The Collected Poems of Laurence Whyte

Michael Griffin

• Publisher: Bucknell University Press
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781611487220
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Though his name might not be familiar to many twenty-first century readers, Laurence Whyte (d.1753) is an important missing link in eighteenth-century Ireland's literary and musical histories. A rural poet who established himself in Dublin as a teacher of mathematics and as an active member (and poetic chronicler) of the much admired and supported Charitable Musical Society, Whyte was a poet of considerable talent and dexterity, and his body of work yields a wealth of insight into the intersecting cultures of his time and place. Published in 1740 and 1742, Whyte's writing, by turns humorous and poignant, insightful and nostalgic, straddled the worlds of Gaelic and Anglo-Irish, of the rural midlands and the capital, of Catholic and Protestant. Some of the dualities explored in his verse were present, to varying extents, in the work of Jonathan Swift and Oliver Goldsmith. In matters poetical, political and cultural, Whyte is an important, though as yet neglected and unstudied, figure. This edition, comprehensively introduced and annotated, retrieves him from that neglect.

Table of contents

• Contents
• A Note on the Text
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• To Mr. Allan Ramsay, on the Author’s making him a Present of one of his Books, sent to him by Seignior Francis Barsanti, a famous Italian Musician residing in Edinburgh.
• An Essay on Dunning.
• A Dissertation on Fashions
• The Parting Cup
• The Captain’s Retreat
• The Broken Mug. A Tale.
• Some Critical Annotations, on various Subjects, which have been handled by several Authors.
• A Dissertation on Italian, and Irish Musick.
• A POEM in Praise of Toast and Butter; with a choice Receipt how to make it, secundum Artem.
• AN ELEGY on the much lamented Death of Patt. Beaghan
• The Hue and Cry after the Clieve-Boy, Dublin Feb. 22nd. 1725.
• The Inchantment. A Tale.
• The Fatigues of a Faithful Curate or the Spiritual Broom
• To the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin
• TO Mrs. Mary and Elizabeth Burgh
• An ELEGY on the muchLamented Death of that Excellent Mathematician, Mr. ROBERT STEELE
• An ELEGY, On the much Lamented Death of Mr. Arthur Judge
• A Divine POEM on the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
• A POEM on a Hexagon fortify’d according to Monsieur Vauban’s Method
• An ENIGMA.
• ANOTHER.
• To the Right Honourable Nicholas, Lord Viscount Netterville
• A Funeral ELEGY on the much lament-ed Death of Frances, Lady Dutchess of Tyrconnel
• On St. Patrick’s-Eve
• To Mr. Am——se F——l
• The Old Westmeath-Ballad;
• An Occasional PROLOGUE to the Miser
• An Epithalamium on the Nuptials of Min-heer Van Hoey
• A BURLESQUE upon MUSICK, Or a CURE for a SCOLD;
• An Historical POEM, On the Rise and Progress of the Charitable and Musical Society
• An Occasional Prologue design’d for the Provok’d Husband
• An Elegy on the much lamented Death of the Right Honourable Henry, Lord Viscount Dillon
• I Hope it will not be disagreeable to the Reader
• A New Version of Mr. Barnaby Harrington’s Apology
• Poems added in the second edition (1742)
• A Poem on The general Effect and Excellency of Musick
• FAMINE: A Poem.
• PLENTY: A Poem.
• GAFFER and GAMMER
• Some Yearly OBSERVATIONS on Astrologers.
• A POETICAL Description of Mr. NEAL’S new Musick-Hall
• Ready Wit as good as ready Money
• Four different ALPHABETS in Verse to induce Children to Read and Write.
• The seven Liberal Arts, Grammar, Rhetorick, Logic, Musick, Arithmetick, Geometry, and Astronomy
• A Translation of the Motto to Cardinal Fleury’s Picture.
• On the Emperor Domitian’s return to Rome.
• To the Revd. Dr.——
• The Character of an Honest Jolly Companion from the lrish Language.
• To my much honoured, and well beloved Friend
• Some Letters of Acknowledgment wrote by a Miss of eight Years old, to her Father and Mother.
• To all the Worthy Gentlemen who frequent P—’s Coffee-House.
• On a Lawyer’s old Breeches.
• On the Death of Sir Isaac Newton, Knight, and President of the Royal Society.
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Bibliography
• About the Editor