James Rhoades (1841 – 15 March 1923) was an Anglo–Irish poet, translator and author. He worked as a schoolmaster.

Life

Rhoades was born in

Clonmel Clonmel () is the county town and largest settlement of County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Cromwellian army which sacked the towns of Dro ...

County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...

and was educated at

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, graduating B.A. in 1864 and M.A. in 1867. He taught at Haileybury College and

Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...

. Between those posts, while his wife was ill, he was a tutor in

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

. Rhoades married Charlotte Elizabeth Lester, daughter of

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

Sir Frederick Parkinson Lester, they had two sons and two daughters together. He married secondly Alice Hunt, daughter of John Hunt. Rhoades died in Kelvedon on 15 March 1923.

Works

Rhoades has been described as "a conventional poet who wrote of imperial war in a conservative idiom and a grandiloquent style". He was author of ''The City of the five gates'' (

Chapman & Hall Chapman & Hall is an imprint owned by CRC Press, originally founded as a British publishing house in London in the first half of the 19th century by Edward Chapman and William Hall. Chapman & Hall were publishers for Charles Dickens (from 1840 ...

, 1913) which gives as a preface note:

The following poem is intended to convey the doctrine of what is often mistermed "The New Thought"; namely, that by conscious union with the indwelling Principle of Life, man may attain completeness here and now.
Out of the Silence
" while structurally conforming to the
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam ''Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám'' is the title that Edward FitzGerald (poet), Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian language, Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (') attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dub ...
, is directly opposite in its teaching.

A quote from this pamphlet (from ''Out of the Silence'') was included in '' The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse'' (1917, Nicholson & Lee, eds) as is ''O Soul of Mine''. Rhoades is quoted with approval by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in ''On the Art of Reading'' (1920).

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rhoades, James 1841 births 1923 deaths English male poets Translators of Virgil People from Clonmel Writers from County Tipperary People educated at Rugby School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge