The sun., 1903-12-27
MYSTIC, POET AND DRAMATIST
CAREER or WILLIAM BLTLER
YEATS, IRISH LYRICIST.
His views on the Irish independent Theatre
"A Captivating Personality-The New
celtic Poetry OF MORA O'Neili and
Othprs-t;eOrge Moore Has His Say.

A Captivating PersOnality-The New
Celtic Poetry OF Mora ONeill and
Others--GcOrge Moore Has His Say
Readers Of George Moores musical
novel, Evelyn lnnes,' will recall viVidly
Ulick Dean, mystic, critic of music, wiiter
of Celtic dramas 1t is, perhaps, the best
realized character in the book. Mr.. Moore
painted a partial portrait of William Butler
Yeats as Ulick. and to those who had never
read the old Celtic sagas there was some
thing fascinating in their sympathetic
exposition by that strangely gifted man,
George Moore Mr. Yeats is in New York,
we have heard him talk. recite his own
poems and deliver himself, without any
undue solemnity, on the subject OF the
Irish Independent Theatre. Soon there
will appear an authoritative study OF the
movement by Mr. Horatio Grams. and its
curious inception and subsequent rami-
hcationR will be made clear. | care but
little for creeds literary, artistic or musical.
prefer to speak of Mr. Yeatss dramatic
work alone After all, it is the individual
that always counts, not the movement
Nevertheless, one is struck by the dewy
Celtic poetry, from the more ambitious
thunders Of its epics to it's tenderest lyric
LEAKAGE, 1t has been a veritable renascence.
simultaneously, there burst forth through
out Ireland trlling of brdike notes never
since repeated. though the choir has be-
come more compact and augmented. Fiona
Macleod told in luscious, melting prose
her haunting tales beautiful Dora Sigerson
sang of the roses that fade; Katharine
lyman Hinkson achieved at a bound the
spun sweetness of music in her -Larks"
saw no staircase winding winding.
Up In the dazzle. sapphire and binding.
Yet round by round, In exquisite air.
The song went up the stair.
pure ravishment of the ear this lyrcl
Lionel johnson. an Irish Wordsworth.
1ntoned graver harmonies; Nora Hopper
caught the Tilt Of the folk on the hillside
with her Fairy Fiddler" "A. f. revealed
his artistry; Douglas Hyde, a giant in learn
ing, fearlessly wrote his poems in Erse
challenging with their sturdy splendor
the ancient sagas; George Moore wrote
plays with W. B. Yeats; Edward Martyr
his Naive" Heather Field" Mr. Yeats
his Countess Catheen.' Fiona Macleod
a piece founded on the stirring adventures
of "Diarmuid and Grania."
The English world that went over to
Dublin was amazed at the many beauties
of this new literature, literature rooted
in the vast. immemorial Voiksiied of Erin
Then Lady Gregory published her ad-
mirable translation OF "Cuchullain Of Muir
themne.' and we saw that as Wagner wisely
sought for rejuvenation of the music
drama in the Icelandic sagas, so these
young Irishmen, enthusiastically bent upon
recreating a national literature went to
the very living sources, the poetic meet
ing of the waters" for their inspiration.
DR.. Douglas Hyde was and is, the very
protagonist of the movement, though its
beginnings may be detected in the restless
lyrics of James Clarence Mangan, in the
almost classic lines of William Allingham
Matthew Arnold spoke of the Celtic
natural magic inherent in the great poetry
of England Here we get it in all its sad
and sunny perfections from the woodnote
wild of Moira O'Neill to the surprisingly
phrases of Yeats. The Celt and
the Sarmatian are alike in their despairng
patriotism, their preference for the melan-
choly minor scale of emotion, their sudden
Of sorrow and gayety, defiance
and despair. And the Irishman, like the
Polish man, is often merry at heart even
when his song has cadences dripping with
mournfulness. We hear it in the Chopin
mazurkas, the really representative music
of Chopin, and we hear it in those doleful
tunes sung by the Irish peasantry Even
~, ;t
does, the rock bed Of earthly calamity can
be turned to rollicking lay with a mere
infection. The Slav and Ceit are alike
they fall from heaven to hell in bound and
they always live to tell the tale.
What Celt whose feet are set in alien
at reefs can hear unmoved the plaintive
'Corrymeela" of Mora Neill?
Over here In England. I'm hepin wi the hay
An ] wish, was In Ireland the lvclong day;
Weary on the English hay an sorra take the whcatl
och, Corrvmsela an the blue SKY orer H.
And the singer varies the refrain with
sCorrymeela an the low south wind"
Sweet Corrymeela an the same soft rain,"
until you feel the heart-throb Of the lonely
exile, and Corrymeela with its patch of
blue sky, out of which the Irish rain pours-
for even the rain is witty in Ireland-be-
comes the one desirable spot on the globe.
Here is veritable poetic counterblast to
Robert Browning's "Oh, to be in England,
now that April's there
This same Celtic melancholy, with an
heroic quality rare since the legendary
days and all welded into music, lyric,
symphonic and dramatic, is to be found
In the work of William Butler Yeats. From
the Wind Among the Reeds" to THE
Seven Woods" from the "Wanderings of
Oisin Incompatible in its lulling music.
truly music that like Oisin's eyes is dull
with the smoke of their dreams TO that
touching Morality published last October,
sThe Hour Glass"--all Of Mr.. Yeats's poems
and plays create the feeling that we are in
the presence of a singer whose voice and
vision are new, whose voice and vision
are commensurate with the themes he
chants Above all he arouses the image
in us of window, like keats's magic case
ment opening upon perilous seas and strange
vistas wherein may be discovered the
cloudy figures of Deirdre, Dana, Cuchullain,
Diarmud and Grania Bran moves lazily
in the mist and in the threatening storm
clouds we see the dim shape of Aoife. the
best beloved woman of that mighty chief
tan Cuchulain, who slew the son of her
body and his own loins. This window is
the poets own it commands his particular
domain in thp Ia nd of 3reans. and what