Alexander Smith (31 December 1829 – 5 January 1867) was a Scottish poet and essayist, born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, and raised in Paisley, where he worked for a time as a pattern designer in the textile trade before turning to literature full-time. **Literary career**: Smith rose to fame with *A Life-Drama, and Other Poems* (1853), a work praised for its lush imagery and youthful ambition. He became associated with the so-called "Spasmodic school" of poetry — a group criticized by contemporaries (notably in W.E. Aytoun's parody *Firmilian*) for overwrought emotion and loose structure. Despite the mockery, Smith's early success secured him the post of Secretary to Edinburgh University in 1854, a position he held for the rest of his life. **Later works**: He went on to publish *City Poems* (1857) and *Edwin of Deira* (1861), moving toward more restrained, narrative verse. He also turned to prose, producing well-regarded essays collected in *Dreamthorp* (1863) — considered his finest and most enduring work, admired for its reflective, personal style — as well as *A Summer in Skye* (1865), a lyrical travel memoir of the Scottish Highlands, and a novel, *Alfred Hagart's Household* (1866). **Death and legacy**: Smith died young, at 36, from diphtheria complicated by overwork. His reputation as a poet dimmed after the Spasmodic controversy, but *Dreamthorp* has kept his name alive as a distinctive voice in Victorian essay-writing. Note: this is distinct from Alexander McCall Smith, the contemporary Zimbabwean-born Scottish author of the *No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency* series — let me know if that's who you meant instead.
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