William Larminie (1 August 1849 – 19 January 1900) was an Irish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and folklorist. He was born in

Castlebar Castlebar () is the county town of County Mayo, Ireland. Developing around a 13th century castle of the de Barry family, from which the town got its name, the town now acts as a social and economic focal point for the surrounding hinterland. W ...

, County Mayo, of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

descent and was educated at

Kingstown Kingstown is the capital, chief port, and main commercial centre of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. With a population of 12,909 (2012), Kingstown is the most populous settlement in the country. It is the island's agricultural industry centr ...

School and

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, from which he graduated in 1871 with a moderatorship in Classics. He moved to London while he was employed in the British India Office from 1873 until 1887, at which point he retired and returned to Ireland to devote himself to writing, settling in Bray, County Wicklow. He published two volumes of poetry—''Glanlua and Other Poems'' (1889), and ''Fand and Other Poems'' (1892)—as well as a collection of stories which he had collected from local people in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconn ...

, County Mayo and County Galway: ''West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances'' (1893). Like his contemporaries

John Todhunter John Todhunter (30 December 1839 – 25 October 1916) was an Irish poet and playwright who wrote seven volumes of poetry, and several plays. Life Todhunter was born in Dublin, the eldest son of Thomas Harvey Todhunter, a Quaker merchant ...

and

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

, he turned to

Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths native to the island of Ireland. It was originally passed down orally in the prehistoric era, being part of ancient Celtic religion. Many myths were later written down in the early medieval era by Ch ...

for inspiration. His most famous poem is ''The Nameless Doon'', about a stone ringfort, over 4000 years old and long abandoned, in Drumboghill, County Donegal. He attempted in his poetry to adopt some of the traditional Irish verse forms such as the use of

assonance Assonance is a resemblance in the sounds of words/syllables either between their vowels (e.g., ''meat, bean'') or between their consonants (e.g., ''keep, cape''). However, assonance between consonants is generally called ''consonance'' in America ...

. In his later years, he devoted himself to a translation into English of the Irish philosopher

John Scotus Eriugena John Scotus Eriugena, also known as Johannes Scotus Erigena, John the Scot, or John the Irish-born ( – c. 877) was an Irish Neoplatonist philosopher, theologian and poet of the Early Middle Ages. Bertrand Russell dubbed him "the most ...

's ''De divisione naturae''. His translation, which was never published, was deposited in the

National Library of Ireland The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ga, Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is the Republic of Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland i ...

. He died at his home in Bray and is buried in

Enniskerry Enniskerry (historically ''Annaskerry'', from ) is a village in County Wicklow, Ireland. The population was 1,889 at the 2016 census. Location The village is situated on the Glencullen River in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains in the ea ...

References

''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', William Larminie
Text of ''Fand and Other Poems'' at the Internet Archive

Text of ''Glanlua and Other Poems'' at the Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larminie, William 1849 births 1900 deaths Irish poets Irish folklorists Irish people of French descent People from County Mayo Alumni of Trinity College Dublin 19th-century poets People from Bray, County Wicklow