Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry
Part 1
THE COLLECTED WORKS OF “FIONA MACLEOD"
(WILLIAM SHARP)
I. Pharais; The Mountain Lovers.
II. The Sin-Eater; The Washer of the Ford, Etc.
III. The Dominion of Dreams; Under the Dark Star.
IV. The Divine Adventure; Iona; Studies in Spiritual History.
V. The Winged Destiny; Studies in the Spiritual History of the Gael.
VI. The Silence of Amor; Where the Forest Murmurs.
VII. Poems and Dramas.
The Immortal Hour--_In paper covers._
SELECTED WRITINGS OF WILLIAM SHARP
I. Poems.
II. Studies and Appreciations.
III. Papers, Critical and Reminiscent.
IV. Literary, Geography, and Travel Sketches.
V. Vistas: The Gipsy Christ and other Prose Imaginings.
_Uniform with above, in two volumes_
A MEMOIR OF WILLIAM SHARP
(FIONA MACLEOD)
COMPILED BY MRS WILLIAM SHARP
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
_The Celtic Library_
LYRA CELTICA
FIRST EDITION 1896
SECOND EDITION (_Revised and Enlarged_) 1924
LYRA CELTICA
AN ANTHOLOGY OF REPRESENTATIVE CELTIC POETRY
EDITED BY E. A. SHARP AND J. MATTHAY
_WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES_ By WILLIAM SHARP
ANCIENT IRISH, ALBAN, GAELIC, BRETON, CYMRIC, AND MODERN SCOTTISH AND IRISH CELTIC POETRY
EDINBURGH: JOHN GRANT 31 GEORGE IV. BRIDGE 1924
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY OLIVER AND BOYD EDINBURGH
CONTENTS
“ ... _a troubled Eden, rich In throb of heart_ ...”
GEORGE MEREDITH
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION xvii
ANCIENT IRISH AND SCOTTISH
The Mystery of Amergin 3
The Song of Fionn 4
Credhe’s Lament 5
Cuchullin in his Chariot 6
Deirdrê’s Lament for the Sons of Usnach 8
The Lament of Queen Maev 10
The March of the Faërie Host 12
Vision of a Fair Woman 13
The Fian Banners 14
The Rune of St Patrick 17
Columcille cecenit 18
Columcille fecit 20
The Song of Murdoch the Monk 22
Domhnull Mac Fhionnlaidh: “The Aged Bard’s Wish” 23
Ossian Sang 28
Fingal and Ros-crana 29
The Night-Song of the Bards 31
The Death-Song of Ossian 41
ANCIENT CORNISH
The Pool of Pilate 44, 45
Merlin the Diviner 46
The Vision of Seth 47
EARLY ARMORICAN
The Dance of the Sword 53
The Lord Nann and the Fairy 55
Alain the Fox 58
Bran 60
EARLY CYMRIC AND MEDIÆVAL WELSH
The Soul 67
LLYWARC’H HÊN
The Gorwynion 68 The Tercets of Llywawrc’h 72
TALIESIN
Song to the Wind 73
ANEURIN
Odes of the Months 75
DAFYDD AP GWILYM
The Summer 78 To the Lark 81
RHYS GOCH (of ERYRI)
To the Fox 82
RHYS GOCH AP RHICCART
The Song of the Thrush 83
IRISH (MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY)
“A.E.”
