GERALD GRIFFIN. (1803-1840.)
[PAGE 121]
The author of the lovely song, “Eileen Aroon” (Nellie, my Darling), was born in Limerick. His chief work is his novel, The Collegians, which has been pronounced to be “the most perfect Irish novel published.” I have heard that Tennyson once “went mooning about for days,” repeating with endless gusto, and with frequent expressions of a wish that he was the author of, the closing lines:—
Youth must with time decay,
Eileen Aroon!
Beauty must fade away,
Eileen Aroon!
Castles are sacked in war,
Chieftains are scattered far,
Truth is a fixèd star,
Eileen Aroon!
NORA HOPPER.
[PAGE 123] ETC.
This young Irish poet made an immediate impression by her Ballads in Prose (John Lane). Both in prose and verse she displays the true Celtic note, and often the unmistakable Celtic intensity. The lovely lyrics “April in Ireland,” and “The Wind among the Reeds,” are from Ballads in Prose. “The Dark Man” has not hitherto appeared in print, and I am indebted to Miss Hopper for her permission to quote it here. It is, I understand, to be included in her shortly forthcoming volume, to be published by Mr John Lane.
DOUGLAS HYDE, LL.D.
[PAGE 126]
Dr Hyde, one of the foremost living expositors of Gaelic folklore in Ireland, was born about thirty-five years ago in the Co. Roscommon, where he has since resided. He graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, after an exceptionally brilliant University career. He is now President of the Gaelic League, and one of the acknowledged leaders of the Gaelic wing of the Celtic Renascence; but from the first he was in the front rank of those who are working for the preservation of the ancient Irish language and the rescue of its beautiful fugitive literature. Although best known by his Irish Tales, taken down at first hand from the peasantry, and other Folk-collections, and his invaluable and unique The Love Songs of Connacht (Connaught), he is himself a poet of mark. (See, also, Note XI., supra.) Those who are in a position to judge declare his Gaelic poetry, which appears in the Irish Press above the signature “An Chraoibhin Aoibhinn,” to be of altogether exceptional excellence. The work Dr Douglas Hyde does deserves the most cordial recognition. No man has worked more whole-heartedly, more enthusiastically, and with more far-reaching success for the cause of the Irish-Gaelic language, folk-lore, and literature, and, it may be added, the best interests of the Irish of the soil.
The songs by which he is represented in this volume are from the Love Songs of Connacht (Fisher Unwin, 1893), a book which is not only indispensable to the Celtic scholar, but should be in the hands of every lover of Celtic literature, old-time or new. All are translations, though perhaps paraphrastic rather than metaphrastic. Both in their music and in their intensity—in, also, their peculiar lyric lilt—they are distinctively West Irish. The collection from which these poems are drawn was issued as The Fourth Chapter of the Songs of Connacht. The preceding three appeared in the now defunct Nation. They were all originally written in Irish; but very wisely, or at any rate for us very fortunately, Dr Hyde interpolated translations. In these he has endeavoured to reproduce the vowel-rhymes as well as the exact metres of the original poems. We must hope to see the reprint, in like fashion, of the predecessors of this volume.
LIONEL JOHNSON.
[PAGE 133]
Though come of a Dublin family, and otherwise Irish by descent, Mr Johnson was born at Broadstairs in Kent (1867). He first became known to the reading public, as a poet, by his contributions to The Book of the Rhymers’ Club, notable for their distinction of touch. Since then Mr Johnson has published much in prose and verse, though in book form he has not, I think, produced any other prose work than his admirable study of Thomas Hardy, or any other volume of poetry than his Poems. His work is not characterised by distinctively Celtic quality, though occasionally, as in “The Red Wind” and “To Morfydd,” the Celtic note makes itself audible. No doubt—to judge from internal evidence in his later writings—Mr Johnson’s poetic work, at least, will develop more and more along the line of his racial bent.