IRISHSPOETS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 484, 28 June 1890, Page 6

IRISHSPOETS.

Men "and Women of Great Natural Ability. From Charles de Kay’s profusely illustrated article in the ‘ Century ’ on the ‘ Old Poetic Guild in Ireland ’ is taken the following':— ‘ The long training of the people in versocomposing and verse-reciting predisposes them to the composition of poetry of some degree of excellence. Irish men and Irish women, as a rule, have a knack at writing if they receive any education at all, and are natural writers and journalists at an early age. The last remarkable poet of the file kind known in Ireland was Carolan, the blind bard of the last century, whose portrait, and some of whoso verses, translated and in the original, were published by James Hardiman. He was as peripatetic as Homer is said to have been, blind also, and certainly a fine if nob a great poet. Though the race is nob extinct, little except the most ordinary verse is published in Irish to day, the audience being too small to tempt the most ardent patriot. With all its inherited shortcomings, and with the evils that befell it owing to circumstances, the poetic guild of ancient Ireland did the world a great service in keeping from destruction historical and national data lost from other parts of Europe. It also added nob a little to the world’s stock of tragic, of noble and of comic fiction. 1