This week on My Poetic Side, we take a look at the annual William Barnes celebrations and the death of Kim Sin-yong.
Annual Celebration for Poet William Barnes and Dorset Culture
Celebrations will be held for the 225th birthday of Dorset’s beloved dialect poet, William Barnes.
The Tea with William Barnes is an annual event that is organised by Artsreach and is run as part of collaboration wit The Ridgeway Singers & Band. It will take place on Sunday 22nd February, the exact date of the poet’s birth in 1801 at the Sturminster Newton Exchange.
Barnes was born in Bagber and studied in Sturminster Newton. He was a lingiost. Priest, artist, scholar, and inventor as well as being a poet. During his lifetime he is believed to have written more than 800 poems, all of which were in the Dorset dialect. He had a deep love of folk songs, country dancing and carols, much of which can be seen woven into his work.
This year’s celebration promises to be an enjoyable afternoon filled with song, music, and poetry. There will be recitals of some of the poet’s most popular works as well as a musical setting for the poem “Rustic Childhood”. There will also be a cream tea being served to accompany the performances.
The 2026 celebration promises a lively afternoon of music, song, and poetry.
This is an annual celebration, which is now celebrating its ninth year. It keeps alive the language and culture of Dorset,which is completely unique, whilst providing a warm, festive tribute to a man who is one of the most cherished literary figures linked to the county.
Champion of “Vagrancy Aesthetics”, Poet Kim Sin-yong Dies at 81
Famous for “Yangdong Suite” and his vagrant inspired poetry, the work of Kim Sin-yong was inspired by, and captured, life experiences that were marginalised.
Often referred to as the Porter Poet and Koreas equivalent of Jean Genet (a French writer who had a vagrant background), Kim Sin-yong, who was 81 died, earlier this week from a long illness.
The poet was born in 1945 in Busan and from childhood lead a vagrant life. He worked a number of menial jobs, as well as working as a porter. His literary career took off in 1988 when he published Yangdong Suite – House of Bones, and six additional poems in the first edition of Hyundai Sisangsang, a mook magazine. His inspiration for his early works was his own harrowing life experiences in Yangdong – a slum not far from Seoul Station – where he lived in a single room shack.
In 1988 he also published his first poetry collection and shocked the literary world. In both this first collection “The Abandoned” and his subsequent collections he showcased the “aesthetic of vagrancy” he also wrote a number of novels.
When asked in an interview with a newspaper in 2010 what raised him, he replied “vagrancy”.
His funeral is set to take place on 17th January.
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