FOOTNOTE:
[175] The words, with Music by Professor Sir Robert Stewart, Mus. Doc., have been published by Novello, Ewer & Co., London.
[ANALYSIS OF THE ODE.]
Lines 1-12.
The dawn of Learning in Ireland. The legendary visions of St. Patrick, antecedent to his conversion to Christianity, while a captive and a swineherd among the Ulster Hills.
Lines 13-20.
The cultivation and propagation of Christian philosophy and religion by the early Irish monks, whose humble cells were reared as described.
Lines 21-28.
The monasteries founded by the native-Irish chiefs.
Lines 29-32.
The statelier erections of the Anglo-Norman conquerors.
Lines 33-40.
The successive attempts (by Archbishop de Bicknor in 1320, Edward III., Edward IV. at Drogheda in 1465, Sir Philip Sidney in 1568) to establish or develop a University in Ireland up to the time of Queen Elizabeth, when the citizens of Dublin, under the auspices of Archbishop Loftus, secured the final establishment of the National University beside the shores of the “Firth of Edar” (Dublin Bay, so called from the hero or heroine Edar, who gave his or her name to its northern boundary and most striking feature—Ben Edar, or Howth).
Lines 41-52.
The Elizabethan Age, with its varying hopes and achievements, the propitious birth-date of the University.
Lines 53-74.
The purpose and appointed work of the University in the service of Wisdom.
Lines 75-94.
The bond of union between Trinity College and its alumni.
Lines 95-114.
Representative great men whom the University has produced—Ussher; Congreve and Farquhar, dramatists; Swift, master of invective and sarcasm in prose and verse; Berkeley, the idealist; Goldsmith; Moore, &c.
Lines 115-148.
The vast and multiform work actually accomplished by the University, and the labours and triumphs of its sons, during the three hundred years of its existence, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the reign of Queen Victoria.
Lines 149-222.
Apostrophe to the University on its day of jubilee—the guardian and precursor of the Light of Wisdom, the “Aurora of the Sun of Knowledge,” followed and attended by the various Arts and Sciences, typified by the Hours around the chariot of Phœbus. (From line 195 to line 222 are personified the numerous branches of Learning—Theological, Scientific, Artistic, Classical, &c.—fostered by the University.)
Lines 223-296.
The true nature of the triumph celebrated. The battle of Intellect with Darkness, waged and still to be waged. Exhortation to continue the struggle with fearless resolution and unconquerable hope.
TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, 1892.
