Quick Facts
- Born:
- Jan. 5, 1789, Blaiklaw, Roxburghshire, Scot.
- Died:
- Dec. 5, 1834, London, Eng. (aged 45)
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.
Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Thomas Pringle
Scottish-South African poet
Thomas Pringle (born Jan. 5, 1789, Blaiklaw, Roxburghshire, Scot.—died Dec. 5, 1834, London, Eng.) was a Scottish-South African poet, often called the father of South African poetry.
Pringle was educated at the University of Edinburgh and befriended by Sir Walter Scott. He immigrated to South Africa in 1820. He published a newspaper and a magazine in Cape Town, but his reform views caused their suppression. He returned to London in 1826 and spent the rest of his life in the antislavery movement. His two verse collections, Ephemerides (1828) and African Sketches (1834), contained many notable poems dealing with the people, wildlife, and landscape of Africa. Narrative of a Residence in South Africa (1835) was his autobiography.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.
By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica
Privacy Policy
and
Terms of Use.