Michael McGovern (poet)
Encyclopedia
Born in Castlerea
Castlerea
Castlerea is located in the west of County Roscommon, Ireland. It is the second largest town in the county with a population of 3,055 . Roughly translated from Irish, Castlerea can mean Brindled Castle or King's Castle...
, Roscommon
Roscommon
Roscommon is the county town of County Roscommon in Ireland. Its population at the 2006 census stood at 5,017 . The town is located near the junctions of the N60, N61 and N63 roads.-History:...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, McGovern emigrated first to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and then to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He eventually settled in Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, along with his wife, the former Anne Murphy, and secured work in the local steel mills. McGovern rose to the position of puddler, a skilled laborer responsible for converting pig iron into wrought iron by removing impurities.
In 1899, McGovern secured national celebrity with the publication of Labor Lyrics and Other Poems. He went on to author a popular newspaper column in the Youngstown Daily Vindicator
The Vindicator
The Vindicator, also known at times as The Youngstown Vindicator, is a daily newspaper serving Youngstown, Ohio and the Mahoning County Region as well as southern Trumbull County and northern Columbiana County. Founded in 1869, the newspaper currently has a circulation of 62,100 daily and 87,000...
.
McGovern's poems fall into three basic categories: rolling mill rhymes, labor growls and miscellaneous trifles, and amorous verses "to show that a rolling mill man has a heart as susceptible to the purest motives of love as those who have millions wherewith to purchase a title".
Some scholars have argued that McGovern's work, which features religious themes, shows the influence of the Social Gospel
Social Gospel
The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada...
movement. This intellectual movement drew sharp connections between social justice causes and the teachings of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
.