Sonnets of Flowers and Trees - George Markham Tweddell 1823 - 1903

George Markham Tweddell

George Markham Tweddell  (GMT) 1823 - 1903 was born in Stokesley, North Yorkshire in 1823 and was variously a printer, publisher, author, editor, poet, Chartist, People's historian and much more. His wife, Elizabeth Tweddell (nee Cole) was better known as the poet Florence Cleveland whose book Rhymes and Sketches to Illustrate the Cleveland Dialect. One of her poems (Take Thy-self a Wife) has been set to music and is the title of an album by the Stockton on Tees folk duo - Megson. The full and interesting history of this 19thC couple can be found in more detail via this hub to their work http://georgemarkhamtweddell.blogspot.co.uk/

George & Elizabeth Tweddell

In 2005 I began work documenting the Creative Writing scene in Cleveland / Tees Valley which I had been involved with as a tutor and development worker and decided to research the area's older literary history. This led me to George Markham Tweddell's book The Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham - 1872 (a compendium of local authors going back to 500 AD). The book was long out of print and only available at the time in the local reference libraries or antiquarian shops. I endeavoured to put information from it on our website. As a result, one of GMT's descendant's Paul Tweddell, got in contact and we began a 5 year project to get GMT's work out into the public domain.

One day, Paul showed me some manuscript books by GMT which clearly showed that GMT was a more diverse and prolific poet than I had realised. You can find out more about his fuller collection of poetry on the site mentioned above.

Manuscript book

Paul Tweddell

One of the books in particular impressed me greatly - Sonnets of Flowers and Trees. GMT had attempted, before his death, to bring together all of his sonnets on those two themes. Some were never published in his life-time but others had been published in local and national newspapers or in masonic magazines in the United States and Europe.

Emblems and Symbols
GMT was well acquainted with the sonnet and had walked widely on the Cleveland hills where many of the wild flowers can be seen. Reading the poems I began to suspect that they worked on other levels through emblems and symbols. Paul Tweddell sent me a poem by George Wither - Marigold - that had influenced GMT (he had a similar poem The Marsh Marigold.0 I began to think the Whither poem was in some way symbolic. Then I noticed at the foot of the poem it mentioned that Whither was one of the best known Emblem writers, influenced by The Emblematum Libellus of Alciati (1522). I had also noticed a number of masonic symbols in GMT's work and mention of emblems in these poems. His wider work, especially his 100 Masonic Poems confirm the symbolic / emblematic aspects to GMT's poetry. A fuller discussion of the nature of GMT's poetry can be found here http://georgemarkhamtweddell.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/poets-view-of-george-markham-tweddell.html , along with links to his Collected poetical works, available as a free pdf file.

Here's an extract from the essay on his poems about Emblems and symbols linked above.

"After reading GMT’s poem for Elliot ‘The Bramble (Rubus Vulgaris)’  I wondered why many of these radical poets also had a strong interest in flowers and plants. Was it purely botanical or was there some kind of esoteric symbolism going on? This was reinforced by finding a Masonic reference in the GMT poem about The Great First Cause. In the Alchemist book The Secret of the Golden Flower, the golden flower is thought by some to be the Emerald Tablet and in the spiritual side of Alchemy part of the process of purifying the spirit. Symbols of flowers, colours, suns and moons are part of the symbolism. Freemasonry derives is symbolism from the Hermetic tradition and has its own path towards spiritual enlightenment. Could there be a deeper level to some of these poems, especially in GMT’s sequence of sonnets under the heading Sonnets on Trees and Flowers I wondered?"

I hope you find these poems enjoyable and interesting. If you have any thoughts on any aspects of these poems, please leave a comment.

Trev Teasdel - 2012

On a Corn-field

On a Corn-field.

Oh, it is a glorious sight, that field of corn!
Yellow as amber is each ripen’d ear:
See, now they lowly bend,—like one forlorn,
Who o’er departed fiend doth drop a tear;
And now they rise majestic,—like a man 5
Who, hearing Slander blackening his name,
Resolves to do whate’er a true man can
To clear his conduct and uphold his fame,
Full soon, I ween, will merry reapers come,
With keen-edged hooks that shine like sabres bright, 10
And (cheer’d with thoughts of joyful harvest-home)
Toil ’neath the burning sun with hero-might.
Fill each the ale-horn; let them rest awhile,
And harmless chat the tedious hours beguile.

George Markham Tweddell
[Sonnets on Trees and Flowers, p. 1.] Also published in Yorkshire
Gazette, Aug. 29, 1848. Home Circle, Sept. 8, 1849. Darlington Times,
Sept. 14, 1850.

The Primrose (Primula vulgaris).

The Primrose (Primula vulgaris).

Sweet, modest flower, so gentle in its mien,
I ever love to gaze upon its form.
Full oft in childhood I’ve the Primrose seen,
Hiding its fragrant head from Borean storm,
In sheltered copse, by side of verdant hill, 5
On where to crystal river whimples still
Through scenes as lovely as the banks of Rhine;
What time the blackbird whistled till the green
Old gnarlêd woods re-echoed back the strain
And I have felt a glory truly mine 10
When I in primrosed walks have loitering been;
For earth seem’d free from every spot or stain
Of Sin and Care, which make the world a Hell,
And demons roam where angels fain would dwell.

George Markham Tweddell
[Sonnets on Trees and Flowers, p. 2.] Also published in Darlington
Times, Apr. 14, 1849. Cooper’s Journal, Apr. 13, 1850. Bury
Miscellany, May, 1855. Middlesbrough News, Apr. 27, 1866. South
Durham and Cleveland Mercury, March 9, 1867. Waikouaita Herald
[New Zealand], June 19, 1867. Barrow Times, May 22, 1869. Voice of
Masonry, Aug., 1882, Northern Weekly Gazette, Mar. 29/97.

