LATER SCOTO-CELTIC

A star is gone! a star is gone!There is a blank in Heaven,One of the cherub choir has doneHis airy course this even.He sat upon the orb of fireThat hung for ages there,And lent his music to the choirThat haunts the nightly air.But when his thousand years are passed,With a cherubic sighHe vanished with his car at last,For even cherubs die!Hear how his angel brothers mourn—The minstrels of the spheres—Each chiming sadly in his turnAnd dropping splendid tears.The planetary sisters allJoin in the fatal song,And weep this hapless brother’s fallWho sang with them so long.But deepest of the choral bandThe Lunar Spirit sings,And with a bass-according handSweeps all her sullen strings.From the deep chambers of the domeWhere sleepless Uriel lies,His rude harmonic thunders comeMingled with mighty sighs.The thousand car-borne cherubim,The wandering eleven,All join to chant the dirge of himWho fell just now from Heaven.

After a life of great intellectual activity, but of singular isolation and of misanthropic unhappiness, George Darley died in London on the 23rd of November 1846, in his fifty-first year. For further information as to the personality and writings of this strange, undeservedly neglected, but unbalanced man of genius, the reader may be referred to the delightful edition ofSylvia, with Introduction, by Mr John H. Ingram, published by Mr J. M. Dent (1892).

AUBREY DE VERE.PAGE 105-6

Mr Aubrey De Vere is one of the most scholarly poets of Ireland. All his work is informed with a high and serious spirit; and though the bulk of it is not distinctively Celtic, either in sentiment or utterance, not even distinctively Irish, he has written some poems which are as dear to Nationalists and Celticists as is almost any other verse by contemporary poets. Mr Aubrey De Vere is the younger brother of Sir Stephen De Vere, Bart. (the translator of Horace, and himself a poet of distinction), and son of Aubrey De Vere, the poet friend of Wordsworth. He was born in 1814, and has lived most of his life, with long intervals in London and in several parts of Europe, at his birthplace, Curragh Chase, Adare, Co. Limerick. Among his most noteworthy writings are:—The Waldensees(1842);The Search after Proserpine(1843);Poems(1853);The Sisters(1861);The Infant Bridal: and other Poems(1864);Irish Odes(1869);The Legends of St Patrick(1872);Alexander the Great, a poetical drama (1874); and another drama,St Thomas of Canterbury(1876);Antar and Zara: and other Poems(1877);Legends of the Saxon Saints(1879); andThe Foray of Queen Meave, based upon an ancient Irish epic (1882). Since then Mr Aubrey De Vere has published a Selection of his poems and one or two books of a religious nature. His best prose work is to be found in hisEssays chiefly on Poetry(1887), andEssays chiefly Literary and Ethical(1889).

FRANCIS FAHY.PAGE 107

Author ofIrish Songs and Poems, published under the pseudonym “Dreolin.” Mr Fahy is a member of the group of notable lyrists whose captain is Sir Samuel Ferguson.

SIR SAMUEL FERGUSON. (1810-1886.)PAGE 109

This celebrated poet and archæologist was born in Belfast. He has aptly been called a man of encyclopædic learning; but this learning did not prevent his becoming perhaps the foremost Irish poet of the Middle Victorian period. His most ambitious poetic work isCongal: an Epic Poem(1872)—a work full of lofty imagination and epical music, but unfortunate in its metrical setting. His short poem, “The Forging of the Anchor,” is one of the most celebrated and popular poems of our era. Even yet, the influence of hisLays of the Western Gael(1865) is considerable, and for good. “Cean Dubh Deelish” (darling dark head), of which several able, and one or two good translations have been made, finds its happiest interpreter in Ferguson. How many poets and lovers have repeated these lines—

“Then put your head, darling, darling, darling,Your darling black head my heart above;Oh, mouth of honey, with thyme for fragrance,Who, with heart in breast, could deny you love?”

PAGE 110

“Molly Asthore” is also a paraphrase. The original is ascribed to a celebrated Irish Gaelic bard, Cormac O’Con.

PAGE 112

“The Fair Hills of Holy Ireland,” is familiar to Irish men and women in every part of the world.

ALFRED PERCIVAL GRAVES.PAGE 113

One of the best known names of Ireland of to-day. Mr Graves, born in Dublin in 1846, is thoroughly national, and his delightful work is perhaps as adequately typical of the Irish spirit as that of any one man could be. His lyric faculty—or at any rate his movement, his verve—is unsurpassed by any living Irishman. These few examples of his poetical writings should win him many more readers. His first book,Songs of Killarney, was published over twenty years ago. Since then he has issuedIrish Songs and Ballads,Songs of Old Ireland, and (1880) his best knowncollection,Father O’Flynn: and other Irish Lyrics.Irish Songs and Airsis the title of his promised contribution to Sir Gavan Duffy’s Irish Library.

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 123ETC.

This young Irish poet made an immediate impression by herBallads 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 fromBallads 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 uniqueThe 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 theLove 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 asThe Fourth Chapter of the Songs of Connacht. The preceding three appeared in the now defunctNation. 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 toThe 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 hisPoems. 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.

DENIS FLORENCE MACCARTHY. (1817-1882.)PAGE 135

Mr Maccarthy, who was a barrister in Dublin, and one of the main supports of theNation, is best known by his fine translations of Calderon’s Dramas. The “Lament,” by which he is here represented, has always seemed to me his most haunting lyrical achievement. It is necessary to add, however, that this poem is somewhat condensed from the original—which is weakened by diffuseness. The score or so of lines beginning “As fire-flies fade,” have been favourites with many poets of Maccarthy’s own time and later.

JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN. (1803-1849.)PAGE 137

While it is not the case, as sometimes averred, that Mangan was, or is, to Ireland what Burns is to Scotland, it is indisputable that the claim may be made for him rather than for any other Irish poet of the Early Victorian period. In fire and energy his faculty is unsurpassed by any of his poetic countrymen, though we may dispute Sir Charles Gavan Duffy’s assertion that Mangan “has not, and perhaps never had, any rival in mastery of the metrical and rhythmical resources of the English tongue.” Mangan was the child of a small tradesman of Dublin, where, in 1803, he was born. From childhood, fate dealt hardly with him. Abandoned in his early boyhood, he was indebted to a relative for his education; but when, in his fifteenth year, he became a copyist in a lawyer’s office, at a small pittance, his kindred discovered him and compelled him to share his meagre gains with them. For ten years thereafter he toiled in this bitter bondage. In his own words:—“I was obliged to work seven years of the ten from five in the morning, winter and summer, to eleven at night; and during the three remaining years, nothing but a special Providence could have saved me from suicide.” No wonder that, from an early period in his life, he found relief from his misery in drink; but it was misery and unbroken ill-fortune and adversity, much more than the curse of his fatal habit, that really killed him. There is a period in his life which is a blank, “a blank into which he entered a bright-haired youth and emerged a withered and stricken man.” His first chance for a happier life came with his appointment to a minor post in the University Library of Dublin, and it was during this time that most of his best work was done. His highest level is reachedin his brilliant free paraphrases of German originals:Anthologia Germania(1845). His later years were darkened by the worst phases of his malady, and he died (as in most part he had lived, in misery and poverty) in Meath Hospital, in his forty-seventh year. He has written one lyric that Irishmen will always account immortal: “Dark Rosaleen”—a wild and passionate rhapsody on Ireland herself. “Dark Rosaleen,” “Silk of the Kine,” “The Little Black Rose,” “Kathleen Ny Houlahan”—these were at one time the familiar analogues of Ireland. Of his Oriental paraphrases the most stirring is “The Karamanian Exile.” Strangely enough, Mangan’s Irish renderings are less happy than those poems which he based upon German and Oriental originals; but sometimes, as in the beautiful “Fair Hills of Eiré, O!” after the Irish of Donough mac Con-Mara, he has bequeathed a memorable lyric. Of poems that are strictly original, nothing seems to me more characteristic of Mangan than “The One Mystery” (see p. 142).

ROSA MULHOLLAND.PAGE 144

This accomplished prose-writer and poet was born in Belfast. Since herVagrant Verses(1886) she has published many stories and poems, and is a regular contributor to the leading Irish periodicals. Her “Fionnula” is one of the happiest renderings of the legend of the Swan Daughters of Lir; but is too long for quotation in the text. “The Wild Geese,” by which she is represented here, is eminently characteristic. Her latest poem, and one of her best, appears under the title “Under a Purple Cloud” in the autumn number ofThe Evergreen. It is a vision of Earth personified, and opens thus:

Under a purple cloud along the westThe great brown mother lies and takes her rest,A dark cheek on her hand, and in her eyesThe shadow of primeval mysteries.Her tawny velvets swathe her, manifold,Her mighty head is coifed in filmy gold,Her youngest babe, the newly-blossomed roseUpon her swarthy bosom feeds and grows.With her wide darkling gaze the mother seesHer children in their homes, the reddening trees,Roofing wet lawns, fruit-laden lattices,Blue mountain domes, and the grey river-seas.

THE HON. RODEN NOËL. (1834-1894.)PAGE 146

Mr Roden Noël was son of the first Earl of Gainsborough, grandson of Lord Roden of Tullymore in Ireland, and nephew to the present Marquis of Londonderry. By birth, descent, training, and sympathy, he considered himself an Irishman: though he was half English by blood, and lived the greater part of his life in England, while his intellectual homage was largely evoked by Hellenic mythology and lore, and by Teutonic mysticism and speculation. It was this confused blending of influences which, perhaps, militated so strongly against the concentration of his brilliant abilities into long-sustained and organic creative effort. With all his shortcomings, he still remains a poet of genuine impulse and occasionally of high distinction; and some of his lyrics and ballads, of a more essentially human interest than his more ambitious work, are likely to be held in honourable remembrance. The “Lament for a Little Child” (see p. 146) has passed into literature; as, indeed, may perhaps be said of the book whence it comes:A Little Child’s Monument(1881). In one of his Cornish poems he begins thus:—

“For me, true son of Erin, thou art rife,Grand coast of Cornwall, cliff, and cave, and surge,With glamour of the Kelt.”

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 areBeatrice and Other Poems(1868);Songs of the Heights and Deeps(1885); andA 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 volumesMy SeaandSelected Lyrics(Elkin Mathews).

CHARLES P. O’CONOR.PAGE 158

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 hisSongs of a Life(Kentish Mercury Office, 1875).

JOHN FRANCIS O’DONNELL.PAGE 160

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.PAGE 161

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 areSongs of the Southern Seas,Songs, Legends, and Ballads, andIn Bohemia.

ARTHUR O’SHAUGHNESSY. (1844-1881.)PAGE 162

O’Shaughnessy is to be ranked as an English rather than as an Irish poet; for the national sentiment played a minor, indeed hardly a perceptible part in his poetic life. The Celtic part of him found its best expression in his translationsof theLays of Marie(particularly the difficult and extraordinary “Bisclaveret”), powerful paraphrases rather than translations. The poem by which he is represented here shows the influence of Edgar Allan Poe, but is founded upon a Celtic legend. In his early youth he was appointed to a subordinate position in the Library of the British Museum, and was afterwards promoted to the Natural History Department. His first literary success was hisEpic of Women(1870), a volume of exceptional promise, which, however, was never adequately fulfilled. HisLays of France(1872) was followed byMusic and Moonlight(1874) and a posthumous volume,Songs of a Worker(1881). Always delicate, his death without any previous breakdown surprised none of his friends. I recollect that on the Saturday preceding his death, which I think was on a Wednesday, he came into the rooms of his brother-in-law, and fellow-poet and friend, Philip Bourke Marston, and asked me to come to his residence on the following Wednesday, to hear him read from the proofs of his new book. That evening he went to a theatre, came home on the top of an omnibus, caught a chill, and died before any of his friends knew that he was seriously indisposed. The best critical and biographical accounts of this charming if insubstantial poet, are to be found in Dr Garnett’s memoir in Miles’Poets and Poetry of the Century, Vol. VIII., and in the biographical edition of his poems recently put forth by Mrs Louise Chandler Moulton. Of the poem here given, Dr Garnett speaks as a “miracle of melody,” and as one of the pieces in which “the poet’s inward nature has perhaps most clearly expressed itself.”

