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ePaper created 2014-04-08, 18:05:31 | version 1.29.01
99 GENERAL SUPERNATURAL [Back to Contents] This part of the Supernatural Reader covers a number of areas of the supernatural, including the Devil, love-magic, omens and fortune-telling. It also provides some general, contemporary rumination on popular belief by self-regarding, educated, urban and urbane commentators. General [Back to Contents] Sarah Leech, Address to Lettergull (Taken from Poems on Various Subjects, 1828). Born in the parish of Taughboyne, Co. Donegal, Sarah Leech (1809-c.1830) had a tough upbringing, particularly following the death of her father, when she was only three years old. Educated until the age of twelve, Leech spun thread to financially support her mother and family. A toilsome task, often for long hours, in poor light and damp conditions; spinning badly affected Leech’s eyesight, and she developed rheumatism at a young age. Nevertheless, Leech is a poet of remarkable ability and spirit, who displays a propensity for satire, often responding to the poetic attentions of local patrons by employing a characteristic form of Ulster Scots ‘levelling’. Her poem ‘Address to Lettergull’ (near Raphoe, Co. Donegal) represents a veritable hotchpotch of Irish and Scottish beliefs and folklore. ‘Address to Lettergull O Lettergull, weel may you fare, And usual broils ne’er vex you mair, That Providence may aye shew care, For ane and a’, Shall ever be my earnest prayer, Tho’ far awa’. May barley on your braes still grow, And rough heads on your Craigen knowe, Wi’ which to mak’ a rantin lowe,59 When North winds blaw, And gear in plenty on you row, Tho’ I’m awa. 59 Pleasant blaze of colour.