Still in the west and south of
Ireland, the peasant, returning home, hears, as the evening falls from
the haunted hills, airs unknown before, or at midnight a wild
triumphant song from the Fairy Host rushing by, or wakes with a dream
melody in his heart. And these are played and sung next day to the
folk sitting round the fire. Many who heard these mystic sounds became
themselves the makers of melodies, and went about the land singing and
making and playing from village to village and cabin to cabin, till
the unwritten songs of Ireland were as numerous as they were various.
Moore collected a hundred and twenty of them, but of late more than
five hundred he knew not of have been secured from the people and from
manuscripts for the pleasure of the world. And in them lives on the
spirit of the Fianna, and the mystery of the Fairy Host, and the long
sorrow and the fleeting joy of the wild weather in the heart of the
Irish race.
[7] This word is pronounced Shee, and means "the folk of the
fairy mounds."
As to the poetry of Ireland, that other Art which is illustrated in
this book, so fully has it been dwelt on by many scholars and critics
that it needs not be touched here other than lightly and briefly. The
honour and dignity of the art of poetry goes back in Irish mythology
to a dim antiquity.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56