2 links. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:USURPURL and JUDI batch #20

New page

{{Short description|Scottish poet}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2016}}
'''Margaret Chalmers''' (12 December 1758 – 12 March 1827) was a Scottish poet, self-styled "first British Thulian quill".

==Early life==
Margaret Chalmers was baptised on 12 December 1758 in [[Lerwick]].{{sfn|Ewan|Innes|Reynolds|2007|p=69}} Her father, William, is said to have been the son of a [[Lord Provost]] of [[Aberdeen]], factor to Earl of Morton and [[tacksman]] of various local estates. Her mother Catherine (Kitty) Irvine was born in [[Trondra]] in 1734. Chalmers had four sisters and a brother, William, who joined the navy and was killed, aged 35, in the [[battle of Trafalgar]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.writingthenorth.com/margaret-chalmers-shetlands-lost-poet/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617181636/http://www.writingthenorth.com/margaret-chalmers-shetlands-lost-poet/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=17 June 2016|title=Margaret Chalmers: Shetland's Lost Poet - The Literature of Orkney and Shetland|date=2013-10-24|website=Writing The North|publisher=University of Edinburgh|language=en-UK|access-date=2016-05-20}}</ref> The death of her father is not recorded, but by time of Trafalgar, her mother and one of the sisters were bedridden and the family was living in [[penury]]. Petitions were raised in the hope of securing a government pension, but these failed.

==Career==
Like her younger fellow Lerwegian poet, [[Dorothea Primrose Campbell]], whose life was similarly marred by poverty, Chalmers arranged to publish her poetry by subscription and her solitary book was published in [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]] in 1813, after long delays during which many subscribers lost interest. She had sent copies of her poems to Sir [[Walter Scott]] during his visit to [[Shetland]] in 1814. However, there is nothing suggesting she ever received a reply; it is worth mentioning that she spoke to him as an equal in the letters held at the [[National Library of Scotland]]. After the publishing of her lone work, it did not garner the profit she had hoped for. However, copies were sold in areas from Shetland all the way to [[North Carolina]]. In 1816, she applied instead to the Royal Literary Fund, which awarded her the sum of ten pounds.

==Death and legacy==
She died in Lerwick on 12 March 1827. "Miss Chalmers Stairs" in Lerwick, named in her honor, no longer exist.{{sfn|Ewan|Innes|Reynolds|2007|p=69}}

==Style and themes==
In her lone work, her poems play with the ideas of imagery in regard to reflections. She also speaks on the life of a woman living in Shetland during the late 1700s to early 1800s. Her own perspectives on the socio-economic status of Shetland is reflected in many of her pieces.

==Selected works==
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=VK4sAAAAYAAJ ''Poems''], Newcastle: S. Hodgson, 1813

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book|last1=Ewan|first1=Elizabeth L.|last2=Innes|first2=Sue|last3=Reynolds|first3=Sian|title=Biographical Dictionary of ScottishWomen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zs6qBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA69|date=27 June 2007|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-2660-1}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929063050/http://www.alexanderstreet2.com/swrp/bios/S7029-D001.html ''A critical essay by Isobel Grundy'']
* This article is based on http://shetlopedia.com/Margaret_Chalmers a GFDL wiki.
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160617181636/http://www.writingthenorth.com/margaret-chalmers-shetlands-lost-poet/ Article title]}}
* https://allpoetry.com/classics/alpha/Margaret%20Chalmers#t_main

{{Shetlopedia}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalmers, Margaret}}
[[Category:1758 births]]
[[Category:1827 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish poets]]
[[Category:People from Lerwick]]
[[Category:Scottish women poets]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish women writers]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish writers]]

Margaret Chalmers - Revision history

imported>GreenC bot: Rescued 2 archive links; reformat 2 links. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:USURPURL and JUDI batch #20