The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-08-03

own inept and unwarranted disparage.
ment Of the great poet
But pray, Mr. Brooke, what critic of
decent reputation ever dared to treat
Moore with Indifferent contempt? Did
Jeffrey or Clifford did Hazlitt or Ma
caulay? Was it not Colerdge him.
self who declared, with generosity rare
In an Englishnan, that Moore had
written more beautiful lyrics than any
poet who has ever lived? Did not
Professor John Wilson Detter known
as Christopher NortM. great scholar
and critic, and ScOtchman mt that.
pronounce him the first of all song
writer's? Does not Mr.. Sheldon call
him the Sweetest lyrist Of Ircnc's sad
dcst wrong? Was he not loved and
admired by Sydney Smith and DIR.
Parr-by even the captious Leigh Hunt
and the learned Macintosh? How
were these great minds deceived, since
| 1t falls to Stopford Brooke TO assign
Moore to his true status in literature?
"rhe man was thin" says Mr..
Brooke, "nnd, fortunately for his sue
cess. he did not know it." Indeed, no!
Nor was 1t suspected in his day by the
most brilliant and sagacious of his con-
tempornrics. No one before Stopford
Brooke dreamed Of imputng tlinness
to the dazzling, protean, prolific genius
Of Tom Moore; to that mind "com-
pounded with art Of the finest and best
of all other mems powers;" to that sur
passing talent like "the Crooks stone
of luster, which gave with the flash of
the gem, its solidity, too" The Rev.
Stopford Brooke surely has the cour-
age of his olllcc-a forty -parson power,
as Byron would have said, strangely
applied to literary criticism.
In poetry we require the miracle,
says Emerson. 10 my mind the best
Of Moorc's lyrics never fail to fulfill
this condition. Our literature has
nothing to compare with their distinct
i've grace, tenderness, patllos and joy
and the singer himself "singlng us If
he never could grow old" The only
adequate description of these songs
must be sought in themselves, with
the heart-searching commentary of
their own Irish music.
Music, oh how faint, how weak,
Language fades before thy spell!
Why should Feeling ever speak
When thou canst breathe her soul 80
well?
But the Rev. Stopford Brooke (who
is not Feeling) speaks, and emits the
valuable opinion that Moore's 'poetry
is the translation of music into as pref
ty and melodious words as possible"
Music was first, and poetry followed"
observes Mr.. Brooke; and he adds,
with seeming profundity, "this is not
the case with a great poet"
The truth is, Moore's unexampled
union Of musical and poetical genius
has given literary criticism a list to
starboard Pragmatical critics like the
Rev. Brooke resent the intrusion into
Moore's work Of quality with which
they know not how to deal, and vet
which in some undefinable way i'm
parts most rare and distinctive ex-
ccllence to his poetry. 1t never seems
to occur to such myopic critics that
Moore's gift Of music supplies clue to
his singular superiority as lyrical
poet. Yet the poet himself puts the
clue into their hands, for he tells us:
II only know that in strong and in
born talent for music lies the source
OF whatever talent may have shown
for poetical composition, and that it
was the effort to translate it into Ian.
guage, the emotions and passions
which music appeared to me to ex-
press, that first led to my writing any
poetry at all deserving of the name"
Moore has suffered from a certain
literary prejudice against s'mere song
writing but it in no way justly ap-
plies to him. Before he came, the
songs were made for. the sound, and
never aimed at the sense poetical or
otherwise. It remained for him who