FANNY PARNELL. (1855-1883.)PAGE 165

A remarkable poem by a remarkable woman. Frances Isabelle Parnell was the sister of Charles Stewart Parnell, and grand-daughter of Charles Stewart (from whom the great Irish patriot derived his baptismal names), the historic commander of the U.S. FrigateConstitution. Miss Parnell’s poems, which always appeared above the signature of Fanny Parnell, have not yet been published collectively. She was secretary of the Ladies’ Land League, and was as intensely wrought by the fervour of patriotism as was her famous brother.

T. W. ROLLESTON.PAGE 166

The sometime editor of theDublin University Review, andone of the most valued present members of the Irish Literary Society, was born at Shinrone, King’s County, in 1857. Mr Rolleston has had a cosmopolitan training since he left Trinity College, and has in particular been influenced by his long residence in Germany; but he has remained a Celtic poet and ardent Celticist through every intellectual development. While resident in Germany and in London, he wrote hisLife of Lessingand his introductions to Epictetus and Plato. He is now responsibly connected with the Irish Industries Association, but is more and not less engrossed by his Celtic studies. If there were a few more poet-scholars who could translate or paraphrase so beautifully as Mr Rolleston has paraphrased the Irish of Enoch o’ Gillan (see p. 166) and other poems, there would be a wider public in England for the lovely work of early Irish poetry. “The Lament of Queen Maev,” given here in the Ancient Irish section, is also a translation by Mr Rolleston.

DORA SIGERSON.PAGE 167

This young and promising writer comes of poetic stock. Her sister Hester is also a writer of verse, and her father, Dr Sigerson, is one of the foremost workers in the Gaelic Revival. Miss Dora Sigerson’s only published book as yet bears the modest titleVerses. It is, perhaps, more significant in its promise than in its achievement; and I find nothing in it so mature as the poem by which she is represented here, taken from a recent issue of theChap Book(Stone & Kimball, Chicago). The following lines, fromVerses, may be given as an example of her poetic first-fruits:—

In southern seas we sailed, my love and I,In southern seas.Death joined no chorus as the waves swept by,No storm hid in the breeze.Low keeled our boat until her white wings dipped half wet with spray,And seeking gulls tossed on the passing wave laughed on our way,The rhyme of sound, the harmony of souls—of silence too;Your silence held my thoughts, my love, as mine of you;The wingèd whispering wind that blew our sails was summer sweet—I found my long-sought paradise crouched at thy feet.In northern seas I weep alone, alone,In winter seas.Death’s hounds are on the waves, with many moansDeath’s voice comes with the breeze,My helpless boat, rocked in the wind, obeys no steadfast hand,Her swinging helm and ashing sheet have lost my weak command;The shrieking sea-birds seek the sheltering shore,The writhing waves leap upward, and their hoarStrong hands tear at the timbers of my shuddering craft.I cry in vain, the Fates have seen and laughed,Time and the world have stormed my summer sea—I ate my fruit, the serpent held the tree.

DR GEORGE SIGERSON.PAGE 168

The distinguished translator and editor ofThe Poets and Poetry of Munsterwas born near Strabane, Co. Tyrone, in 1839. Much of his original work has appeared above his Irish pen-name “Erionnach”; and from first to last Dr Sigerson’s name is indissolubly associated with the wide-reaching Celtic Renascence in Ireland.

DR JOHN TODHUNTER.PAGE 170

One of the foremost contemporary poets of Ireland, was born in Dublin in 1839, and, like so many of his literary compatriots, was educated at Trinity. He then pursued his medical studies in Paris and Vienna; returned to Dublin and practised awhile as a physician; succeeded Prof. Dowden as Professor of English Literature in Alexandria College; and, since 1875, has devoted himself exclusively to literature. Some of his lyrical pieces are known to all lovers of poetry—e.g.“The Banshee”; and for the rest he has won a distinctive place for himself by work at once varied in theme and beautiful in treatment. Though he has won deserved reputation as a playwright for the contemporary stage, as well as in the poetic drama, he seems to me to be at his best when most Celtic in feeling and expression. He is represented here, not by pieces so well known as “The Banshee” or any part ofThe Three Sorrows of Story-Telling, but by two typical Irish poems, and one lovely fragment (see p. 173) fromForest Songs. Personally, I consider the “Love Song” given at page 170 to be one of the finest compositions of its kind in modern Celtic literature. I have regretfully refrained from quoting two other poems by Dr Todhunter, one familiar to every Irishman, “The Shan Van Vocht of ’87,” beginning—

There’s a spirit in the air,Says theShan Van Vocht,And her voice is everywhere,Says theShan Van Vocht;Though her eyes be full of care,Even as Hope’s, born of Despair,Her sweet face looks young and fair,Says theShan Van Vocht.—

and the other, which I think the strongest of his short lyricalpoems, “Aghadoe”—of which I may give the two concluding quatrains—

I walked to Mallow town from Aghadoe, Aghadoe;Brought his head from the gaol’s gate to Aghadoe,Then I covered him with fern, and I piled on him the cairn,Like an Irish king he sleeps in Aghadoe.Oh! to creep into that cairn in Aghadoe, Aghadoe!There to rest upon his breast in Aghadoe,Sure your dog for you could die with no truer heart than I,Your own love, cold on your cairn, in Aghadoe.

