The Irish Poet and the Natural World: An Anthology of Verse in English from the Tudors to the Romantics

Patrick Delany (1685–c.1732–1768)

177 PATRICK DELANY (1685–c.1732–1768) Patrick Delany, one of Swift’s closest friends, was born in Queen’s County (now County Laois) and educated at Trinity College Dublin where he became a Fellow and Professor of Oratory and History. He was ordained into the Church of Ireland and eventually became Dean of Down. Delany is remembered for his hospitality at Delville, his elegant house and estate at Glasnevin, north of Dublin and for the fact that his second wife was Mary Pendarves, the famous artist, collector and correspondent. Swift described Delany as ‘a man of the easyest and best conversation I ever met with in this Island, a very good listener, a right reasoner, neither too silent nor talkative and never positive.’ In ‘Longford’s Glyn’, Delany echoes Spenser in a blending of Irish and classical mythology. The setting is the long, mysterious ‘Lumford’s Glen’near the village of Clogher, Co. Tyrone. The story Delany spins – of a nymph named Monimeca who is turned into the waterfall at the end of the glen as she flees the lecherous giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (while her lover, Altus, becomes the willow tree beside the waterfall) – suggests the origins of unusual rock formations in the glen. The poem (like MacPherson’s The Works of Ossian (1765)) claims to come from a Gaelic original, though this is most unlikely and none has been traced. Delany’s modern editor, Robert Hogan, states that this poem was written ‘in 1732 or earlier’. See The Poems of Patrick Delany ed. Robert Hogan (University of Delaware Press, 2006, p.173). from: Longford’s Glyn:1 A true history. Faithfully translated from the Irish Original In fair Tyrone, for fruitful Fields renown’d, And waving Hills, with various Verdure crown’d, Where Mountains over Mountains tow’ring high With pleasing Horror fill the distant Eye! Not far from where that antient City stood, Wash’d by Owindo’s2 smooth and sable Flood, For royal Ergal’s palace3 fam’d of old, And Pagan oracles from Rocks of Gold; Clogh-ore from thence in antient Records nam’d, Though since a See for Christian Prelates fam’d, 10 cf. Ir. clogh-oir, ‘golden stone’; there was a famous oracle stone at Clogher in pagan times. cf. Ir. abhann (pronounced 2 ‘owin’) a river and Ir. dubh (pronounced ‘duv’) dark or black. St Patrick ordered that a monastery [‘palace’] be built in Clogher, which was once called 3 Ergal or Uriel. 178 Where John4 renown’d for Bounty and for Books, Peace at his Heart, and Plenty in his Looks, Guards well the Ways with hospitable Eye, Nor lets the Traveller pass hungry by: A nymph, the wonder of the neighbouring swains, The pride of all the sweet Cecilian5 plains, Fair Monimeca dwelt, of race divine, Offspring of Pan6 and glory of his line! ... Contiguous was a Vale, of various Shade, By arching Rocks and meeting Mountains made! 20 Here, parallel approach the mighty Mounds,7 And there, in hollow Windings part their Bounds; The Rocks with Woods, the Woods with Rocks o’ergrown, Protect the shrilling Hawk, and Woodquest’s8 Moan; Above the Summit of the craggy Steep, The Eagle, sailing with majestic Sweep, Smiles on the distant Terrors of the Gun, Or tries her penon’d Offspring at the Sun!9 The Goat, with Pain distinguisht from below,10 Late browses, pendant, on the horrid Brow, 30 With dreadful Negligence! The Shepherd sees, And shouts him down by dangerous Degrees! Waking the Dissonance of Rooks and Jays, Whilst blended Echoes bound along the Maze … John Sterne (1660–1745). 4 i.e. of the area – the manor of Cecil. 5 The classical god of nature. 6 i.e. the neighbouring ranges of hills. 7 pigeon. 8 i.e. or endeavours to get her winged (penoned: pinioned, with wings) offspring to fly 9 high. i.e. the goat [so high up on the rocks that it is] hard to see from below, has recently been 10 browsing on the dreadful edge, almost hanging over the cliff. 179 Patrick Delany … Fast down the Rock, the living Fountain11 flows, To bath her Love12 and bless him as he grows, Flows fast, and fondly curling round his Root, Swells to a limpid Bason at his Foot: Each, Life and Sense, (so Pan decreed) retains, And lasting as their Life, their Love remains: 40 Is still the same, to the...