The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-04-10

mounts at last to unity with God. No
HI drop Of the creeping Saxon in the veins
Il of John the Irish-born. And If In the
FL veins Of the poetic idealist of the 18th
century, the Bishop of Cloyne. there
moved some slower strain Of Saxon
patience, it retarded not the subtle
#swiftness of his spiritual intuition.
ssBorn in sceptical age, he gave 70 the
world that subjective philosophy upon
which all higher speculation since has
turned. He who foresaw the westward
course Of empire, and after whom is
NAMED the site of our University of
SsCalifornia-the greatest Of Irish phil-
~ MISREPRESENTATION Berkeley.
Tin poetry, may not the Irish genius
81 be accorded the encomium of success
For statement of the characteristic
Aof Celtic. that is to say -eminently
M Irish poetry, what better can We do
h than turn again to the English. and
therefore to the would-be unbiased
critic? The note Of Celtic poetry is
found, says Arnold, in its style, its
Il poignant passion, its tense melancholy,
dts constant aspiration toward the
mysterious, its natural magic; that in
innate charm of spirit in howery
Z glade, and brook, and woodland soli-
tude. To the poetry of the Celt, Eng
lish poetry owes the intoxication OF
style. And to it's fervent passions, its
melancholy, its constant yearning for
the heart of mystery, there are his
Ntorians who have said that medieval
Europe owed that spirit Of chivalry
4 which inspired the devotion of the Cru
rsaders in their efforts to win the Holy
5sSepulchre for Christendo1n; which
taught Europe that radiant worship Of
woman from which springs modern ro-
nance. Let us not claim everything
on Gods earth, however. Perhaps the
French and Germans and Italians do
not owe their chivalry to Ireland. after
Il all. But Of this much we may be sure,
that without that ancient impulse
the natural magic and the sweetness.
n the Titanic mea sure, the melancholy
ana the mystery of ossian and the
early bards Of Ireland, Goethe and
4. Hugo, Byron and Shelley, nay even
Milton and Shakespeare, would not
have written as they wrote. Modern
poetry would not have known, ais now,
A'the passion and the pain of finite
hearts that yearn.',
Maybe the Robert Burns OF Ireland
lacked measure and balance. and pa
thence, but so did Bobby Burns of
+ Scotland. Does Scotland think less Of
Burns, or do we Of Tom Moore, foc the
untempered aspiration, the sayety,
( ana impatient melancholy Of his po-
etry? Who that calls to mind Tho
i last Rose of Summer Left Blooming
b a4lone, 3 aala.s4ts lovely Companions
faded and zone Or The Harp That
I Once Through Tara's Hail. Is not
melted by the charn?, The worth OF
h poetry lies not in its volume. or its
4 caution, or its creeping patience. Is
4 there not the quality Of distinction. Of
h high success in that brief outburst,
the Dark Rosaleen' Of Clarence Man
tan-a poem perfect In beauty ard in
Il sentiment? Do not the chords Of every
irish heart in exile CULVER at the voice
Il ~ that granddaughter Of Sheridan,
Lady Dufferin. when is heard the La
b ntent Of the Irish Emigrant?' What
4 measure of balance Is lacking to Faith
sSer Prout's Bells of Shandon That
gound So Grand on the Pleasant Wat
srs OF the River Lee? And what to
Goldsmith's dear Deserted Village
a debt and to which, with the Vicar
OF Wakefield Goethe owed the iuspir-
alton of mis- immortal idyll, Hermann
lInd Dorothea.' And If the quality of
high success be not in these things,
what shall we say Of the masterpiece
Of the greatest Of our poets, the Irish
poet Of Persian philosophy-Edward
Il Fitzgerald. whose Rubaiyat of Omar
IL Ikhayyam is infinitely more than a
modern creation. a
ma tchless marriage Of thought and art,
va poem to be reckoned with and en-
H joyed as long as Tennyson and Brown
Ing endure. OF the poets Of the pres
!ert Jay. cannot speak; but few there
NE in English that far excel the best
Ns tSf William R,1tler Yeats
n Take the dramatists: Dick Steele.
XII tipsy overnight and writing Conscious
Il Lovers or penitehtial poems in the
morning; Oliver Goldsmith, with his
ID Saueenly comedy, She Stops to Con-
3 quer'; Richard Brinsley Sheridan. with
The School for Scandal perfect
picture OF the manners Of his time;
SMfjheridan Knowles. with his tVirginius'