KATHERINE TYNAN.PAGE 174

The author ofLouise de la Vallière(1885),Shamrocks(1887),Ballads and Lyrics(1891), and later volumes in prose as well as verse, is one of the best known representatives of the Irish poetic fellowship. Mrs Hinkson (though best known by her maiden name) is distinctively Irish rather than Celtic, and pre-eminently a Catholicist in the spirit of her work. She has a St Francis-like love of birds and all defenceless creatures and humble things, and has a most happy lyric faculty in dealing with aspects and objects which excite her rhythmic emotion. In lyric quality and in her all-pervading sense of colour, she is, however, characteristically Celtic. Miss Tynan was born in Dublin in 1861, but since her marriage a few years ago to Mr Hinkson (himself one of the Dublin UniversityYoung Irelandmen) she has resided in or near London. Some of her work has a lyric ecstasy, of a kind which distinguishes it from the poetry of any other woman-writer of to-day.

CHARLES WEEKES.PAGE 179

Mr Weekes is one of the small band of Irish poet-dreamers who may be particularly associated with Mr W. B. Yeats and Mr G. W. Russell (“A.E.”). His book,Reflections and Refractions, contains fine achievement as well as noteworthy promise.

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS.PAGE 181

Born (of an Irish father, and of a Cornish mother come of a family settled in Ireland) at Sandymount, Dublin, in 1866; but early life chiefly spent in Sligo, and on the Connaught seaboard. Of late years, Mr Yeats has passed much of his time in London, but is never absent from Ireland for any long period—

“... for always night and dayI hear lake-water lapping with low sounds on the shore;While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,I hear it in the deep heart’s core.”

W. B. Yeats is the prince of contemporary Irish poets. While no one is more essentially Celtic, and none is more distinctively national, his poetry belongs to English literature. Mr Yeats himself would be the last man to nail his flag to the mast of parochialism in literature. He is one of the two or three absolutely poetic personalities in literature at the present moment; and in outlook, and, above all, in atmosphere, stands foremost in the younger generation. It is noteworthy that the two most convincingly poetic of all our younger poets, since the giants who (with the exception of George Meredith, A. C. Swinburne, and William Morris) have gone from our midst, are predominantly Celtic; W. B. Yeats and John Davidson—and noteworthy, also, that both are too wise, too clear-sighted, too poetic, in fact, to aim at being Irish or Scoto-Celtic at the expense of being English in the high and best sense of the word. This, fortunately, is consistent with being paramountly national in all else. In the world of literature there is no geography save that of the mind.

Mr Yeats’ poetic work is best to be read, and perhaps best to be enjoyed, in the revised collective edition of his poems, in one volume, published recently by Mr Fisher Unwin. His first volume of verse,The Wanderings of Oisìn, was published in 1889. This was followed (in 1892) byThe Countess Kathleen: and Various Legends and Lyrics;The Land of Heart’s Desire, and two short prose tales (in the Pseudonym Library),John ShermanandDhoya. Two new books are promised in 1896 (through Mr Elkin Mathews),The Shadowy Waters(a poetic play), andThe Wind Among the Reeds(poems). He has also published several volumes of selected Irish tales and legendary lore; edited, in conjunction with Mr E. J. Ellis, theWorks of William Blake(3 vols., 1893); andA Book of Irish Verse(Methuen, 1895), an interesting rather than an adequately representative anthology of nationalistic Irish poetry. All that is most distinctive in Mr Yeats’ own original work is to be found in hisPoems(Collective Edition, in 1 vol., Fisher Unwin, 1895), and the prose volume entitledThe Celtic Twilight(Lawrence & Bullen, 1893), one of the most fascinating prose-books by a poet published in our time.

THE PROLOGUE TO GAUL.PAGE 189

Comes from theSean Dana:videDr John Smith’sCollection of Ancient Poems(1780), (videNote to page 13supra, and also Introduction).

IN HEBRID SEAS.PAGE 191

This stirring Hebridean poem is given as from the ancient Gaelic. Probably by this is meant merely old Gaelic, mediæval or even later. The translation is by Mr Thomas Pattison, and is included in hisGaelic Bards. He has the following note upon it: “This effusion, although in its original form it is only a kind of wild chant—almost indeed half prose—yet it is the germ of the ballad. It occurs in many of the tales contained in that collection, the repository of old Gaelic lore, thePopular Tales of the West Highlands, sometimes more and sometimes less perfect. The original will be found in the second volume of the Tales.... The vigorous and elastic spirit that pervades these verses must have strung the heart of many a hardy mariner who loved to feel the fresh and briny breeze drive his snoring birlinn bounding like a living creature over the tumbling billows of the inland loch or the huge swell of the majestic main.”

LULLABY.PAGE 193

Supposed to be the composition of the wife of Gregor MacGregor after the judicial murder of her husband.

DROWNED.PAGE 194

This folk-poem, the antiquity of which may be anywhere from a hundred to two hundred years or more, is given in the translation of the Rev. Dr Stewart of Nether Lochaber.

