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384 ANNA LIDDIARD(?) (c.1785–1819–c.1820) There must be some doubt about the authorship of this poem. Anna Wilkinson was born in County Meath around 1785. She married the Rev. William Liddiard (1773–1841), rector of Knockmark, Co. Meath, a well-known travel writer and poet. Anna published several volumes of poetry, some co-authored with her husband, which show that she had a considerable interest in and affection for Ireland. Mount Leinster was published anonymously and was ostensibly the work of a male poet so, not surprisingly, it has been suggested that it was the work of William rather than Anna Liddiard. There is no hard evidence for this though the poem is better written than much of Anna Liddiard’s own verse; it also demonstrates stronger anti-British bias as well as being based on a more secure scholarly knowledge of Irish history thanAnna’s other poems. In addition, the poem contains a surprisingly detailed passage in praise of the cultivation of the potato and a vivid description of a Wexford hurling match. If Anna Liddiard wrote Mount Leinster it is, as Julia Wright has stated, ‘her best work’.1 On the other hand, if the poem is the work of William Liddiard, its anti-British bias is surprising since he had been an officer in the British army during the Napoleonic wars and was chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the fourth Duke of Richmond. Since Anna Liddiard died at about the time Mount Leinster was published, it is possible that William completed Anna’s unfinished poem so that it is best described as a joint publication. The poem celebrates the beauty and fecundity of Ireland while attacking the Union of 1801 and Ireland’s treatment at the hands of the British over the centuries, particularly under the Penal laws. Its concentration on the significance of the potato in rural Irish life and its vignette of the poverty of those living near Mount Leinster are particularly poignant given that potato blight and famine were to strike rural Ireland within a generation. from: Mount Leinster; or, The Prospect: a poem, descriptive of Irish Scenery LORD of the landscape, lofty Leinster, hail! From whose high crown we view the distant sail, As on the horizon’s misty verge it flies, Where distant ocean mingles with the skies; With thy majestic beauties varying wide, As from the base we mount the rocky side, On an extensive tract the eye first dwells, Where Erin’s shore the rolling surge repels; Dotted with woods, with villas, and with farms, A glowing landscape still unfolding charms; 10 Still, as we rise, sublimer views expand, In lengthening prospect o’er the sea-girt land; Julia M. Wright, ‘J. S. Anna Liddiard’ in Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period 1 (Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Press, 2008). 385 Anna Liddiard? Where silver streams extend, and hamlets rise In panoramic view before our eyes: Ascending yet the hills behind less grow, And one wide plain appears the scene below; Till, urging on, all toils and dangers past. The aerial peak above we gain at last. … Behold around the countless crops of corn, Waving in light, brushed by the breeze of morn. 20 Luxuriant growth! pledge of her grateful soil, Which cheers the peasant and rewards his toil. Where late the common savage heath o’erspread, The o’ercharged wheat-ear rears its yellow head, And flow’ring clover’s verdant tufts arise, Joy to the flock, and incense to the skies! ... Hail! Science, hail! thou heaven-descended maid, Fair Wisdom’s glass, man’s triumph, pride and aid! Thy mounting steps the distant spheres ascend, Or, boldly plunging, to the centre bend: 30 Whate’er abstruse in Nature’s mazes lies, Thy magic opens to inquiring eyes; Space, matter, motion, thy decrees control, And to the mind display the wond’rous whole! At thy command, the canvass courts the breeze, And wafts the mariner o’er pathless seas; By rules defined he gains the distant shores, And lands remote and unknown seas explores. Thy presence2 cheers the cultivator’s toil, And guides his plans to fertilize the soil; 40 To clear the slope for the productive grain, Or point the dike3 to dry the swampy plain, By signs unerring shews the water’s course, Tracing the latent mischief to its source: i.e. the presence of science. 2 mark out the course for a ditch or field drain. The next few lines concern...

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