“ ... a troubled Eden, rich
In throb of heart ...”

GEORGE MEREDITH

CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTION [xvii]
ANCIENT IRISH AND SCOTTISH
The Mystery of Amergin[3]
The Song of Fionn[4]
Credhe’s Lament[5]
Cuchullin in his Chariot[6]
Deirdrê’s Lament for the Sons of Usnach[8]
The Lament of Queen Maev[10]
The March of the Faërie Host[12]
Vision of a Fair Woman[13]
The Fian Banners[14]
The Rune of St Patrick[17]
Columcille cecenit[18]
Columcille fecit[20]
The Song of Murdoch the Monk[22]
Domhnull Mac Fhionnlaidh: “The Aged Bard’s Wish”[23]
Ossian Sang[28]
Fingal and Ros-crana[29]
The Night-Song of the Bards[31]
The Death-Song of Ossian[41]
ANCIENT CORNISH
The Pool of Pilate[44], [45]
Merlin the Diviner[46]
The Vision of Seth[47]
EARLY ARMORICAN
The Dance of the Sword[53]
The Lord Nann and the Fairy[55]
Alain the Fox[58]
Bran[60]
EARLY CYMRIC AND MEDIÆVAL WELSH
The Soul[67]
Llywarc’h Hên
The Gorwynion[68]
The Tercets of Llywawrc’h[72]
Taliesin
Song to the Wind[73]
Aneurin
Odes of the Months[75]
Dafydd ap Gwilym
The Summer[78]
To the Lark[81]
Rhys Goch (of Eryri)
To the Fox[82]
Rhys Goch ap Rhiccart
The Song of the Thrush[83]
IRISH (MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY)
“A.E.”
Sacrifice[87]
The Great Breath[88]
Mystery[89]
By the Margin of the Great Deep[90]
The Breath of Light[91]
William Allingham
Æolian Harp[92]
The Fairies[93]
Thomas Boyd
To the Lianhuan Shee[95]
Emily Brontë
Remembrance[97]
Stopford A. Brooke
The Earth and Man[98]
Song[99]
John K. Casey
Maire, my Girl[101]
Gracie Og Machree[103]
George Darley
Dirge[104]
Aubrey De Vere
The Little Black Rose[105]
Epitaph[106]
Francis Fahy
Killiney Far Away[107]
Sir Samuel Ferguson
Cean Dubh Deelish[109]
Molly Asthore[110]
The Fair Hills of Ireland[112]
Alfred Percival Graves
Herring is King[113]
The Rose of Kenmare[115]
The Song of the Pratee[118]
Irish Lullaby[120]
Gerald Griffin
Eileen Aroon[121]
Nora Hopper
The Dark Man[123]
April in Ireland[124]
The Wind among the Reeds[125]
Douglas Hyde
My Grief on the Sea[126]
The Cooleen[127]
The Breedyeen[128]
Nelly of the Top-Knots[130]
I shall not Die for Thee[132]
Lionel Johnson
The Red Wind[133]
To Morfydd[134]
Denis Florence Maccarthy
A Lament[135]
James Clarence Mangan
The Fair Hills of Eiré, O![137]
Dark Rosaleen[139]
The One Mystery[142]
Rosa Mulholland
The Wild Geese[144]
Roden Noël
Lament for a Little Child[146]
The Swimmer[148]
The Dance[151]
From “The Water-Nymph and the Boy”[152]
A Casual Song[154]
The Pity of it[155]
The Old[157]
Charles P. O’Conor
Maura Du of Ballyshannon[158]
John Francis O’Donnell
A Spinning Song[160]
John Boyle O’Reilly
A White Rose[161]
Arthur O’Shaughnessy
The Fountain of Tears[162]
Fanny Parnell
After Death[165]
T. W. Rolleston
The Dead at Clonmacnois[166]
Dora Sigerson
Unknown Ideal[167]
George Sigerson
Mo Cáilin Donn[168]
John Todhunter
An Irish Love Song[170]
The Sunburst[171]
Song[173]
Katherine Tynan
Winter Sunset[174]
Shamrock Song[176]
Wild Geese[178]
Charles Weekes
Dreams[179]
Poppies[180]
W. B. Yeats
They went forth to the Battle, but they always fell[181]
The White Birds[183]
The Lake of Innisfree[184]
SCOTO-CELTIC (MIDDLE PERIOD)
Prologue to “Gaul”[187]
In Hebrid Seas[189]
Cumha Ghriogair Mhic Griogair[191]
Drowned[194]
Alexander Macdonald
The Manning of the Birlinn[195]
Angus Mackenzie
The Lament of the Deer[201]
Duncan Bàn MacIntyre
Ben Dorain[203]
The Hill-Water[208]
Mary Macleod
Song for Macleod of Macleod[210]
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY SCOTO-CELTIC
Monaltri[217]
An Coineachan—A Highland Lullaby[218]
A Boat Song[219]
John Stuart Blackie
The Old Soldier of the Gareloch Head[222]
Robert Buchanan
Flower of the World[224]
The Strange Country[225]
The Dream of the World without Death[228]
The Faëry Foster-Mother[235]
Lord Byron
When we Two Parted[238]
