Chapter 73/ ‘Tall’ Stories 9

Chapter 73

‘Tall’ Stories 9

(Source: Archivanet. Canadian Archives on the Internet.)

SELECTED POETRY OF 

WILLIAM HENRY DRUMMOND (1854 – 1907)

William Henry Drummond ( known until 1875 as William Henry Drumm), telegraphist, physician, poet, professor and public lecturer, was born 13.April,1854 near Mohill (Republic of Ireland), son of George Drumm and ELIZABETH MORRIS SODEN; married 18.April,1894 May Isobel Harvey in Savanna la Mar,Jamaica,and they had three sons , one of whom survived infancy,and one daughter;died 6.April,1907 in Cobalt,Ontario.

The eldest of four sons born to an officer in the Royal Irish Constabulary,William Henry Drumm spent his early years in County Leitrim. He attended school in Tawley,where his parents had stayed shortly after his birth. Sometime in 1863-64 the family returned briefly to Mohill. According to May Isobel Drumond,after George Drumm was dismissed from the police force because of a quarrel with Lord Leitrim over ‘the Landlord system’,he had a ‘paralytic stroke from which he never really recovered.’ Disgusted with conditions in Ireland and worried about the family’s future, he and his wife decided to emigrate with their children to Lower Canada;they arrived in Montreal in the summer of 1864. In February 1866 Drumm died and his family,left without even his small pension,faced financial hardship.

In order to survive,Mrs.Drumm opened a store in the front room of their house,the boys all sold newspapers and ,when he was 14,William Henry left school and became an apprentice telegraphist. In 1875, having been convinced by a cousin that ‘ the name Drumm was but a corruption of the name Drummond our ancient family name,’he officially changed his surname and that of his mother and brothers to Drummond.

William Henry Drummond graduated with an M.D. from McGill University in 1884  and started practising in the eastern townships (along the St. Lawrence River) to which his dialect poems so often refer.  In 1888 he moved to Montreal. It was ten years later, well after his marriage May Isobel that Drummond   published his first book of poetry, the Habitant (1897). He went on to publish five more books of poetry, Phil – o – Rum’s Canoe (1848); Johnnie Courteau (1901) ; the Voyager (1905); and the Great Fight (1908) and to become one of the most widely-read and loved poets of his nation. He was made Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1899 and received two honorary degrees, the first from the University of Toronto in 1902,  and then from Bishop’s University  in 1905.

See  the CANADIAN BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY ; William Henry Drummond :

 Poet in Patois  by J.B.Lyons.

 ‘De nice leetle Canadienne’  

You can pass on de worl’w’ever you lak,                                            Tak’ de steamboat for go Angleterre,                                           

Tak’ car on de State,an’den you come back,                       

An’ go all de place,I don’t care –  Ma frien’ dat’s a fack,I know you will say, W’en you come on dis contree again,  Dere’s no girl can touch,w’at we see ev’ry day,  De nice leetle Canadienne

                                            (Lines 1 – 8)

Excerpted from the Toronto University Selection of Drummond’s Poetry.

Sources: –

 Archivanet. Canadian Archives on the Internet.

Canadian Biographical Dictionary, under Drummond William Henry Drummond , Poet in Patois by J.B.Lyons

David Pease, Ontario, Canada, 2015

Margaret Laughton, St. Catherine’s , Ontario, Canada, 1998

bookofsoden@gmail.com

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