William Barnes

He was a friend of Thomas Hardy and Gerard Manley Hopkins. He is known for his Dorset dialect poems.

Despite his mastery of many languages, he paradoxically called for the purification of English by removal of Greek, Latin and foreign influences. For example, the word "photograph" (<Gk. light+writing) would become "sun-print" (<Saxon).

External reference

• See The Rebirth of England and the English: The Vision of William Barnes by Andrew Phillips ISBN 1898281173