_Introduction_
I
If in my childhood I had been asked to give the name of an Irish poem,
I should certainly have said "Let Erin remember the days of old," or
"Rich and rare were the gems she wore"; for although among the
ornamental books that lay on the round drawingroom table, the only
one of Moore's was _Lalla Rookh_, some guest would now and then
sing one of his melodies at the piano; and I can remember vexing or
trying to vex my governess by triumphant mention of Malachi's collar
of gold, she no doubt as well as I believing the "proud invader" it
was torn from to have been, like herself, an English one. A little
later I came to know other verses, ballads nearer to the tradition
of the country than Moore's faint sentiment. For a romantic love of
country had awakened in me, perhaps through the wide beauty of my home,
from whose hillsides I could see the mountain of Burren and Iar Connacht,
and at sunset the silver western sea; or it maybe through the half
revealed sympathy of my old nurse for the rebels whose cheering she
remembered when the French landed at Killala in '98; or perhaps but
through the natural breaking of a younger child of the house from
the conservatism of her elders. So when we were taken sometimes as
a treat the five mile drive to our market town, Loughrea, I would,
on tiptoe at the counter, hold up the six pence earned by saying without
a mistake my Bible lesson on the Sunday, and the old stationer, looking
down through his spectacles would give me what I wanted saying that
I was his best customer for Fenian books; and one of my sisters, rather
doubtfully consenting to my choice of _The Spirit of the Nation_
for a birthday present, qualified the gift by copying into it "Patriotism
is the last refuge of a scoundrel." I have some of them by me yet,
the little books in gay paper or in green cloth, and some verses in
them seem to me no less moving than in those early days, such as Davis's
lament.
We thought you would not die, we were sure you would not go
And leave us in our utmost need to Cromwell's cruel blow;
Sheep without a shepherd when the snow shuts out the sky,
O why did you leave us Owen? Why did you die?