Kinsale Monday Nov2 – 1841
Sir
A voice from the South3 again salutes your ear – the kindness you have evinced in giving my puny productions a place in your paper demands my warmest thanks – it emboldens me to throw myself a third time on your mercy in the hope that my present performance will be equally successful with my former ones
John Tyndall
The Ed. of the Carlow Sentinel
I thankfully acknowledge the receipt of last Saturday week’s Sentinel – the kindness was quite unexpected | NB. Decoy as usual4 –
The Testimonial5
Hark the voice of empire calls
Forward to the shrine of fame
on its cloud crown’d capitals
Emblazon Bruen’s name
---
Lo the answering signal brand
Flashes on Mononia’s6 rills
Gleaming bright from strand to strand
Sheds its light on Ullin’s hills7
---
As turns the Moslem to the shrine
When the last tinges of the sun
In all their golden glory shine
Above the distant horizon
Each grateful eye is burned on thee*
Hibernia’s new Thermopylae8
---
The soaring condor plumes his wing
on Chimborazo’s lofty peak9
And hears the mountain echoes ring
In dread explosion far beneath
Amid the elemental war
The spirit of the tempest rides
And flashing from his cloudy car
Red lightnings hiss along the mountain’s sides
Unmoved – unruffled and serene
The tenant of the crag looks down upon the scene
---
So stood brave Bruen undisturb’d he viewed
The scowling cloud of agitation lour10
With steady eye – his lofty brow unmoved
He calmly waited the impending shower
And when at length the demon of the storm
Let loose the thunders from his red right hand
The dauntless chief on freedom’s pinions11 borne
Unfurled her flag and drew her flaming brand
And mantling on his cheek the patriots glow
He hurled defiance at his gorgon12 foe
---
And oft to battle for the right
He led his trusty men
And oft was worsted in the fight
Yet Bruce-like13 fought again
---
And conquered too – the wild hurrah
Has reached the distant sky
And echo from her mountain hold
Has answered cry for cry
---
Tho’ rent by many an adverse breeze
Upon the battle plain
His glorious banner freely waves
Unsullied by a stain
---
While surpliced fiends14 – Hell’s viper spawn
Before the standard bow
Lerne15 twines the laurel wreath
To bind her champions brow.
---
Now the voice of empire calls
Forward to the shrine of flame
On its cloud crowned capitals
Emblazon Bruen’s name16
*Carlow
RI MS JT/8/2/1/5–6
This letter contains a rough copy of the poem subsequently published in the Carlow Sentinel. The editor, not named here, was Thomas Harris Carroll.
Monday Nov: As the poem was published on 13 November, this letter was probably written on 8 November 1841.
from the South: from County Cork.
Decoy as usual: Tyndall requests that the poem appear over the initials ‘W. S.’, Walter Snooks being a pseudonym of Tyndall’s.
The Testimonial: Published in CS, 13 November 1841, p. [3]. The published version contains a number of minor changes, principally added punctuation.
Mononia: Mononia is the Province of Munster, comprising Counties Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford. The principal source for ‘Mononia’ was the poem ‘Remember the Glories of Brien the Brave’ in Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies (1821).
Ullin’s hills: ‘And Ullin’s hills be silent as the grave’ (G. Harvey, trans., Ossian’s Fingal; an Ancient Epic Poem (London: Valpy, 1814), II.xv.8).
Hibernia’s new Thermopylae: Colonel Henry Bruen’s electoral success at Carlow in 1841 is here compared with the famous battle at Thermopylae in 480 bc, when the Greek forces repelled a far larger army of Persian soldiers. Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for Ireland.
Chimborazo’s lofty peak: one of the highest mountains in the Andes in South America.
lour: variant spelling of lower.
pinions: wings (OED).
gorgon: In Greek mythology the Gorgons were three sisters whose hair was made from venomous snakes and who turned those who looked at them into stone.
Bruce-like: The great Scottish warrior king, Robert the Bruce (1274–1329), defeated a far larger English army at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. He later invaded Ireland to assist the Irish struggle against England.
surpliced fiends: wearing the loose vestment of white linen worn over a cassock by Roman Catholic priests.
Lerne: possibly the Lernaean Hydra that, in Greek mythology, was a many-headed serpent.
Emblazon Bruen’s name: Colonel Henry Bruen electoral success; see n. 8.
Please cite as “Tyndall0110,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 30 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0110