Irish Lyrics And Ballads

Irish Lyrics and Ballads - 1917 - PREFACE - IN this book of poems the Authors aim is to represent in poetic form the three phases of imaginative experience that come to a man of dreamy and sympathetic mind, living in Ireland. There is an atmosphere of strange enchantment at all times among the Irish glens and hills, particularly at evening or night-iime, when a huge, mystic moon gazes solemnly at one, from the summit of some historic mountain, through the broken windows of an ancient tower It is quite easy to believe in the existence of the People of the Sidhe - the Fairies - at such a moment, and the prehistoric Rathr, or Fairy Mounds, in whose depths they still love to dwell, are pointed out on all sides, crowned with their almost impervious thickets of silver hazel and magic white-thorn This phase of his acquired knowledge is partially covered by the poems included under the heading T h e Horns of Elfland. In the next place he will come to understand and to love the charm of the Irish people themselves, and to feel the strange and intimate influence of the glens and maintains in which they live. He will grow to appreciate the peasantry and to share with them in their joys and their griefs. His attitude towards them is interpretid in the series of poems under the heading- In the Shadowy Glens. Lastly, as he travels around the country, and comes upon the places whose names are celebrated in the weird, immemorial legends of the Red Branch, the Cuchulain Saga, of Fin, and Ossian, and Dhiarmuid of the Love Spot when he visits purple Slieve-na-mon and the hill of Allen, Tailtea and Tara, Emania and Cashel of the Kings, he will find his soul under the spell of ancient Eire and of hergodlike heroes the glory of whose exploits has been handed down to us by the Bards and Seanachies. Some of the knowledge which he obtains from this legendary phase is placed under the heading - The Ancient Celtic Glamour. The writer is well aware that many of the subjects touched herein cannot be properly felt or appreciated except by persons of Celtic blood, with Celtic souls vibrant to the mysteries of the spirit-world, and of that region which borderson it, the home of the enchanted imagination. But the Celtic blood is by this time so intermingled with the other racds that there is little likelihood of these themes being unappreciated if the author has been successful in his literary presentation of them. CONTENTS TEE HORNS OF ELFLAND PAGE IN THE SHADOWY GLENS SBOANLGL O A F G T GH HE A PL I . T . TL . EV . IL . L . A . GE . S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 25 8 ON ARRANS HORE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 RIDERS TO THE SEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 IRELANDMS I SH IL LS . . . . . . . . . . 31 MAURYAB AWN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 ALLS OULSN IGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 THE C ONNAUGHSTH ORE . . . . . . . . . . . 37 THE T INKER . S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 IRELANDM. ARCH1 7. I 13 . . . . . . . . . . 39 T E o M WMIELTLESIA PIMBTU ATPLHE . R J . E . AT . S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 0 1 IN MEMORIA . M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 THEE XILESR ETURN . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 MOTHERL OVE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 EVELEEBNU RKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 TIPPERAR . Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 vii t CONTENTS WILLIAMBU TLERY EATS . . . . . . . . . . . P A 5 G 1 E RATHLINIS LAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 MOONDHARRB I Y G T HE SUIR . . . . . . . . . . 53 ORANG A E N D GREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE DAY OF THE LITTLE PEOPLES 56 . . . . . ...