Birmingham Poet
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
John Freeth, who died at the age of seventy-eight in 1808. He was wit, poet, and publican, who not only wrote the words and tunes of songs, but sang them also, and sang them well.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Birmingham Poet” mean?
John Freeth, who died at the age of seventy-eight in 1808. He was wit, poet, and publican, who not only wrote the words and tunes of songs, but sang them also, and sang them well.
Is “Birmingham Poet” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.