Grampian Club > Monuments and monumental inscriptions in Scotland > Volume 1

THE NECKOPOLIS. 475
Forth in the frosty pilgrimage of life
To face the tempests, and to fling them back
With the strong arm of virtue and resolve."
Though slightly known to fame, Moore is entitled to a respect-
able place among Scottish minor poets. His themes are lofty and
his language rich and copious.
Alexander Eodger, another minor poet, is in the Necropolis
honourably commemorated. His monument, a handsome erection,
presents a medallion of the poet's head, along with the following
inscription : —
" To the memory of Alexander Eodger, a poet, gifted with feel-
ing, humour, and fancy ; a man animated by generous, cordial, and
comprehensive sympathies, which adversity could not repress nor
popularity enfeeble, this monument is erected in testimony of
public esteem. Born at Mid-Calder, 16th Jrdy, 1784, died at
Glasgow, 26th September, 1846.
" What though with Burns thou couldst not vie.
In diving deep or soaring high ;
What though thy genius did not blaze
Like his, to draw the public gaze ;
Yet thy sweet numbers, free from art.
Like his can touch, can melt the heart."
Eodger was apprenticed in his twelfth year to a silversmith in
Edinburgh. He afterwards became a weaver in Glasgow, when he
also acted as a music-master. Extreme in his political opinions
he was led in 1819 to support a journal which promoted disaffec-
tion ; he was convicted of revolutionary practices and sent to
prison. He was subsequently employed in the Barrowfield Works.
In 1836 he became assistant-editor of the Reformer's Gazette, a
situation which he held till his death. Many of his poems are
disfigured by coarse political allusions, but several of his songs are
of a high order, and are deservedly popular.
A handsome cenotaph commemorates Thomas Atkinson, book-
seller and miscellaneous writer. He was born at Glasgow in 1801.
On completing the usual apprenticeship he commenced business