Alexander Smith (31 December 1830- 5 January 1867, 8 January according to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable) was a Scottish poet, and labelled as one of the Spasmodic School.
He was born in a thatched house in Kilmarnock, in the Scottish Lowlands south-west of Glasgow, the first of several children. His father, John Smith, was a Lowlander who worked as a designer of lace, calico prints, paisley patterns, and muslins. His mother Christina Murray Smith was of Highland extraction and, together with a Highland servant girl, first introduced him to Gaelic songs and Scottish legends.
Being too poor to send him to college, his parents placed him in a linen factory in Glasgow to follow his father's trade of a pattern designer.
His early poems appeared in the Glasgow Citizen, in whose editor, James Hedderwick, he found a friend. A Life Drama and other Poems (1853) was a work of promise, ran through several editions, and gained Smith the appointment of secretary to Edinburgh University in 1854.
Death is the ugly fact which Nature has to hide, and she hides it well. death
The saddest thing that befalls a soul is when it loses faith in God and woman. faith & sad
Trifles make up the happiness or the misery of human life. happiness
Christmas is the day that holds all time together. Christmas & time
How deeply seated in the human heart is the liking for gardens and gardening. gardening
Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition. love