Sacrifice 87 The Great Breath 88 Mystery 89 By the Margin of the Great Deep 90 The Breath of Light 91
WILLIAM ALLINGHAM
Æolian Harp 92 The Fairies 93
THOMAS BOYD
To the Lianhuan Shee 95
EMILY BRONTË
Remembrance 97
STOPFORD A. BROOKE
The Earth and Man 98 Song 99
JOHN K. CASEY
Maire, my Girl 101 Gracie Og Machree 103
GEORGE DARLEY
Dirge 104
AUBREY DE VERE
The Little Black Rose 105 Epitaph 106
FRANCIS FAHY
Killiney Far Away 107
SIR SAMUEL FERGUSON
Cean Dubh Deelish 109 Molly Asthore 110 The Fair Hills of Ireland 112
ALFRED PERCIVAL GRAVES
Herring is King 113 The Rose of Kenmare 115 The Song of the Pratee 118 Irish Lullaby 120
GERALD GRIFFIN
Eileen Aroon 121
NORA HOPPER
The Dark Man 123 April in Ireland 124 The Wind among the Reeds 125
DOUGLAS HYDE
My Grief on the Sea 126 The Cooleen 127 The Breedyeen 128 Nelly of the Top-Knots 130 I shall not Die for Thee 132
LIONEL JOHNSON
The Red Wind 133 To Morfydd 134
DENIS FLORENCE MACCARTHY
A Lament 135
JAMES CLARENCE MANGAN
The Fair Hills of Eiré, O! 137 Dark Rosaleen 139 The One Mystery 142
ROSA MULHOLLAND
The Wild Geese 144
RODEN NOËL
Lament for a Little Child 146 The Swimmer 148 The Dance 151 From “The Water-Nymph and the Boy” 152 A Casual Song 154 The Pity of it 155 The Old 157
CHARLES P. O’CONOR
Maura Du of Ballyshannon 158
JOHN FRANCIS O’DONNELL
A Spinning Song 160
JOHN BOYLE O’REILLY
A White Rose 161
ARTHUR O’SHAUGHNESSY
The Fountain of Tears 162
FANNY PARNELL
After Death 165
T. W. ROLLESTON
The Dead at Clonmacnois 166
DORA SIGERSON
Unknown Ideal 167
GEORGE SIGERSON
Mo Cáilin Donn 168
JOHN TODHUNTER
An Irish Love Song 170 The Sunburst 171 Song 173
KATHERINE TYNAN
Winter Sunset 174 Shamrock Song 176 Wild Geese 178
CHARLES WEEKES
Dreams 179 Poppies 180
W. B. YEATS
They went forth to the Battle, but they always fell 181 The White Birds 183 The Lake of Innisfree 184
SCOTO-CELTIC (MIDDLE PERIOD)
Prologue to “Gaul” 187
In Hebrid Seas 189
Cumha Ghriogair Mhic Griogair 191
Drowned 194
ALEXANDER MACDONALD
The Manning of the Birlinn 195
ANGUS MACKENZIE
The Lament of the Deer 201
DUNCAN BÀN MACINTYRE
Ben Dorain 203 The Hill-Water 208
MARY MACLEOD
Song for Macleod of Macleod 210
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY SCOTO-CELTIC
Monaltri 217
An Coineachan--A Highland Lullaby 218
A Boat Song 219
JOHN STUART BLACKIE
The Old Soldier of the Gareloch Head 222
ROBERT BUCHANAN
Flower of the World 224 The Strange Country 225 The Dream of the World without Death 228 The Faëry Foster-Mother 235
LORD BYRON
When we Two Parted 238 Stanzas for Music 239
Colin’s Cattle 240
MacCrimmon’s Lament 241
IAN CAMERON
Song 242
JOHN DAVIDSON
A Loafer 243 In Romney Marsh 245
JEAN GLOVER
O’er the Muir amang the Heather 246
GEORGE MACDONALD
Song 247
RONALD CAMPBELL MACFIE
Song 249
WILLIAM MACDONALD
A Spring Trouble 250
AMICE MACDONELL
Culloden Moor 251
ALICE C. MACDONELL
The Weaving of the Tartan 252
WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY
The Thrush’s Song 254
FIONA MACLEOD
The Prayer of Women 255 The Rune of Age 257 A Milking Song 259 Lullaby 261 The Songs of Ethlenn Stuart 262 The Closing Doors 264 The Sorrow of Delight 265
NORMAN MACLEOD
Farewell to Fiunary 266
SARAH ROBERTSON MATHESON
A Kiss of the King’s Hand 267
DUGALD MOORE
The First Ship 268
LADY CAROLINE NAIRNE
The Land o’ the Leal 269
ALEXANDER NICOLSON
Skye 270
SIR NOËL PATON
Midnight by the Sea 272 In Shadowland 273
WILLIAM RENTON
Mountain Twilight 274
LADY JOHN SCOTT
Durisdeer 275
EARL OF SOUTHESK
November’s Cadence 276
JOHN CAMPBELL SHAIRP
Cailleach Bein-y-Vreich 277
UNA URQUHART
An Old Tale of Three 279
ANON.
