ORIGIN OF THE ISLE OF MAN.
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Of all the Celtic Gods, I envy most
That son of Lir,
Who drove his harness’d Dolphins round our coast
The live-long year;
Followed by an uproarious, spouting host,
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Deafening to hear.
There was no Cove so land-shut or so cozy
But Manan knew;
No Island e’er so meadowy or rosy
Escap’d his view; |
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No river’s mouth or bed but his bold nose he
Would poke into.
Of the Atlantic realm sole lord and master,
He yet controll’d
Biscayan shores, where, charged deep with disaster, |
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His thunders rolled—
The Baltic paid him amber tribute faster
Than Jews take gold. [Page 108]
Yet not content to be the sole sea-warden
Beneath the sun, |
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His heart, like ancient Pharoah, he did harden,
(Or Hutchinson,)
Seizing on Mona for his “kitchen garden.”*
Some legends run.
I sometimes doubt (though some in Manx-man’s letters |
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’Tis somewhere said,)
That Manan, once embarrass’d, like his betters,
By over-trade,
A sanctuary for all future debtors
This Island made. |
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It suits not with the hereditary story
Of him or his,
To skulk the Sheriff, or the deathless glory
A scrimmage gives;
Of the Manx story as I think the more, I
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Think less it is.
The gay god’s better purpose is to be seen
Beneath the soil,
Where wind the corridors from caves marine
For many a mile: |
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From earliest day ’twas ordained—we must ween—
A smuggling Isle. [Page 109]
And certes this Usquebagh is not at all bad,
Excised or not—
Here’s to thee, Manan! most genial old lad; |
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Not Pict nor Scot
Around this board, but would have sorrow’d sore had
You been forgot! [Page 110] |
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* John Hely Hutchinson (Lord Donoughmore), of whom Pitt said, if he had got “the three kingdoms for an estate, he would still ask the Isle of Man for a kitchen garden.” [back]
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