The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-12-05
THE IRISH MELODIES.

| hiiE EtllSll H6ESLIESa
True poetry has been lined to a
painting which shows the harmonious
blending of light, shode and color, the
accuracy of perspective without any
mathematical harshness, and an entire
freedom from redundacy. The similc
is apt In poetry we must have d blend
ing of the light shade and color of the
poets imagination, freedom from
rlgldity, and above ALL truthfulness to
nature. In either, a touch or a word
more or less may mar the picture, and
the higher and finer the subject the
more easily will it be to make its re-
production imperfect.
When poetry such as this-the en-
modiment of high thought and pure
emotion-is welded to music. which for
charm weird beauty and individuality
has been unsurpassed in any age, we
have a combination that ascends to the
highest pinnacle of the ideal. II is
The link that binds us here
To the fair jewellers of the heavenly
sphere;
And of the language that is spoken
there
1t is the only true interpreter
Such combination are the Irish
Melodies" They were worded by Il
genius to suit the music of music
loving people.
Their music is pure, natural and free
Like the breeze that signs along
Beds of Oriental flowers"
Sometimes soft and low and sweet. like
the gentle signing of evening zephyrs;
anon moaning plaintively like a noun
tain breeze; and again thrilling with
joyous melody, like the carol of the
skylGrk. To attempt to embellish this
music would be like attempting to train
the nightingale to sing according TO
rigid scientific rules. or TO control the
musical rhythm of the babbling brook.
The result in either case would be
fatal
Moore knew this, and with all the
mighty genius of his poetic and refined
nature. he set to work to wed words to
this music, in keeping with its spirit, in
harmony with its freedom, and i'll adapt
ability to the nation which produced it.
How far he succeeded the world knows
Never. before nor since, did lyric poet
arouse such universal admiration. and
never did the country for which and of
which he wrote those melodies feel
prouder than when he unbound his
own Irish Harp and gave all his chords
to light, freedom and song"
Moore's melodies are in keeping with
the peculiar characteristics of the Irish
people: they abound with warmth and
eXpresSiveness of feeling, true senti
ment elegant refinement. exquisite art
and purity of patriotism. Among them
we find the soft and tender love song,
pure as a, tear on the lash of a sleeping
child; the deep passionate strains Of
patriotic feeling; the sparkling and
spontaneous wit; or the signing notes
of human pathos and sorrow. In all of
the melodies true poetic imagery is pre-
dominant; everything tending to
coarseness is eliminated, and, as Moore
himself so beautifully expressed it in
Dear Harp of My Country" even in
those songs that arouse mirth and joy
fulness there is an undercurrent of sad
ness stealing through them that will
make itself left.
THE plaintive melodies of Carolan, :"
writes Moore, take us back to the
times in which he lived, when our poor
countrymen were driven to worship
their God in caves. or to quit forever
the land of their birth dixie the bird
that abandons the nest which human
touch has violated): and in many a
song do we hear the last farewell of
the exile mingling regret for the ties ne
leaves at home with sanguine eXpecta-
abroad" How true this is, and how
fittingly Moore links the words to the
music expressing both of these senti-
ments- The following lines from 1.-THE
Coulin" are adapted to the foregoing
part of the above quotation:
ITO the glooms of some desert or cold
rock shore,
Where the eye of the stranger can
haunt uS M moro.
l will fly with my Coulin, and think the
rough wind
Less rude than the foes we leave
frowning behind
And to the latter sentiment he gives
expression in these well known lines:
AS slow our ship her foamy track
Against the wind was cleaYing,
Her trembling pennant still looked back
To that dear isle twas leaving,
So turn our hearts. where'er we rove
From all the links that bind US;
So turn our hearts, where'er we rove
To those we leave behind US
And so, to all those wild and melan-
choly strains which were lat once the
offspring and solace of grief, the poet
has welded words which intensity their
expression and harmonic with their
weird beauty.
ing to Ireland. while not so intense,
perhaps, as those of Davis. are none
the less fervent, tender and sincere,
Moore has been accused of lukeWarm-
ness in his love of country, but it would
be hard to doubt the sincerity of the
man who wrote of Ireland thus:
Remember thee! Yes, while there's life
in this heart,
1t shall never forget thee, all lorn as
thou art;
More dear in thy sorrow, thy gloom, and
thy showers.
Than the rest of the world in its sun
NEST hours.
Vert thou all that 1 wished thee, great,
glorious and free
First flower of the earth, and first gem
Of the sea-
l might hail thee with prouder, with
happier brow.
But OH could I love thee more deeply
than now?"
Many of the melodies treat of Bard
ic traditions, or legends of ancient Erin,
and by bringing us back to the tWi-
light of fable" give us an insight OF the
poetic beauty of Irish mythology
Among these we have the Song OF
Fionuala," which tells of the enchant-
ment of the daughter of an ancient
Irish king, and her condemnation to
wander. in the form of a swan, for
lakes and rivers of Ireland. till the
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