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New Zealand Tablet, 27 February 1919, Page 26

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gj F~da*s College ULI L.ItMM wx>..w fe »■ Our readers will remember that St. Enda’s College was founded by Patrick Pearse and that with marvellous success that gifted and lovable young Irish genius there taught boys how to become ' Christian gentlemen and good Irishmen. When her son died, Mrs. Pears© appealed to her friends and his admirers in America to keep the college open as a memorial to Padraic, and the response was generous and prompt.

Then we read that the English soldiers made a descent ' on St. Enda’s and closed it, and we knew in the depth of our heart what that last brutality meant to Ireland as well as to the widowed mother. It was but one more stupidity; one more piece of arrant devilry ; one more effort to goad the people to rebellion; another incident to add to the murder of SheehySkeffington by a protected lunatic; another gentle tribute to a small nation from the blatant asses who tell the world that they are fighting to free the Eskimos and the Patagonians and the men in the moon. God help John Bull when the big black book of Jobs is opened at the settling day of the nations! You cannot kill a nation, but some people have tried very hard. Irish Books It is on Irish schools and Irish traditions and Irish books that the indomitable spirit of the Gaels is nourished, and while the Gaels at home are leaving nothing undone to save the soul of the people we ought to be solicitous about doing our part for the Greater Ireland. In these columns we have time and again recommended Irish books to our readers, and wo are glad to know that our advice has been very fruitful. Let us take this opportunity lo call attention to the list of new Irish books under the advertisement of Mr. O’Connor, Christchurch. In the list readers will find the names of many books which we have noticed in the Tablet recently, and many of those who wrote to us will now be able to secure their copies immediately. Many of these books are relics of the dead, and as such ought to be treasured. Kettle’s poems, Plunkett’s, MacEntee’s, Dunsany’s plays, the. volumes of Every Irishman’s Library, containing the cream of Irish eloquence, mythology, and poetry, should be welcomed by all those who are anxious to taste the rich fruit of the Gaelic revival movement. We hope Mr. O’Connor’s present large stock will .quickly be exhausted —and as quickly renewed. The Talbot Press publications which we saw on his shelves last week deserve to be widely circulated. On Lending Books Milton it was who said that it was as bad to kill a good book as to kill a man. It that be true, bookstealing is on the same level as kidnapping. But of course we never do such a disgraceful thing as to steal books. As a rule we annex them, and politicians have made annexation a respectable proceeding and would be very hurt if told that there was not a whit of difference between it and stealing, except it is a bigger transaction as a rule. Probably we have ourselves been guilty of borrowing books and not returning them; bub that does not prevent us from feeling a grievance when others do so unto us. The grievance is all the greater when the book is borrowed without our knowledge, and when we come home and find a work we wish to consult missing and no news of its fate to give a direction to our Just wrath. Probably it is the fact that we cannot say what we want to . say to the right persons that hurts most. Personally, we know there were a lot of things unsaid this morning when we noticed on a shelf a gap that was not there a week ago. An Irish poet who lost his watch in Doneraile wrote about fifty verses of vigorous anathema which relieved his feelings k while' leaving Doneraile intact; .we want a poet to write a few strong lines to be used on various occasions when we discover that a book which we have present need of has been annexed by some friendly foe: the lines that occur to us at present would scorch asbestos. come time ago we promulgated a rule that one should bestow freely any book he felt disposed to give rather than lend it. An old book-lover told us. once that he found it quite a good rule. It has one drawback ; it is ineffectual against the man who borrows your books without saying by your leave.

The Power of Poetry ■' It is recommended that we read each day at least one good poem with a view to keeping keen our literary taste and feeling. But poetry has a far greater practical value than this through its sway over the emotions. Some of the noblest impulses of man have found expression in poetry, . and whole nations have been thrilled and fired by the songs that arose from the hearts of the bards. We know what an influence on our own race the .ballads of Ireland have had, and we have seen audiences moved as nothing else could move them by hearing patriotic songs. Who that ever heard Ludwig in the height of his fame sing the rebel songs of the Gael can doubt the effect of poetry on a nation ? He knew how to make a simple folk-song like The Boys of Wexford arouse a packed hall to a jntch of wild excitement ; he could make them weep over the old broadsheet verses of The Croppy Boy. Did not Moore’s melodies do more than a generation of spouters to keep national spirit alive And was all the fiery prose of the Nation as effective as the lyrics contributed by Davis? Fontenoy alone has been a sacred fire in Erin since it first appeared. The Scots, too, know what a part the national songs have played in the history of their laud, and which of them can read of Bannockburn unmoved to-day? How tired French feet will march lo the strains of La Marseillaise we all know; and even that awful air which the people of the British Empire call their National Anthem is said to be able to move the patriotic emotions of some who hear it sung. Wordsworth Wordsworth is hardly a popular poet to-day, and the average reader is probably ignorant of most of his poems. Yet, no modern poet has had more profound and abiding influence on his contemporaries, and to none have the enlightened critics been more faithful in their adherence. John Morley’s essay is helpful reading for one who wishes to know Wordsworth, and let us add that, for us, John Morley’s praise is that of the soundest Judge living now. He tells us how deeply Wordsworth affected George Eliot, and what strength she found in his great verses. John O’Hagan tells us that it was Wordsworth who gave to Davis his high ideals of pure and exalted love of country. John Stuart Mill says; “What mad© his poems a medicine for my state of mind was that they expressed not mere outward beauty, but states of feeling and of thought colored by feeling under the excitement of beauty. I needed to be made feel that there was a permanent happiness in tranquil contemplation.” And is not this the very quality of which Matthew Arnold sings in the well-known stanza : Time may restore us in his course Byron’s wild power or Goethe’s force, But when* shall Europe’s later hour Again feel Wordsworth’s healing power? The Irish poet, Aubrey de Vcre, was a true disciple of the Lake poet, and he thus describee how he fell under his master’s spell: “Some strong, calm hand seemed to have, been laid on my head, and bound me to the spot till I had come to the end (of Laodamia). As I read a new world opened out, stretching itself far away into serene infinities. The region was one to me unknown, but the harmony of the picture testified to its reality. Above and around were indeed & An ampler ether, a diviner air. And fields invested with purpureal gleams; and when I reached the line Calm pleasures there abidemajestic pains. I felt that no tenants less stately were fit to walk in so lordly a precinct. I had been translated into another planet of song— one with larger movements and a longer year. A wider conception of poetry had become mine, and the Byronic enthusiasm fell from

me like a bond broken by being outgrown." Such tributes leave us no room for doubt as to Wordsworth's claims to first rank among the poets. No other poet Ave know of has such a gift of personification of Nature, none other can read her lessons as he does. . Not without reason has his genius been compared to that of the French artist, Millet.