ALEXANDER MACDONALD.PAGE 195

This celebrated Gaelic poet was born in the first half of the 17th century. In the Highlands and Western Isles he is invariably styledMac Mhaighstir Alastair—i.e.the son of Mr Alexander. Alastair the Elder resided at Dalilea in Moydart of Argyll, and was both Episcopal clergyman and official tacksman. He was a man of immense strength and vigour, and his muscular Christianity may be inferred from the saying current in Moydart that “his hand was heavier on the men of Suainart than on the men of Moydart.” Alexander Macdonald had a good education for his time—first under his father, and later, for a year or so, at Glasgow University. Poverty, however, compelled him to leave Glasgow and retire to Ardnamurchan, where, as his biographer, Mr Pattison, says, he lived, teaching and farming, and composing poetry, until the advent of the year 1745. In this momentous year he left not only his farm and his teaching, but even his eldership in the Established Church, and forsook all to join Prince Charlie, and to take upon him the onus of a change to the detested Roman Catholic faith. He was a Jacobite of the Jacobites, and his fiery and warlike songs were repeated from mouth to mouth throughout Celtic Scotland. It is supposed that he had a commission in the Highland army of the Prince, though whether he served as an officer is uncertain; at any rate, after the battle of Culloden he had to share the privations of his leaders, and he lived in hiding in the woods and caves of the district of Arisaig. On one occasion, when lurking among these caves with his brother Angus, the cold was so intense that the side of Macdonald’s head which rested on the ground became quite grey in a single night. When the troubles were over he went to Edinburgh, where he taught the children of a staunch Jacobite, but soon returned to his beloved West, where he remained till his death. Macdonald’s first published book was aGaelic and English Vocabulary(1741), nor was it till ten years later that his poems were published in Edinburgh—said to be one of the earliest volumes of original poems ever published in Gaelic. Pattison declares that he is the most warlike, and much the fiercest of the Highland poets; and altogether ranks him as, if not the foremost, certainly second only to the famous Duncan Bàn MacIntyre. His poem called “The Birlinn of the Clan-Ranald” is by this critic, and most others, ranked as the finest composition in Modern Gaelic; certainly many Highlanders prefer it even to the “Coire Cheathaich,” or the still more famous “Ben Dorain” of Duncan Bàn. Assuredly no one could read this poem “Of the hurling of the birlinn through the cold glens of the sea, loudly snoring,” without being stirred by its vigour and power. The portion here given is merely a fragment, for the original is much too long for quotation—indeed, it is said to be the longest poem in Gaelic, except such as are Ossianic. For a full account of Macdonald and his poems, including the translation of the greater part of “The Manning of the Birlinn,” see Pattison’sGaelic Bards.

ANGUS MACKENZIE.PAGE 201

“The Lament of the Deer” is the work of a favourite Highland poet whose name is particularly familiar in the Northern Highlands. Angus Mackenzie was head forester of Lord Lovat, and most of his poems have the impress of his well-loved profession. “The Cumha nam Fiadh” was composed during the recovery from a severe illness, when the poet’s chief regret was his inability to be with Lovat and his Frasers at the hunting of the stag. The translation here given was made by Charles Edward and John Sobieski Stuart, and is to be found in theirLays of the Deer Forest(Blackwood, 1848).

DUNCAN BÀN MACINTYRE.PAGE 203

A name loved throughout the Highlands and Islands. Even the most illiterate crofters are familiar with Duncan Bàn and much of his poetry, and there are few who could not repeat at least some lines of “Ben Dorain.” The Hunter Bard of Glenorchy, as he is often called—though his best title is the affectionate Gaelic “Duncan of the Songs”—was born on the 20th of March 1724, at Druimliaghart in Glenorchy, Argyll. His first song was composed on a sword with which he was armed at the battle of Falkirk—where he served on the Royalist side as substitute for a gentleman of the neighbourhood. “This sword,” says his biographer, Thomas Pattison, “the poet lost or threw away in the retreat. On his return home therefore, the gentleman to whom it belonged, and whose substitute he had been, refused to pay the sum for which he had engaged Duncan Bàn to serve in his stead. Duncan consequently composed his song on ‘The Battle of the Speckled Kirk’—as Falkirk is called in Gaelic—in which he good-humouredly satirised the gentleman who had sent him to the war, and gave a woful description of ‘the black sword that worked the turmoil,’ and whose loss, he says, made its owner ‘as fierce and furious as a grey brock in his den.’ The song immediately became popular, and incensed his employer so much that he suddenly fell upon the poor poet one day with his walking-stick, and, striking him on the back, bade him ‘go and make a song about that.’ He was, however, afterward compelled by the Earl of Breadalbane to pay the bard the sum of 300 merks Scots (£16, 17s. 6d.), which was his legal due.” Although in his later years he was for a time one of the Duke of Argyll’s foresters,most of his later life was spent in Edinburgh, where he was one of the City Guard. In that city he died in 1812, in his eighty-ninth year, and lies in Greyfriars Churchyard. In all there have been seven editions of hisGaelic Songs. “Ben Dorain” has been translated several times, most successfully by Thomas Pattison and the late Professor Blackie. The version here given is that of the former; while the following poem (“The Hill Water,” page 208) is that of Professor Blackie.

Translations of both “Ben Dorain” (in full) and of “Coire Cheathaich” (The Misty Corrie) are included in Pattison’sGaelic Bards. Professor Blackie’s version of “Ben Dorain” is in his well-known book,Altavona.

MARY MACLEOD.PAGE 210

The most famous of Hebridean poets was born in Harris of the Outer Hebrides in 1569. She may be regarded either as the last of the poets of the Middle Scoto-Celtic period, or, more properly, as the first of the moderns. She is generally spoken of in the Western Isles as Màiri nighean Alastair Ruaidh (Mary, daughter of Alexander the Red). “Although she could never either read or write, her poetry is pure and chaste in its diction, melodious, though complicated, in its metre, clear and graceful, and frequently pathetic” (Pattison). She died at Dunvegan, in the Isle of Skye, in 1674, at the great age of 105. For some reason, Mary Macleod was banished from Dunvegan by Macleod of Macleod, but his heart was melted by the song here given, and the exile was recalled, and that, too, with honour, and enabled to live in Macleod’s country thenceforth in prosperity and happiness.

MONALTRI.PAGE 217

These lines tell their own tale. The translation given is that of Thomas Pattison.

HIGHLAND LULLABY.PAGE 218

This lullaby first appeared in theDuanaire, edited by D. C. Macpherson (1864). It is supposed to be sung by a disconsolate mother whose babe has been stolen by the fairies. In each verse she mentions some impossible task she has performed, but still she has not found her baby.Coineachanis a term of endearment applied to a child. (Quoted by “Fionn” in theCeltic Monthlyfor September 1893.)

BOAT SONG.PAGE 219

This boat song, so familiar to West Highlanders, is in the rendering of Professor Blackie.

