The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-11-27

- - - !. A~sA e1es - 4et<eft = - - - -
Very often two, more especially OF women,
will be together: The Arst will sing the
first two lines Of quatra5n alone, and then
the second will join In, and they rise to the
height of discord together. Fair-days are
their days of harvest, although In cities
like Cork or Waterford they may be seen
on every day except Sunday. A popular
ballad will often have very large sale,
and will find it's way all over the country.
The greater portion Of the ballads com
posed in this way are, of course, destitute
of anything like poetry.mere pieces Of
words, for which last the ballad singers
have ridiculous fondness. The singers
sing In q foreign language they have lost
the sweet tongue peculiarly fitted for i'm
provlsed poetry, in which their predeces-
sors, the bards, down to the date of less
than one hundred years ago, sang SO sweetly
and SO strongly, with such dramatic diction
and happy boldness of epithet. The Ian
guage of the "Saxon oppressOr' is from the
tongue and not from the heart. As the
mother of the late William Carleton used
to say, "the Irish melts into the tune" the
English doesn't, and SO many of the finest
of the ancient melodies are now songs will
out words. Turlogh O'Carolan, Donogh
MacCOnmara, and the Mangaire Sugach
have not left their successors among the
English poets of the present day. Among
people naturally SO eloquent as the native
Irish, not even the drapery of an incongru-
tive vigOr and strength of thought. A bal
lad is sometimes seen which, though often
unequal and rude, is alive with impassioned
poetry, fierce, melancholy, or tender, and
1t almost always becomes a general favorite
and is preserved beyond its day to become
part Of the standard stock. The songs of
SO genuine a poet as William Allingham,
who is the only cultivated Irish poet who
has had the taste and the spirit to repro
duce in. spirit the diction of these wild
flowers of song, have been printed on the
halfpenny ballad sheets, and sung at the
evening hearth and at the morning milking
all over Ireland. "Lovely Mary Donnelly"
and the "Irish Girls Lamentation" have
become, in truth, a part Of the songs of the
nation, touching alike the cultivated intel
lect and the untutored heart.
The love songs, thst are sung by the col
leens at the soft dewy dawn, as they sit be-
side the sleek cows just arisen from beneat tn
the hedge, the nimble finger streaming the
white milk into the foaming pail, while the
lark's song melts down from that speck be-
meath the cloud, and the blackbird and
thrush MARBLE with ecstacy in the hedge,
the morning light shining across the dewy
green fields, or at
Ewes pensivs air."
when the shadows are growing long, al
though the tops of the swelling uplands
are bright, and the crows are winging
home, and the swallows darting in the still
air; or in the winter evenings, when the
candles are lighted in the kitchen, and busy
fingers draw the wool, while the foot beats
time to the whirring wheel, are very nu-
meEpus, and generally of a higher order of
mefzt than the patriotic songs. The pulses
of the heart are freer and its utterance
dearer in human love than in love of coun-
try. The beauties in which the Irish girls
oil 9TH tIa h1nnu,inr aLo ovrj
brilliant eyes and wealth of flowing hair,
are the main objects of compliment, and
are often transformed into personifications
of endearment. "Colleen," the universal
term for young maidens, seems but a Coz
ruption of "coolleen," which means head
of curls or abundant .tresses. Gray and
blue eyes are especially objects of endear-
ment, and even in the ancient Irish poems
green eyed is not unfrequently used, which
is not SO unnatural as the English reader
may suppose, the Irish word expressing
the ipdefnable TIT 9f some lighter blue
Although the modern love- songs are in
ferior to those in the Irish language, for
the reason that has been mentioned, that |
English is not yet the language of the Irish
heart, they often possess simple power,
and though seldom sustained throughout, a
touch of natures genius, which the highest
poet cannot reach with all his art. How
exquisite is the following:
"As Katy and discussing
She smiled upon me now and them
Her apron string she kept fouldng,
And twisting all round her ring"
One thing is especially noticeable mong
the love- ballads, and that is the total alb
sence not only of RIGHTEOUSNESS, but even
of coarseness. The Irish peasant girls at
home are the most virtuous of their class
in the world, owing to the influence of the
the strong feeling of family
pride, and the custom of universal and
early marriage. Not but there are unfor-
tunates WHO have made "slip;" and when
the ballad relates of such tragedy, it
shows of how deep effect is the scorn of the
parish, and how wretched the fate of the
and her basel born offspring. |
The Z" lamentations" or confessions of
criminals are highly popular.
premeditated murder is rare among the
Irish peasantry, in comparison with the
records of ruffianism among the English
laboring classes, and the interest excited
by the event is deeper and extends to a
larger space of local influence.
The narrative ballads tell of every event
of interest to Irish ears, from Aspromonte
to the glorious steeplechase at Namore; the
burning of an emigrant ship to the plow-
ing match at PilltOwn, the same language
being used for the one as the other. During
the late war in this country, every great
battle was duly sung by the Irish minstrels.
The sympathies of the peasantry were
usually with the majority of their kindred
in the North, but not universally SO. Thus