I do not think there is much “glamour of the Kelt” in Roden Noël’s work, but it may be discerned in one or two poems in each of his volumes, and in many of his lyrics and irregular lyrical compositions there is much of Celtic intensity and dream. Few poets have written of the sea with more loving knowledge and profound sympathy; hence it is that he is represented here by one characteristic sea-poem, called “The Swimmer”—as autobiographical as anything of the kind can be. The swimmer’s joy was Roden Noël’s chief physical delight. All who knew the man himself remember him as one of the personalities of his time, and as a man of individual distinction and charm. Besides the book already mentioned, his chief poetic volumes are Beatrice and Other Poems (1868); Songs of the Heights and Deeps (1885); and A Modern Faust (1888). See also the Selection from his poems published in the Canterbury Poets Series (edited, with a Critical Introduction, by Mr Robert Buchanan), and the posthumous volumes My Sea and Selected Lyrics (Elkin Mathews).
CHARLES P. O’CONOR.
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Besides this typical Irish song, Mr O’Conor has written other winsome lyrics of the same kind. One of the best is that called “Erinn” beginning—
“O, a lovely place is Erinn, in the summer of the year,
Roseen dhu ma Erinn.”
This and “Maura Du of Ballyshannon” are from his Songs of a Life (Kentish Mercury Office, 1875).
JOHN FRANCIS O’DONNELL.
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This pretty Spinning Song is characteristic of the always deft and generally delicate and winsome lyrical writing of Mr Francis O’Donnell.
JOHN BOYLE O’REILLY.
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This prolific writer, often designated an Irish-American poet, through the accident of his enforced exile to, and long residence in, the United States, is inadequately represented by the brief lyric, “A White Rose”; but it is significant of his best achievement, for he is always at his happiest in brief, spontaneous lyrics, often in a Heinesque vein. John Boyle O’Reilly was born at Dowth Castle in Ireland. In his early manhood he enlisted in a hussar regiment; and it was while as a hussar that he was arrested on the charge of spreading republican principles in the ranks, and was sentenced to be shot. This sentence was commuted to twenty years of penal servitude; when the unfortunate man, victim of that disastrous as well as iniquitous tyranny which has characterised the English official attitude towards the Celtic populations, was taken to the convict settlements of Western Australia. Thence, in time, he escaped, and after hairbreadth escapes reached Philadelphia. From there he went to Boston, where he settled; and in a few years, by virtue of his remarkable gifts as a poet, a prose-writer, and a brilliant journalist, became an acknowledged power in trans-Atlantic literature. A novel of his, Moondyne, is widely and deservedly celebrated. Of his poetical works, the best are Songs of the Southern Seas, Songs, Legends, and Ballads, and In Bohemia.
ARTHUR O’SHAUGHNESSY. (1844-1881.)
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