“The great man is the man who does a thing for the first time.”
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Author detail
**Alexander Smith** (1830-1867) was born in Kilmarnock to a lowlander John Smith and highlander Murray Smith. He was part of the Spasmodic School along with other poets such as Sydney Dobell and P.J. Bailey, whose works were notable for their rapid rise and fall from fame. These Spasmodic poets were associated for their writing traits of lengthy, displaced imagery, odd themes and dark poems. He worked in the linen factory since he could not afford college, before he started writing poetry. His earlier poems, A Life in Drama and other Poems (1853) which appeared in the Glasgow Citizen, was well received. However, the morality of the spasmodic poetry was later questioned by critics, especially the one whereby the hero raped a girl who is in love with him. The publication of City Poems (1857), which contained the poem "Glasgow”, was slightly more successful. However by then, Smith was much belittled in his work and even accused of plagiarising the work of Tennyson and Keats. He married Flora Macdonald from Skye in 1857. Inspired by the event in Crimean War, Smith also worked with Sydney Dobell, his good friend, to produce a series of sonnets known as War Sonnets (1855). Later, Smith was so harshly mocked through the work of WE Aytuon’s parody of genre, Fimilian (1854) that he never recovered from the spasmodic label. Edwin of Northumbria Edwin of Deira (1861) was believed to be Smith last set of poems published. He then turned to writing prose such as Dreamthorp: Essays written in the Country (1863), A Summer in Skye (1865), Miss Dona M’Quarrie and Alfred Hagart’s Household (1866). Though his proses received more encouraging words from critics, Smith, however, never enjoyed writing proses as much as he did for poems. He later died in Wardie, near Edinburgh. **References**: 1. "Smith, Alexander." - Poems, Book, and Life. 9th Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.libraryindex.com/encyclopedia/pages/cpxlbjx057/smith-alexander-poems-book.html>. 2. "Swinburne's spasms: Poems and Ballads and the 'Spasmodic School'." The Free Library. N.p.. Web. 12 Nov 2012. <http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Swinburne's spasms: Poems and Ballads and the 'Spasmodic School'.-a0148675303>. 3. "Dobell, Sydney." 9th Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. N.p.. Web. 12 Nov 2012. <http://www.libraryindex.com/encyclopedia/pages/cpxl8pk2zi/dobell-sydney-time-poet.html
Quotes
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“The great man is the man who does a thing for the first time.”
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“One never hugs one's good luck so affectionately as when listening to the relation of some horrible misfortunes which has overtaken others.”
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“Every man's road in life is marked by the graves of his personal likings.”
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“Everything is sweetened by risk.”
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“Trifles make up the happiness or the misery of mortal life.”
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“Books are a finer world within the world. (1863)”
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“If the egotist is weak, his egotism is worthless. If the egotist is strong, acute, full of distinctive character, his egotism is precious, and remains a possession of the race.”
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“Trees are your best antiques.”
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“In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place today, it is vain to seek it there tomorrow. You can not lay...”
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“The sea complains upon a thousand shores.”
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“We bury love; Forgetfulness grows over it like grass: That is a thing to weep for, not the dead.”
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“If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness.”
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“A man gazing on the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles in the road.”
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“Every man's road in life is marked by the graves of his personal liking.”
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“Death is the ugly fact which Nature has to hide, and she hides it well.”
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“I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory.”
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“The world is not so much in need of new thoughts as that when thought grows old and worn with usage it should, like current coin, be called in, and, from the mint of genius, reissued fresh a...”
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“If you do your fair day's work, you are certain to get your fair day's wage - in praise or pudding, whichever happens to suit your taste.”
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“To be occasionally quoted is the only fame I care for.”
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“The saddest thing that befalls a soul is when it loses faith in God and woman.”
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