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Standish O'Grady, clergyman, farmer, poet (fl 1793-1841). Born in Ireland, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and was ordained into the Church of Ireland ministry. Poverty forced him to immigrate to Lower Canada in 1836 where he settled on a farm near Sorel.
O'Grady, Standish
Standish O'Grady, clergyman, farmer, poet (fl 1793-1841). Born in Ireland, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and was ordained into the Church of Ireland ministry. Poverty forced him to immigrate to Lower Canada in 1836 where he settled on a farm near Sorel. He is remembered in Canada for his long narrative poem, The Emigrant, published in Montréal in 1841, in which he describes the hardships of settlement life and expresses his profound dislike for the social, cultural and climatic environment of Canada. In his nostalgic yearnings for the "old country" and his unhappiness over hardships in the "New World," he epitomizes the main characteristics of the emigrant theme in early Canadian literature.