Lost Love 280
CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS (WALES)
GEORGE MEREDITH
Dirge in Woods 283 Outer and Inner 284 Night of Frost in May 286 Hymn to Colour 289
SEBASTIAN EVANS
Shadows 292
EBENEZER JONES
When the World is Burning 293 The Hand 294
EMILY DAVIS
A Song of Winter 296
ERNEST RHYS
The Night Ride 297 The House of Hendra 298
CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS (MANX)
T. E. BROWN
The Childhood of Kitty of the Sherragh Vane 307
HALL CAINE
Graih my Chree 309
CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS (CORNISH)
A. T. QUILLER COUCH
The Splendid Spur 317 The White Moth 318
STEPHEN HAWKER
Featherstone’s Doom 319 Trebarrow 320
RICCARDO STEPHENS
Witch Margaret 321 A Ballad 323 Hell’s Piper 325
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY BRETON
The Poor Clerk 331
The Cross by the Way 333
The Secrets of the Clerk 335
Love Song 336
HERVÉ-NOËL LE BRETON
Hymn to Sleep 338 The Burden of Lost Souls 340
VILLIERS DE L’ISLE-ADAM
Confession 342 Discouragement 343
LECONTE DE LISLE
The Black Panther 344 The Spring 346
LEO-KERMORVAN
The Return of Taliesen 348
LOUIS TIERCELIN
By Menec’hi Shore 351
THE CELTIC FRINGE
BLISS CARMAN
Song 355 The War-Song of Gamelbar 356 Golden Rowan 359 A Sea Child 360
ELLEN MACKAY HUTCHINSON
The Quest 361 Moth Song 362 June 363
HUGH M‘CULLOCH
Scent o’ Pines 364
DUNCAN CAMPBELL SCOTT
The Reed-Player 365
THOMAS D’ARCY M‘CGEE
The Celtic Cross 366
MARY C. G. BYRON
The Tryst of the Night 368
ALICE E. GILLINGTON
The Doom-Bar 369 The Seven Whistlers 371
SHANE LESLIE
Requiem 373
PADRAIC COLUM
An Old Woman of the Roads 374 A Cradle Song 375
JAMES STEPHENS
The Coolun 376 The Clouds 377
ELEANOR HULL
The Old Woman of Beare 378
THOMAS MACDONAGH
From a “Litany of Beauty” 381
SEOSAMH MACCATHMHAOIL
I will go with my Father a-ploughing 383 A Northern Love Song 384
PATRICK MACGILL
Fairy Workers 385
FRANCIS LEDWIDGE
The Shadow People 386 My Mother 387
GORDON BOTTOMLEY
Lyric from “The Crier by Night” 388
JAMES H. COUSINS
The Quest 389
PADRAIC H. PEARSE
The Fool 390
LORD DUNSANY
The Return of Song 392
KENNETH MACLEOD
Dance to your Shadow 393 Sea Longing 394 The Reiving Ship 395
MARJORY KENNEDY-FRASER
Land of Heart’s Desire 396 Ossian’s Midsummer Day-Dream 397 Kishmul’s Galley 398
AGNES MURE MACKENZIE
Aignish on the Machair 399
NEIL MUNRO
Fingal’s Weeping 400
NOTES 403-450
INTRODUCTION
In this foreword I must deal cursorily with a great and fascinating subject, for “Lyra Celtica” has extended beyond its original limits, and Text and Notes have absorbed much of the space which had been allotted for a preliminary dissertation on the distinguishing qualities and characteristics of Celtic literature.
For most readers, the interest of an anthology is independent of any introductory remarks: the appeal is in the wares, not in the running commentary of the hawker. For those, however, who have looked for a detailed synthesis, as well as for the Celticists who may have expected an ample, or, at least, a more adequately representative selection from the older Celtic literatures, I have a brief word to say before passing on to the matter in hand.
In the first place, this volume is no more than an early, and, in a sense, merely arbitrary, gleaning from an abundant harvest. For “Lyra Celtica” is not so much the introduction to a much larger, more organic, and more adequately representative work, to be called “Anthologia Celtica,” but is rather the outcome of the latter, itself culled from a vast mass of material, ancient, mediæval, and modern. It is, moreover, intentionally given over mainly to modern poetry. “Anthologia Celtica” may not appear for a year or two hence, perhaps not for several years; for a systematic effort to compile a scholarly anthology, on chronological and comparative lines, of the ancient poetry of Irish and Scottish Gaeldom, of the Cymric, Armorican, and other Brythonic bards, is a task not to be lightly undertaken, or fulfilled in anything like satisfactory degree without that patience and care which only enthusiastic love of the subject can give, and for which the extrinsic reward is payable in rainbow-gold alone.
In the second place, all that was intended to be written here, will be given more fully and more systematically in a volume to be published later: “An Introduction to the Study of Celtic Literature.” Therein an effort is made to illustrate the distinguishing imaginative qualities of the several Celtic races; to trace the origins, dispersion, interfusion, and concentration of the early Celtic, Picto-Celtic, and later Goidelic and Brythonic peoples, and to reflect Celtic mythopœic and authentic history through Celtic poetry and legendary lore. Concurrently there is an endeavour to relate, in natural order, the development of the literature of contemporary Wales, Brittany, Ireland, and Celtic Scotland, from their ancient Cymric, Armorican, Erse, and Alban-Gaelic congeners.
* * * * *
It is not yet thirty years ago since Matthew Arnold published his memorable and beautiful essay on Celtic Literature, so superficial in its knowledge, it is true, but informed by so keen and fine an interpretative spirit; yet already, since 1868, the writings of Celtic specialists constitute quite a library.