Robert Rose (1806-1849), who styled himself the Bard of Colour, was a mixed-race poet from the West Indies active in early Victorian Manchester.
Rose was born in the West Indies in 1806 or 1808, and is believed to have migrated to Salford as a child. Though himself a gentleman of independent means, he was associated with a group of working class poets known as the Sun Inn Group, who met regularly at the Sun Inn on Long Millgate, Manchester. This group included John Critchley Prince, Charles Swain, John Bolton Rogerson, Elijah Ridings, and Samuel Bamford.
Rose was said to have been the first to buy a copy of Philip James Bailey's 1839 poem Festus, which had been slow to leave the shelves of Wilmot Henry Jones, 'the 'Manchester Moxon, the provincial poets printer'. The Chartist bookbinder Benjamin Stott included a sonnet to Rose in his Songs for the millions, and other poems (1843). The Kilmarnock poet John Ramsay dedicated his 1844 collection Woodnotes of a Wanderer to Rose.
Most of Rose's verse was published in newspapers, though two poems, The Coronation (1838) and The Bazaar (1839) were published separately.
Rose died in police custody on 19 June 1849, imprisoned after a drinking spree. He was 43 years old. He was buried in Manchester General Cemetery on 21 June 1849. His fellow poet John Bolton Rogerson, who was the cemetery's registrar, read a specially composed service over the grave. Lines of Rose's own verse were inscribed on his gravestone:
Charles Kenworthy wrote a poem mourning Rose's death.
A manuscript of Rose's poetry is held at Chetham's Library.
In February 2024 Rose was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary by the poet and beatboxer Testament.