Michael Bruce (poet)
| Michael Bruce | |
|---|---|
| Born |
27 March 1746 Portmoak, Kinross-shire |
| Died | 15 July 1767 (aged 21) |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Occupation | poet, hymnist |
| Notable work | Elegy written in Spring |
Michael Bruce (27 March 1746 – 15 July 1767) was a Scottish poet and hymnist.
Bruce was born at Kinnesswood in the parish of Portmoak, Kinross-shire. His father, Alexander Bruce, was a weaver. Michael was taught to read before he was four years old, and one of his favourite books was a copy of Sir David Lyndsay's works. His attendance at school was often interrupted, because he had to herd cattle on the Lomond Hills in summer, and this early companionship with nature greatly influenced his poetry. A delicate child, he grew up as the pet of his family and friends. He studied Latin and Greek, and at fifteen, when his schooling was completed, a small legacy left to his mother, with some additions from kindly neighbours, enabled him to go to the University of Edinburgh, which he attended during the four winter sessions 1762-1765.
In 1765 he taught during the summer months at Gairney Bridge, receiving about 5s a year in fees and free board in a pupil's home. He became a divinity student at the Theological Hall,Kinross, with a Scottish seceding church, classified at that time as the Burghers. Bruce was sincere in his Christian deportment and it was said of him 'Religion was obviously with him a matter of experience'.,'only an evangelical Christian of reformed faith could have penned his hymns and paraphrases'. In the first summer (1766) of his course at Kinross he was put in charge of a new school at Forestmill, near Clackmannan, where he led a life marred by poverty, disease and loneliness. There he wrote "Lochleven," a poem inspired by the memories of his childhood, which shows the influence of Thomson and confirmed his reputation as a 'local poet and one of the heralds of the later outburst of Scottish song '. He had already been threatened with consumption, and now became seriously ill. During the winter he returned on foot to his father's house, where he wrote his last and finest poem, "Elegy written in Spring" considered among ' the sweetest and most moving compositions in the English language'. He died in 1767, cheerful to the last. A poetical genius James Grant Wilson said of him in 1876, 'cut off in life's green spring'
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