JOHN STUART BLACKIE. (1809-1895.)PAGE 222

The late Professor Blackie was born in Glasgow and brought up for the law. This he forsook for literature, and ultimately, in 1852, was appointed to the Greek Chair in Edinburgh University. All particulars of the brilliant Professor’s life and writings will be found in the recently-published biography by Miss Anna Stoddart. Professor Blackie’s name will always be held in affectionate regard for his unselfish efforts to preserve and cultivate the Gaelic language and literature, and because of his having been mainly instrumental in founding the Chair of Celtic Literature in the University of Edinburgh. His poetical writings are mostly to be found inLays and Legends of Ancient Greece(1857),Lyrical Poems(1860), andLays of the Highlands and Islands(1872).

ROBERT BUCHANAN.PAGE 224

The foremost Scoto-Celtic poet of our time, was born in Glasgow, 1841. It would be needless to give particulars concerning the life and work of so eminent a contemporary. Lovers of the Celtic Muse will doubtless be familiar (or if not, ought to be) with Mr Buchanan’sBook of Orm. Much of his early poetry is strongly imbued with the Celtic atmosphere. Those who have read his several volumes of verse need no further guidance, but readers unacquainted with the poetical work of one of the foremost poets of our day should obtain the collective edition of his poems published by Messrs Chatto & Windus. “The Flower of the World” (page 224), “The Dream of the World without Death” (pages 228-234) are fromThe Book of Orm; “The Strange Country” comes fromMiscellaneous Poems and Ballads(1878-1883). No more memorable poem than “The Dream” has been written by an Anglo-Celtic poet.

LORD BYRON. (1788-1824.)PAGES 238-239

Byron is represented inLyra Celticaby virtue of his Celtic blood and undoubtedly Celtic nature, rather than because there is much trace of Celtic influence in his poetry. The two lyrics given here may be taken as fairly representative of that part of his poetical work which may with some reason be called Celtic, though, of course, there is nothingin them which radically differentiates them from the lyrics of any English poet. More than one eminent critic, foreign as well as British, has claimed for Byron that he was the representative Celtic voice of the early part of the century; but Byron was really much more the voice of his own day and time than anything more restricted.

CRODH CHAILLEAN.PAGE 240

This familiar Highland Milking Song is given in the translation of Dr Alexander Stewart of Nether Lochaber.

MACCRIMMON’S LAMENT.PAGE 241

Perhaps the most famous pipe-tune in the Highlands is the “Cumha mhic Criomein,” composed by Donald Bàn MacCrimmon, on the occasion of the Clan MacLeod, headed by their chief, embarking to join the Royalists in 1746. The Lament is said to have been composed by Donald Bàn under the influence of a presentiment that he as well as many others of the clan would never return; a presentiment fulfilled, for he was killed in a skirmish near Moyhall. The tune and the chorus are old, but it is commonly believed the poem was composed by Dr Norman Macleod; at any rate, they first appeared in a Gaelic article on the MacCrimmons, which he contributed in 1840 to “Cuairtear nan Gleann” (“Fionn,” theCeltic Monthly). The translation here given is that of Professor Blackie.

IAN CAMERON (“IAN MOR”).PAGE 242

Translated from the Gaelic by Miss Fiona Macleod.

JOHN DAVIDSON.PAGE 243

Mr Davidson was born at Barrhead, near Paisley, on April 11th, 1857. After his preliminary education at the Highlanders’ Academy, Greenock, he went to Edinburgh University. For a time he taught in Greenock, and also gained a certain amount of literary experience in occasional contributions to theGlasgow Heraldand other papers. In 1886 he publishedBruce: a Drama, followed bySmith: a Tragedy(1888),Scaramouch in Naxos: and other Places(1889),In a Music Hall, and other Poems(1891),Fleet Street Eclogues(1893),Ballads and Songs(1894),Second Series of Fleet Street Eclogues(1895), besides several volumes of prose papers and fiction. AlthoughBrucewas Mr Davidson’s first published work, he had begun to write at a much earlier period: hisAn Historical Pastoralwas composed in 1877;A Romantic Farcein 1878;whileBrucewas written four years before its publication. Mr Davidson’s later poetical writings have been mainly in the form of songs and lyrical ballads, and these have placed him in the foremost rank of the younger poets of to-day. He has the widest range, the largest manner, and the intensest note of any of the later Victorians. The two poems by which he is represented here are eminently characteristic, and none the less Celtic in their essential quality from the fact that the one deals with a loafer of the London streets and the other with a scenic rendering of an impression gained in Romney Marsh. Mr Davidson’s latest writings are “The Ballad of an Artist’s Wife,” not as yet issued in book form, and the just published second series of theFleet Street Eclogues(John Lane). Both “A Loafer” and “In Romney Marsh” are fromBallads and Songs.

JEAN GLOVER. (1758-1800.)PAGE 246

The author of “O’er the Muir amang the Heather” was the daughter of a Highland weaver settled in Kilmarnock. She married a strolling actor, and her fugitive songs became familiar throughout the West of Scotland. “O’er the Muir amang the Heather” has become a classic.

GEORGE MACDONALD.PAGE 247

This popular Scottish novelist and poet was born at Huntly, in Aberdeenshire, December 10, 1824. As a novelist he has almost as large an audience as have any of his contemporary romancists. His poems are less widely known, though in them he has expressed himself with great variety and subtlety. The Celtic element is not conspicuous in Dr Macdonald’s work either in prose or verse; but sometimes, as in the little song “Oimè,” quoted here, it finds adequate expression. This song is from his early volumeWithin and Without.

RONALD CAMPBELL MACFIE.PAGE 249

The author ofGranite Dust(Kegan Paul) is one of the most promising of the younger Celtic Scots.

WILLIAM MACDONALD.PAGE 250

One of the band of young writers associated withThe Evergreen(Patrick Geddes and Colleagues, Edinburgh). Mr Macdonald has not yet issued his poems in book form.

AMICE MACDONELL.PAGE 251

Miss Macdonell has not, so far as I know, published a volume. “Culloden Moor” appeared in theCeltic Monthlyin June 1893.

