ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN (1841 - 1901)

POEMS FROM OTHER SOURCES

As far as I know, the following poems were never published in any of Robert Buchanan’s books of poetry.

Snow-Music
(The Athenæum, 3 March, 1860)

Italy, 1859-60
(The Athenæum, 31 March, 1860)

The Crocus (The Athenæum, 14 April, 1860)

Rain (The Athenæum, 26 May, 1860)

Autumn (The Athenæum, 20 October, 1860)

London Poems I: Temple Bar
(Temple Bar, December, 1860)

The Country Curate’s Story
(The Welcome Guest, December, 1860)

London Poems II: The Dead
(Temple Bar, January, 1861)

London Poems III: Outcasts
(Temple Bar, February, 1861)

London Poems IV: The Destitute
(Temple Bar, March, 1861)

The Lady Curll
(The Welcome Guest, March, 1861)

The Snowdrop
(The Athenæum, 23 March, 1861)

An Artisan’s Story
(Good Words, April 1861)

London Poems V: Belgravia
(Temple Bar, May, 1861)

The Dead Baby
(Temple Bar, June 1861)

London Poems VI: A City Preacher
(Temple Bar, July, 1861)

The First of July
(The Athenæum, 6 July, 1861)

Souvenirs
(Once A Week, 27 July, 1861)

The Twice-Wedded
(Temple Bar, August, 1861)

London Poems VII: The River
(Temple Bar, September, 1861)

London Poems VIII: Christmas In The City
(Temple Bar, January, 1862)

London Poems IX: Haunted London
(Temple Bar, February, 1862)

In The Mountain
(The Athenæum, 22 March, 1862)

Sir Tristem
(Once A Week, 22 March, 1862)

By the Seaside
(Temple Bar, June, 1862)

Baby Grace
(The St. James’s Magazine, June, 1862)

Wife and I
(Once A Week, 21 June, 1862)

Sitting by the Sea.—June
(The Athenæum (21 June, 1862)

Maid Avoraine
(Once A Week, 19 July, 1862)

The Gifts. An Arab Paraphrase
(The St. James's Magazine, September, 1862)

Ad Virgilium: the Third Ode of the First Book
(The Athenæum, 20 September, 1862)

In The Camp
(The St. James's Magazine, March, 1863)

Barstone Water
(The St. James's Magazine, June, 1863)

Mordred
(The St. James's Magazine, August, 1863)

A Melody
(The St. James's Magazine, August, 1863)

The River
(The St. James's Magazine, October, 1863)

Love
(The St. James's Magazine, October, 1863)

Merlin and the White Death
(Once A Week, 20 February, 1864)

A Token
(The St. James's Magazine, April, 1864)

A’Beckett’s Troth
(Once A Week, 14 May, 1864)

Halcyone
(The St. James's Magazine, June, 1864)

Una, The Moon-Fay: or, The Vision Of Chastity
(Once A Week, 24 September, 1864)

Horatian Paraphrases
(The St. James's Magazine, October, 1864)

Hermioné
(The Argosy No. 1, December 1865)

Verner Ravn: a Drama
(The Argosy No. 1, December 1865)

The Treasure-Seeker
(The St. James’s Magazine. December, 1865)

At The Threshold
(A Round of Days, December 1865)

Old Winkelred and the Dragon
(The St. James’s Magazine, January, 1866)

Hakon Jarl
(The St. James’s Magazine, February, 1866)

The Gift of Ægir
(The St. James’s Magazine, March, 1866)

The Bachelor Dreams
(The Argosy No. 6, May 1866)

Hugo the Bastard
(Temple Bar, October, 1866)

The Skein
(Broadway Magazine No. 4, December 1867. Reprinted in The New York Times, 8th December, 1867)

London Lyrics III: A Fashionable Love Affair
(London Society, March, 1868)

London Lyrics: A Drawing-Room Ballad
(London Society, July, 1868)

London Lyrics: The Faces
(London Society, October, 1868)

Suspiria de Profundis
(London Society (Christmas edition, 1868)

Dame Martha s Well
(All The Year Round, November, 1869. Reprinted in Good Words, October 1870 and the Glasgow Herald, October, 1870)

A Blind Man’s Love
(Routledge’s Christmas Annual, 1869)

Earth’s Shadows
(All The Year Round, January, 1870)