The Beech.

The Beech.
I.

I envy not the taste of those who see
No beauty in the Beech. In Spring, its green
Is of the finest hue; and I have been,
Like Virgil, glad to its cool shade to flee
From Summer’s scorching heat. And when “the sere, 5
The yellow leaf,” shows on each other tree,
The scarlet Beech gives fine variety
To our Autumnal landscape; helping to cheer
The year’s decline. And when keen Winter comes,
And strips our trees of verdure, then the Beech 10
Shows its bare branches bravely—us to teach
How, if we breast the storms of life, our homes
The true abodes of Happiness will be,
As sure as leaves and mast again adorn this tree.

II.
Virgil and Ovid sang how Romans writ 15
Their names in the kind Beech tree’s friendly bark,
Together to endure; this lasting mark
Made Shakspere’s lovers, with their rustic wit,
In Ardenne’s Forest. Well our fathers knew
The value of its timber. Many a draught 20
Of mead or nut-brown ale, I ween, they quaff’d
From Beechen Bowls, when Boreas furious blew
His stormhorn all unheeded; and they slept
Soundly on leaves dropp’d from the old Beech Tree:
And many a meal from trenchers ate, which we, 25
With appetites like theirs, had gladly leapt
From fireside stools, had we been seated their,
To join with relish in their homely fare.


III.
’T was ’neath a “broad Beech-tree” that Walton sat—
Izaak, that prince of anglers!—when he heard 30
“Friendly contention” echoed from each bird
“In the adjoining grove.” Oh! thanks for that
That fine pastoral picture, which will never fade
While love of rural life is dear to man.
The “primrose hill,” “the silver streams” than ran, 35
“Opposed by rugged roots,” endear the shade
Of Walton’s Beech-tree to the end of time.
For us his “harmless lambs” indulge their sport;
For us his “handsome milkmaid’s” voice is fraught
With sweetest melody; her pleasant rhyme 40
“Made by Kit Marlow.” Honest Izaak! each
Lover of Nature venerates thy Beech.

George Markham Tweddell
[Sonnets on Trees and Flowers, pp. 3-5.] Also published in Voice of
Masonry, Oct., 1882. Hull Miscellany, Aug. 9, 1884. The second Sonnet is
quoted in Modern Yorkshire Poets, by William Andrews, p. 51.

The Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea).

The Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea).
I love, when loitering in some rustic lane,
To see Stitchwort’s little satin flower;
For every wilding is to me a dower
By nature given, to ease the mind of pain.
Emblem of innocence it seems to me; 5
With grass-like leaves of green, and petals white;
How it adorns the hedgerows, when the light
Falls full upon it! Spotless purity,
Like its, full pain would I now make my own.
I love each flower that pleased me when a child, 10
Whether in gardens cultured, or grown wild,
Far from the precincts of the smoky town,
With Nature for sole gardener: and she
Has no more loving child than I have wish’d to be.

George Markham Tweddell
[Sonnets on Trees and Flowers, p. 6.] Also published in Accrington Times,
July 15, 1882. Hull Miscellany, Sept. 9, 1882. Masonic Review, Nov.,
1883. Ulverston Mirror, April 11, 1885.

Sweet Gale, or Bog Myrtle (Myrica Gale).

Sweet Gale, or Bog Myrtle (Myrica Gale).
I.
Linton, our artist poet, tells a tale,

How “the sweet South Wind underground was frozen,
And only growth to save her could avail:”
So “she grew up a plant; the plant so chosen
We call in our North Country the Sweet Gale.” 5
It is a pleasant plant, which I have seen
Adorn our moors; in many a rural dale
I too have found it; and it long has been
Prized by the people, who loved to give their ale
A flavour from the herb ere hops were known: 10
Its leaves hung in the houses, did not fail
To yield them their sweet fragrance; most did own
Its powers medicinial; and its wax did form
Fine scented tapers ‘gainst dark Winter’s storm.
II.

And can we learn no lesson from this plant,
To guide us in our passage through the world?
Have we no offering from human want?
No pleasant perfumes from our lives unfurl’d?
If the Sweet Gale can e’en the bog adorn 5
With beauty and with fragrance, cannot we
Bring gifts to ev’ry child of woman born,
And help to gladden poor humanity?
We too can throw abroad some useful light,
Dispelling mental darkness around; 10
Can help to put fell Ignorance to flight;
And aid in binding up each bleeding wound,
Mental or physical, our fellows feel,
And cherish Virtue for our own and other’s weal.

George Markham Tweddell
[Sonnets on Trees and Flowers, pp. 7-8.] Also published in Leeds
Mercury Weekly Supplement, May 3, 1884. Voice of Masonry, May,
1884. Northern Weekly Gazette, April 24, 1897.

Jack-by-the-Hedge, or Sauce Alone (Sysimbricum Alliasion).

Jack-by-the-Hedge, or Sauce Alone
(Sysimbricum Alliasion).
‘Our ancestors’ sole salading! I greet
Your nettle looking leaves, and flowers of white,
With a true welcome, for ye seem to invite
The student to shut up his books, and meet
The jocund Springtime in her vernal bowers— 5
For listen to the minstrelry of birds—
To gaze on pastures fleckt with flocks and herds,
And buds burst into leaf, and other flowers
Than those you bear,—daisy and celandine,
Violet and stitchwort, archangels white and red, 10
Cowslip and primrose, and chickweed’s bed
Beneath the hedgerow; and, favourite of mine,
Whoever may despise that golden star,
The dandelion gleaming and far.

George Markham Tweddell
[Sonnets on Trees and Flowers, p. 9.] Also published in Cleveland
News, Aug. 29th,1885. Northern Weekly Gazette, Ap. 10/97.