ALICE C. MACDONELL.PAGE 252

Miss Alice Macdonell of Keppoch has contributed many poems to Scottish and other periodicals. “The Weaving of the Tartan” appeared in theCeltic Monthlyfor December 1894.

WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY. (1796-1852.)PAGE 254

The author of “The Thrush’s Song” was not a poet, but occasionally indulged in the pleasure of verse-making. He was a well-known Highland ornithologist, and it may be added that his attempt at an onomatopoeic rendering of the song of the thrush has been pronounced by Buckland and other ornithologists to be remarkably close.

FIONA MACLEOD.PAGE 255

Miss Macleod is one of the younger writers most intimately associated with the Celtic Renascence in Scotland. “The Prayer of Women” (see page 255) is fromPharais: a Romance of the Isles(Frank Murray, Derby, 1894); “The Rune of Age” and “A Gaelic Milking Song” are fromThe Mountain Lovers(John Lane); the “Lullaby” and the two songs of Ethlenn Stuart are from her last volume,The Sin-Eater: and other Tales(Patrick Geddes and Colleagues, Edinburgh). “The Closing Doors” has not been published hitherto. The brief lyric, “The Sorrow of Delight,” was contributed to an as yet unpublished fantastic sketch,The Merchant of Dreams, written in collaboration with a friend. Such of the poems scattered through her several volumes, and others, as she wishes to preserve in connected form, will be published by Miss Macleod early in 1896 (Patrick Geddes and Colleagues), under the title ofLyric Runes and Fonnsheen.

NORMAN MACLEOD.PAGE 266

There is no Highlander held in more affectionate remembrance and admiration than the late Dr Norman Macleod: and with justice; for no one worked more arduously, understandingly, and sympathetically for the cause of the Gaelic language, Gaelic literature, and the Gaelic people than the famous poet-minister, who, to this day, is commonly spoken of as “The Great Norman.” It was, however, Dr Norman the elder who wrote “Fiunary,”—and not, as commonly stated, the late Dr Norman. His “Farewell to Fiunary” is probably the most universally-known modern poem inthe West Highlands. (For critical remarks as to the authenticity of this poem, see Dr Nigel M‘Neil’sLiterature of the Highlanders, pp. 283-286.)

SARAH ROBERTSON MATHESON.PAGE 267

Mrs Robertson Matheson, some of whose poems in periodicals have attracted the attention of lovers of poetry, is chief secretary and treasurer of the Clan Donnachaidh Society. The fine lyric, “A Kiss of the King’s Hand,” appeared in theCeltic Monthlyfor May 1894; but I regret that version has inadvertently been followed, for it twice misspellstaefor “to,” and in the third line of the third quatrain has a misreading (“jewels” instead of “ruffles”).

It may interest many readers to know that “A Kiss of the King’s Hand” decided the descendant of Flora Macdonald to leave Mrs Robertson Matheson the last heirloom of Scottish romance, the “ring of French gold” given by Prince Charlie to Flora, and holding the lock of hair cut from “the king’s head” by her and her mother.

DUGALD MOORE.PAGE 268

“The First Ship” is so remarkable a poem that it is difficult to understand how it has met with so little recognition, and escaped most, if not all, of the Scottish and British anthologists. Dugald Moore was the son of Highland parents, and was born in Glasgow in 1805. His first book was entitledThe Bard of the North, and consisted of a series of poetical tales illustrative of Highland scenery and character (1833).The Hour of RetributionandThe Devoted Oneappeared respectively in 1835 and 1839. Moore died unmarried in the 36th year of his age (Jan. 2, 1841), and was buried in the Necropolis of Glasgow. It is a pity that the poem could not have appeared without its fourth stanza, which is inferior to the others.

LADY CAROLINE NAIRNE. (1766-1845.)PAGE 269

Needless to say anything here concerning the “Flower of Strathearn.” Baroness Nairne was mainly Celtic in blood and wholly Celtic in genius. “The Land o’ the Leal” is now one of the most famous and most loved lyrics in the English language. (Readers may be referred toLife and Songs of Baroness Nairne, 1868.)

ALEXANDER NICOLSON.PAGE 270

Besides this fine poem, “On Skye,” Sheriff Nicolson has translated the “Birlinn” of Alexander Macdonald, and haswritten many moving verses full of Gaelic sentiment of a robust kind.

SIR NOËL PATON.PAGE 272

Joseph Noël Paton was born at Dunfermline on the 13th of December 1821; and while his father was also of partial Celtic origin, Sir Noël is, through his mother, the descendant of the last of the Scoto-Celtic kings. Of his career as a painter it is not necessary to speak here. His two volumes of poetry arePoems by a Painter(1861) andSpindrift(1867). The best account of the life and work of this distinguished Scot is the monograph recently published by Mr David Croal Thomson, as the “Art-Annual” ofThe Art Journal. The two poems by which Sir Noël is represented in this book are not to be found in either of his volumes, and their appearance here is due to the courtesy of the author.

WILLIAM RENTON.PAGE 274

Mr Renton was born in Perthshire, of Scoto-Celtic parents. “Mountain Twilight” is taken from his first volume of poems calledOils and Water Colours(Hamilton, Edinburgh, 1876). Mr Renton’s only other volume of verse is hisSongs(Fisher Unwin, 1893).

LADY JOHN SCOTT.PAGE 275

The author of “Durisdeer” was of mixed Highland and Lowland descent. Her poem has a permanent place in our literature because of its haunting passion and pain.

EARL OF SOUTHESK.PAGE 276

Lord Southesk (James Carnegie) was bom in 1827. He first made his name in literature by his strange and vigorousJonas Fisher(1875). This was followed byGreenwood’s Farewell(1876), andThe Meda Maiden(1877); though most of the poems contained in these two volumes, with several others, are comprised inThe Burial of Isis(1884).

