1811 Poem, Francis Boyle 'Preface'
Author: Francis Boyle
Date: 1811
Source: Poem: ‘Preface’ from Miscellaneous Poems by Francis Boyle (Belfast: Printed by D & S Lyons, Corn-market, 1811).
Comments: Francis Boyle, also known as Frank Boal, was from Gransha, near Gilnahirk in County Down. Unlike Thomson and Orr, he was conservative in religion and politics (a Covenanter and Loyalist) during the 1798 rebellion, but his command of Ulster-Scots in his verse is on a par with the best of those poets in his day. He only published one book of poems in 1811, along with a few (such as ‘The Carnmoney Witches’) in local newspapers before moving from Comber Parish to the Ards.
Doc. ref. no.: USLS/TB/Poetry/1800-1899/018
PREFACE, &c.
Remote frae colleges an’ schools,
An’ unacquaint wi’ grammar rules,
Bred up amang the rustic thrang,
How could I learn to mak’ a sang?
My father and my mother dead,
By labour hard I earn’d my bread,
Without a guardian or a guide,
In peasants’ cots I did reside,
Whare nane could either read or write —
Our language rough and unpolite;
Like muirlan’ herds wha flocks do guide,
By Leven banks, or Lomond side:
Yet clachans, cots, and kintra houses,
Receive some visits frae the Muses;
While courts an’ castles they pass over,
They stap at GRENSHAW an’ DUNOVER;
Their humble bards for to inspire,
Wi’ glee, and some poetic fire;
Which gi’es us wit an’ mair discernin’,
Than ony school, or classic learnin’;
For every man o’ sense may know it,
That art can never mak’ a poet;
The gifts that nature has denied,
By art can never be supplied;
But Nature’s gifts, when join’d to Art’s,
Do finish aff the man o’ parts.
