Robert Pollok, author of the immortal poem, "The Course of Time," was
the son of a small farmer in the parish of Eaglesham, Renfrewshire,
where he was born on the 19th October 1798. With a short interval of
employment in the workshop of a cabinetmaker, he was engaged till his
seventeenth year in services about his father's farm. Resolving to
prepare for the ministry in the Secession Church, he took lessons in
classical learning at the parish school of Fenwick, Ayrshire, and in
twelve months fitted himself for the university. He attended the
literary and philosophical classes in Glasgow College, during five
sessions, and subsequently studied in the Divinity Hall of the United
Secession Church. He wrote verses in his boyhood, in his eighteenth year
composed a poetical essay, and afterwards produced respectable
translations from the Classics as college exercises. His great poem,
"The Course of Time," was commenced in December 1824, and finished
within the space of nineteen months. On the 24th March 1827, the poem
was published by Mr Blackwood; and on the 2d of the following May the
author received his license as a probationer. The extraordinary success
of his poem had excited strong anticipations in respect of his
professional career, but these were destined to disappointment. Pollok
only preached four times. His constitution, originally robust, had
suffered from over exertion in boyhood, and more recently from a course
of sedulous application in preparing for license, and in the production
of his poem. To recruit his wasted strength, a change of climate was
necessary, and that of Italy was recommended. The afflicted poet only
reached Southampton, where he died a few weeks after his arrival, on the
18th September 1827. In Millbrook churchyard, near Southampton, where
his remains were interred, a monument has been erected to his memory.
Besides his remarkable poem, Pollok published three short tales relative
to the sufferings of the Covenanters. He had projected a large work
respecting the influences which Christianity had exercised upon
literature. Since his death, several short poetical pieces from his pen
have, along with a memoir, been published by his brother. In person he
was of the ordinary height, and of symmetrical form. His complexion was
pale brown; his features small, and his eyes dark and piercing. "He
was," writes Mr Gabriel Neil, who enjoyed his friendship, "of plain
simple manners, with a well-cultivated mind; he loved debate, and took
pleasure in good-humoured controversy." The copyright of "The Course of
Time" continues to produce emolument to the family.