John Holland (poet) - Poetical Works

Poetical Works

The Methodist (anonymously), Liverpool, 1819; Sheffield Park: a descriptive poem, Sheffield, 1820; annotated 2nd ed. 1859; The Cottage of Pella: a tale of Palestine, Sheffield, 1821; The Village of Eyam: a poem, Macclesfield, 1821; The Hopes of Matrimony, London and Sheffield, 1822; 2nd ed. 1836; Flowers from Sheffield Park: a selection of poetical pieces originally published in the Sheffield Iris, London and Sheffield, 1827; The Pleasures of Sight: a poem, Sheffield, 1829; Tyne Banks: a poetical sketch by a visitor in Newcastle, Newcastle, 1832; A Poet’s Gratulation, Sheffield, 1851; Diurnal Sonnets: 366 poetical meditations on various subjects, personal, abstract and local, comprising several founded on the more striking festivals and observances of the Christian year, Sheffield, 1852.

From Sheffield Park, stanzas LVII-LVIX

When winter evening's cheerful tales conspire

With the warm influence of a social fire,

How seldom thinks the happy midnight guest

Of the poor collier's brief and broken rest.

Where chemic nature, from sulfureous ores,

Her deadliest essence sublimates and stores -

Combines these dire arcana to prepare

Her noxious treasures of mephitic air,

Each moment hovering round the miner's lamp

To scorch or suffocate - the explosive damp;

Above his head, while threatening rocks impend,

Imprisoned spirits in their wombs contend:

He delves his dungeon vault of living coal

And hears the cataracts through the caverns roll,

Careless with every stroke, or every breath,

To rouse a danger or inhale a death.

'Tis his to know, 'midst all that pity craves,

The felon's task, the heritage of slaves,

'Doomed to the mines', to dig for others' wealth,

To earn subsistence, and to bury health -

Bear from earth's noisesome depths, with perils rife,

The curse, the comforts, or the bread of life.

This a sad proof how vainly man hath built

Pride's superstructure on a base of guilt;

Of penal judgment this the unvarying mark,

From far Potosi's mines to Sheffield Park.