Stanzas for Music[239]
Colin’s Cattle[240]
MacCrimmon’s Lament[241]
Ian Cameron
Song[242]
John Davidson
A Loafer[243]
In Romney Marsh[245]
Jean Glover
O’er the Muir amang the Heather[246]
George Macdonald
Song[247]
Ronald Campbell Macfie
Song[249]
William Macdonald
A Spring Trouble[250]
Amice Macdonell
Culloden Moor[251]
Alice C. Macdonell
The Weaving of the Tartan[252]
William Macgillivray
The Thrush’s Song[254]
Fiona Macleod
The Prayer of Women[255]
The Rune of Age[257]
A Milking Song[259]
Lullaby[261]
The Songs of Ethlenn Stuart[262]
The Closing Doors[264]
The Sorrow of Delight[265]
Norman Macleod
Farewell to Fiunary[266]
Sarah Robertson Matheson
A Kiss of the King’s Hand[267]
Dugald Moore
The First Ship[268]
Lady Caroline Nairne
The Land o’ the Leal[269]
Alexander Nicolson
Skye[270]
Sir Noël Paton
Midnight by the Sea[272]
In Shadowland[273]
William Renton
Mountain Twilight[274]
Lady John Scott
Durisdeer[275]
Earl of Southesk
November’s Cadence[276]
John Campbell Shairp
Cailleach Bein-y-Vreich[277]
Una Urquhart
An Old Tale of Three[279]
Anon.
Lost Love[280]
CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS
(WALES)
George Meredith
Dirge in Woods[283]
Outer and Inner[284]
Night of Frost in May[286]
Hymn to Colour[289]
Sebastian Evans
Shadows[292]
Ebenezer Jones
When the World is Burning[293]
The Hand[294]
Emily Davis
A Song of Winter[296]
Ernest Rhys
The Night Ride[297]
The House of Hendra[298]
CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS
(MANX)
T. E. Brown
The Childhood of Kitty of the Sherragh Vane[307]
Hall Caine
Graih my Chree[309]
CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS
(CORNISH)
A. T. Quiller Couch
The Splendid Spur[317]
The White Moth[318]
Stephen Hawker
Featherstone’s Doom[319]
Trebarrow[320]
Riccardo Stephens
Witch Margaret[321]
A Ballad[323]
Hell’s Piper[325]
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY BRETON
The Poor Clerk[331]
The Cross by the Way[333]
The Secrets of the Clerk[335]
Love Song[336]
Hervé-Noël le Breton
Hymn to Sleep[338]
The Burden of Lost Souls[340]
Villiers de l’Isle-Adam
Confession[342]
Discouragement[343]
Leconte de Lisle
The Black Panther[344]
The Spring[346]
Leo-Kermorvan
The Return of Taliesen[348]
Louis Tiercelin
By Menec’hi Shore[351]
THE CELTIC FRINGE
Bliss Carman
Song[355]
The War-Song of Gamelbar[356]
Golden Rowan[359]
A Sea Child[360]
Ellen Mackay Hutchinson
The Quest[361]
Moth Song[362]
June[363]
Hugh M‘Culloch
Scent o’ Pines[364]
Duncan Campbell Scott
The Reed-Player[365]
Thomas D’Arcy M‘CGee
The Celtic Cross[366]
Mary C. G. Byron
The Tryst of the Night[368]
Alice E. Gillington
The Doom-Bar[369]
The Seven Whistlers[371]
Shane Leslie
Requiem[373]
Padraic Colum
An Old Woman of the Roads[374]
A Cradle Song[375]
James Stephens
The Coolun[376]
The Clouds[377]
Eleanor Hull
The Old Woman of Beare[378]
Thomas Macdonagh
From a “Litany of Beauty”[381]
Seosamh Maccathmhaoil
I will go with my Father a-ploughing[383]
A Northern Love Song[384]
Patrick MacGill
Fairy Workers[385]
Francis Ledwidge
The Shadow People[386]
My Mother[387]
Gordon Bottomley
Lyric from “The Crier by Night”[388]
James H. Cousins
The Quest[389]
Padraic H. Pearse
The Fool[390]
Lord Dunsany
The Return of Song[392]
Kenneth Macleod
Dance to your Shadow[393]
Sea Longing[394]
The Reiving Ship[395]
Marjory Kennedy-Fraser
Land of Heart’s Desire[396]
Ossian’s Midsummer Day-Dream[397]
Kishmul’s Galley[398]
Agnes Mure Mackenzie
Aignish on the Machair[399]
Neil Munro
Fingal’s Weeping[400]
NOTES[403-450]

INTRODUCTION

IN this foreword I must deal cursorily with a great and fascinating subject, for “Lyra Celtica” has extended beyond its original limits, and Text and Notes have absorbed much of the space which had been allotted for a preliminary dissertation on the distinguishing qualities and characteristics of Celtic literature.