Poems by Denis Florence MacCarthy
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verse, during the next two years. The following are some of the
titles:--"The Greenwood Hill;" "Songs of other Days" (Belshazzar's Feast--Thoughts in the Holy Land--Thoughts of the Past); "Life," "Death," "Fables" (The Zephyr and the Sensitive Plant--The Tulip and the Rose--The Bee and the Rose); "Songs of Birds" (Nightingale--Eagle--Phoenix--Fire-fly); "Songs of the Winds," &c. On October 14th, 1843, his first contribution ("Proclamation Songs," No. 1) appeared in the Dublin "Nation." "Here is a song by a new recruit," wrote Mr., now Sir, Charles Gavan Duffy, "which we should give in our leading columns if they were not preoccupied." In the next number I find "The Battle of Clontarf," with this editorial note: "'Desmond' is entitled to be enrolled in our national brigade." "A Dream" soon follows; and at intervals, between this date and 1849--besides many other poems--all the National songs and most of the Ballads included in this volume. In April, 1847, "The Bell-Founder" and "The Foray of Con O'Donnell" appeared in the "University Magazine," in which "Waiting for the May," "The Bridal of the Year," and "The Voyage of Saint Brendan," were subsequently published (in January and May, 1848). Meanwhile, in 1846, the year in which he was called to the bar, he edited the "Poets and Dramatists of Ireland," with an introduction, which evinced considerable reading, on the early religion and literature of the Irish people. In the same year he also edited the "Book of Irish Ballads," to which he prefixed an introduction on ballad poetry. This volume was republished with additions and a preface in 1869. In 1853, the poems afterwards published under the title of "Underglimpses" were chiefly written.[3] The plays of Calderon--thoroughly national in form and matter--have met with but scant appreciation from foreigners. Yet we find his genius |
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