Annual Volume 19 (1989)

THE COMIC POEMS OF WILLIAM TENNANT

Edited by Maurice Lindsay
& Alexander Scott

Published in: Hardback.
By: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Aberdeen, 1989.
Price: £8.95
ISBN 0 7073 0569 1

Anster Fair remained one of the most popular comic poems by a Scot throughout the nineteenth century. It has gone through several editions since it first appeared in 1812, but has long been out of print. Couched in the Italian ottava rima stanza, it is thought that Byron may have seen a contemporary review of it, adopting the stanza-form, including the far-fetched rhyme-scheme, for, among other poems, Beppo and Don Juan.

The author of Anster Fair was a Fife man, William Tennant (1784-1848), who trained for the ministry but in later life occupied the Chair of Oriental Languages in St Mary's College, St Andrews.

In addition to Anster Fair, this volume includes Papistry Storm'd, a humourous account of the Knoxian mob-attack on the Cathedral of St Andrews, together with some examples of Tennant's shorter pieces in Scots.

The Comic Poems of William Tennant brings together an enjoyable group of poems, the best of his voluminous output.

Typeset by Speedspools, Edinburgh. Printed by Aberdeen University Press, Aberdeen

Last updated 17 February 2015.