Author: Ryan, John G.
Biography:
RYAN, John G. (fl 1834)
He has not been identified although his book, Nugae Poeticae, contains some clues. It is dedicated to “the Rev. John Clunie of Manchester” by “his former pupil.” Clunie (1784-1858) was an independent church minister and master of the school in Leaf Square, Manchester, from 1812 to 1837. A collection of work by Clunie’s pupils, Prize Themes and Other Compositions (1818), is listed in this bibliography but it is not known if work by Ryan is included. The preface to Nugae Poeticae establishes that Ryan’s poems were written between the ages of fifteen and twenty and that he had suffered from some unspecified sorrows. One poem indicates that his father died when Ryan was young. Another poem, “My Native Place,” is about Wales and was written in 1829 when he revisited his former home after an absence of ten years. “Thy Natal Day,” is addressed to a sister. (Yorkshire Poets; W. E. A. Axon, ed. Annals of Manchester [1886]; ancestry.co.uk 12 Dec. 2024) SR