This paper places the early poetry of William Barnes against the background of agricultural upheaval during the 1830s and 1840s, particularly as it affected Dorset. As a dialect poet, Barnes shares qualities with earlier writers such as Robert Burns, in that he can write on behalf of his locality with direct simplicity, using expressions and poetic rhythms already familiar to an audience used to oral transmission of local news, ballads, and stories. He also shares with John Clare an attachment to place, to his childhood community and to what he considers to be a vanishing culture of self-help rather than self-interest. However, as a Victorian he exhibits two characteristics that inform his poetry, prose, and attitude to life: one is an autodidactic passion for knowledge and its dissemination; the other is a strong social conscience. Through a close examination of his ‘Eclogues’ – topical dialect ‘conversations’ – the paper seeks to explore the tensions inherent in his themes of labour and education, justice and misuse of power, love of the land and ignorance of its value. The poems are explored within their poetic and social context, uncovering a complex pattern of place and people and his attempt to link the Dorset language to landscape, while keeping a hold on his precarious position of schoolmaster in Dorset society. The paper argues that Barnes's poetry is not merely decorative or sentimental but displays deep compassion and demonstrates the need to examine Barnes's poetry with the same attention to cultural background and the poetic market place that Clare's poetry has received. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]