Summer Song in the City
(Good Words, April, 1871)

The Neighbour
(Good Words, November, 1871)

The Latest Tournament: an Idyll of the Queen
(The Saint Pauls Magazine, January, 1872)

Supreme Love
(The Saint Pauls Magazine, February, 1872)

Mazzini
(The Saint Pauls Magazine, April, 1872)

The Waxwork; or, Love and Rumour
(The Saint Pauls Magazine, June, 1872)

John Mardon, Mariner: his Strange Adventures in El Dorado
(The Saint Pauls Magazine, July, 1872, September, 1872, October, 1872)

St. Laurence and the Gnomes; A Northern Legend
(The Saint Pauls Magazine, August, 1872)

The Gifts
(Cassell’s Magazine, October, 1873)

Granddad In The Ingle
(Cassell’s Magazine, March, 1874)

The Mountain Ruin
(Cassell’s Magazine, May, 1874)

Erôs Athanatos
(The Gentleman’s Magazine, May, 1874)

The Last Poet
(The Gentleman’s Magazine, June, 1874)

The God-like Love
(The Gentleman’s Magazine, October, 1874)

The Spirit of the Snow: a Winter Idyll
(The Gentleman’s Magazine, April, 1875)

Cinderella: a Child’s Song of the Season
(Good Words, November, 1876)

The Battle of Isandúla
(Contemporary Review, April, 1879)

A Canine Suggestion
(Belgravia, April, 1884)

Alone in London
(The Olympic Programme and Looker-On, 7th November, 1885)

The Good Judge’s Soliloquy
(The New York Herald, August, 1889. Reprinted in The Echo)

The Ballad of Resurrection
(The New York Herald, circa. August, 1889. Reprinted in The San Francisco Call, November, 1897)

Poem on the Death of Tennyson
(The Daily Telegraph, 8th October, 1892. Reprinted in The Western Daily Press, Bristol, 10th October, 1892)

Buchanan’s Response to Alfred Austin’s ‘Jameson’s Ride’ (extract only)
(The Star, February, 1896. Extract printed in the Edinburgh Evening News 15th February, 1896)

The Life Song of Buchanan
(Included in A Beggar’s Wallet, published in November, 1905 by Archibald Stodart-Walker)

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Reviews of some of these poems are available in the section below.

Robert Buchanan and the Magazines

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Before he moved to London in 1860 Robert Buchanan published two books of poetry in Glasgow, Poems & Love Lyrics towards the end of 1857 and Mary, and other Poems at the beginning of 1859. At this time Buchanan was contributing material to his father’s newspaper, The Glasgow Sentinel, and some poems and other material from the 1858 editions of the paper are available in the following section:

Robert Buchanan and The Glasgow Sentinel

I mention here the two poems by “Robert W. Buchanan, Esq. Author of Mary, and other Poems” included in the anthology, Lays of the Sanctuary, and Other Poems, compiled and edited by G. Stevenson de M. Rutherford (London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1859) since they do not occur elsewhere and may, in fact, be from Mary, and other Poems.

Lays of the Sanctuary, and Other Poems

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Robert Buchanan’s poems also appeared in three other works, two of which raise certain problems. In 1862 he collaborated with his friend, Charles Gibbon, on Storm-Beaten: or, Christmas Eve at the “Old Anchor” Inn, a collection of linked stories and poems. There are four poems in the book and I have assumed that these are all by Buchanan and they are available on the following page:

Poems from Storm-Beaten: or, Christmas Eve at the “Old Anchor” Inn

In December, 1866 Wayside Posies: original poems of the country life, an illustrated Christmas gift book, engraved by the Brothers Dalziel, was published by Routledge and Sons. It was edited by Robert Buchanan, but since all of the poems are anonymous, it is difficult trying to discover which are Buchanan’s. Possibly all (save one - ‘Reaping’ by William Freeland), but it seems wrong to add them to the Buchanan canon. So, they are all listed below, with those that are definitely Buchanan’s (or in some cases, ‘possibly’ Buchanan’s) given in full with the accompanying illustrations.

Wayside Posies

Towards the end of his career, Buchanan published another volume of short stories and poems, Red and White Heather, published by Chatto & Windus in 1894. This also contained four poems, which are available below:

Poems from Red and White Heather

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Newton Neville - A pseudonym

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