Thomas Campbell (1777-1844)
Campbell is the best-remembered Glasgow poet of the Georgian era. He is commemorated in statue form with Burns and Scott in George Square, and at Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. A plaque in a lane off the High Street in Glasgow marks the poet’s birthplace, across the road from the original site of the University, where he ‘excelled in all the branches of the ordinary academic classes, but especially in the classics.’ Campbell is said to be have been named after a close friend of his father’s, Thomas Reid (1710-1796), the Professor at Glasgow famed for his ‘Common Sense School’ of Philosophy.
His major works are The Pleasures of Hope (1799) and Gertrude of Wyoming; or, The Pennsylvanian Cottage (1809), while other individual poems such as ‘Ye Mariners of England’ and ‘The Soldier’s Dream’ have been celebrated as some of the best of the era. There is a strong sense of British unionism and of liberty from political oppression in these works, with a particular emphasis on Poland’s cause. He did not write much on Glasgow, although his ‘Elegy Written in Mull’ (1795) reveals his longing for home.
Campbell also made his mark on the continent. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) said of the poet: ‘I consider Campbell more classical than my favourite Byron, and far above any English poet, whose works have fallen in my way.’ Yet, his attention as a poet in the Romantic era has placed him often in a British rather than a Scottish context. His verse was chiefly in English, not Scots, and has therefore earned him comparisons with the likes of Alexander Pope and William Wordsworth rather than the Scots who stand beside him in George Square.
From 1826-1829, Campbell was Lord Rector of Glasgow University, having been favoured over Sir Walter Scott in the election. He received the freedom of the city of Edinburgh and was honoured by students in Glasgow, who established a Campbell Club, adding to the long list of commemorations that tell us how well-received were his works in his day.