JOHN CAMPBELL SHAIRP.PAGE 277

This able Scottish writer was of Celtic origin through his mother. Readers unacquainted with the poems of the late Principal Shairp, and ex-Professor of Poetry at Oxford, will do best to turn to the posthumous volume, edited, with a memoir, by Francis Turner Palgrave, entitledGlen Dessary(Macmillan, 1888).

UNA URQUHART.PAGE 279

I know nothing else of Gaelic or English verse by this young writer. “An Old Tale of Three,” as it appears here, is a rendering of the original by Miss Fiona Macleod.

LOST LOVE.PAGE 280

The author of this poem is unknown. The original is in the Gaelic of the Western Isles, and is one of the several fugitive songs rescued by Thomas Pattison. The version given here, however, is not identical with his, the first and last quatrains having been added by another hand.

GEORGE MEREDITH.PAGE 283

Mr George Meredith, who recently has been addressed in a dedication as “The Prince of Celtdom,” is rather the sovereign of contemporary English literature. Although of Welsh descent and sympathies, and with a nature pre-eminently Celtic in its distinguishing characteristics, Mr Meredith was born in Hampshire on February 12th, 1828. Part of his early education was received in Germany, and after his return to England it was intended that he should pursue the legal profession: an intention set aside on account of an irresistible bias toward literature. His first published writings were in verse: and now this early little book,Poems, published in his twenty-third year (1851) is one of the rarest treasures for the bibliophile. It is dedicated to Thomas Love Peacock, whose intellectual influence upon the young writer is obvious. In 1850 the poet married the daughter of Peacock, but it was not till a year or two later that he definitely set himself to the profession of literature as also a means of livelihood. It is characteristic of him that his first prose book should be one of his most individual writings; forThe Shaving of Shagpatmight have been written at almost any period of its author’s career. A fascinating and perplexing production it must indeed have seemed at that time, published as it was in a year which, with the exception of two radically distinct American works of pre-eminent note, Longfellow’sHiawathaand Walt Whitman’sLeaves of Grass, was a singularly barren one. The fantasy has always remained a favourite with staunch Meredithians. It was followed two years later by the somewhat akinFarina;and two years passed again before that first important work appeared which so profoundly affected the minds and imagination of Mr Meredith’s contemporaries—the now famousOrdeal of Richard Feverel, (1859). Since that date Mr Meredith has given us what many consider the greatest literary legacy of our time; and unquestionably he has had no compeer in brilliant delineation of life at white heat. It is unnecessary to specify the works of an author with which all lovers of literature must be familiar; but a word must be added as to the delight which the reading world has known this year in the publication ofThe Amazing Marriage, one of the most brilliant and vivid of all Mr Meredith’s romances, and, in its display of his characteristic quality at his best, ranking withHarry Richmond,The Egoist, andDiana of the Crossways. As a poet George Meredith is less widely known, or, rather, is less widely accepted. There are, nevertheless, many who regard his poetic achievement as perhaps the most essential part of what he has given us. In depth of thought, in clarity of vision, and in remarkable expressional subtlety,—often, if not invariably, set forth in a lyric utterance whose only fault is that of an occasional apparent incoherence due to rapidity of thought and eagerness of rhythmic emotion—he stands here, as in all else, alone. From that extraordinarily powerful study of contemporary life, expressed emotionally and rhythmically in singularly convincing verse,Modern Love, to his latest volume,The Empty Purse, there is a range of rhythmic and lyric beauty which may well be a challenge to posterity to redeem the relative neglect of the mass of Mr Meredith’s contemporaries. I am not of those who consider Mr Meredith’s least popular poems as mere cryptic utterances in verse; for everywhere I find the lyric spirit,—hampered, at times, it is true, by a wind-rush of images, and by a sudden drove of unshepherded words. But who could read “Love in the Valley,” “The Lark Ascending,” “The Woods of Westermain,” “The South-Wester,” “The Hymn to Colour,” to mention five only, without recognising that here indeed we have one of the great poets of our time. The poems by which, owing to the gracious courtesy of Mr Meredith—who has consented to forego for once his great objection to the appearance of any of his poems in miscellaneous collections—he is here represented, are from his later volumes. The “Dirge in Woods,” “Outer and Inner,” and the superb “Hymn to Colour,” arefromA Reading of Earth(1888), the volume which contains “Hard Weather,” “The South-Wester,” “The Thrush in February,” “The Appeasement of Demeter,” “Woodland Peace,” the noble ode “Meditation under Stars,” and that flawless and memorable sonnet, “Winter Heavens.” The “Night of Frost in May” is from the volume entitledThe Empty Purse(1892). Mr Meredith’s other volume of poetry, the favourite with most of his readers, isPoems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth(1883). This book includes “The Woods of Westermain,” “The Day of the Daughter of Hades,” “The Lark Ascending,” “Phœbus with Admetus,” “Melampus,” “Love in a Valley,” and the group of sonnets beginning with “Lucifer in Starlight,” and ending with “Time and Sentiment.” All Mr Meredith’s poetical writings are now published by Messrs Macmillan.

SEBASTIAN EVANS.PAGE 292

Born in 1830, the grandson of the Rev. Lewis Evans, a well-known Welsh astronomer, and the son of the Rev. Arthur Benoni Evans, a linguist, scholar, and author. He was not the only one of this parentage who came to some distinction, for his brother, John Evans, F.R.S., became President of the Society of Antiquaries, and his sister, Anne, had some repute as a poetess and musician. Sebastian Evans won a fair measure of fugitive fame by hisBrother Fabian’s Manuscript and Other Poems(Macmillan, 1865). In the early ’70’s Dr Evans published his second volume,In the Studio: a Decade of Poems(Macmillan). The true note of his strangely subtle and illusive muse is not that of either irony or audacity as commonly supposed, but rather a living belief in the passage of the contemporary mind and aspiration from the sureties of the ancient faith to the assurance of a still finer faith to come. Among his short poems perhaps the most indicative is that entitled “The Banners”—

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