The Irish standard., 1916-01-15
Modern Irish Poetry
Nationally the Deepest Thing IrsIandRegon always Close
y Allied with Irish Nationally Poetry Catholic with
Pahos Patience and Passion Added to It's Religious Fer
vor.

however, catching it's impa-
Hence or it's sensationalism. The singu.
arly spiritual serenity of his work,
and it's aloofness from modern
thought and feeling, will prevent it
from gaining wide popularity; but
those whose appreciation is best worth
having will always rate highly poems
that are distinguished alike by a no.
bility of conception. The spirit in
which De Vere's work was done is
best expressed in the lines which he
puts in the mouth of one of his own
Enthusiastically, an Irish bard Of
the thirteenth century:
MY songs are all over now-so best!
They are laid in the Heavenly Sing
er's breast,
Who never sings but a star is born:
May we hear His song in the end
less morn"
Aubrey de We're essayed many forms
of poetry, but in none is he, on the
whole, so successful as in his fine
sonnets. One of these, entitled "Sor-
row." deserves to rank with the best
sonnets that have ever been written.
The idea of Christian resignation, the
idea so nobly and beautifully expressed
in the words of the Book of Job
1.-THE Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken away: as it hath pleased the
Lord so it is done: blessed be the
name Of the Lord''-has inspired the
Irish Catholic poet in the composition
of the following poem, which will
bear comparison with the religious
sonnets of Dante, Petrarch, or Michael
Angelo:
Count each affliction, whether light
or grave,
Gods messenger sent down to thee;
do thou
With courtesy receive him; rise and
bow;
And, ere his shadow pass thy thresh'
old, crave
Permission first his heavenly feet to
lave;
They lay before him all thou hast:
allow
No cloud of passion to usurp thy brow
Or mar thy hospitality; nc
OF mortal tumult to obliterate
The souls marmoreal calmness; grief
should be
Like joy-majestic, equable, sedate,
Conforming, cleansing, raising, max
ing free;
Strong to consume small troubles; to
commend
Great thoughts, grave thoughts,
thoughts lasting to the end"
In Sir Samuel Ferguson's treatment
of the old Irish stories, there is no
ticeable a similar tendency to invest
the theme with spiritual interest
In his poems that celebrate the heroic
figures of paganism, he is attracted
by some moral religious or human
idea that is either inherent in the
myths which he uses, or that is read
into them by his poetic and imagina
tive treatment. In "Conary," Conall
Carnach appears from the evil powers
by whose influence King Conary has
been slain to new deity whose ad
vent has been foretold by the bards:
Il do defy them; and appeal to you
Being of goodness perfect, and tc
Thee,
Great Unknown Being, who has made
them all,
Take We compassion on the race Of
men;
And for this slavery of gaysh and
sidh,
Send down some emanation of your
selves
To rule and comfort us! And I have
heard,
There come the tidings yet make us
glad.
OF such One new born, or soon to
be-"
In the noble poem, which tells of the
burial of King Cormac, the ancient
legend that King Cormac MacArt
when nearing the end of his life, de-
clared that there was but one God
and refused to worship Crom Cruach
and the gods of wood and stone, is
splendidly rendered. The king de.
termines that his body shall not lie
in the great cemetery at Brugh-na
Boinne with his pagan ancestors, but
at noteless Ross, where he had first
had the vision of the approaching
light of purer religion.
His glory lightens from the east;
His message soon shall reach ou1