Writings of Padraic Pearse

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 40, 12 October 1922, Page 9

Writings of Padraic Pearse

(By L. Ua Gallohobhaie, 0.1., in the Irish Monthly.)

It is one thing to write for children, quite another to Writs of them. , Profound learning and special aptitudes are in; no wise necessary to the writing of : stories to amuse little ones, but genius begotten' of love is necessary /to portray faithfully and graphically the sayings and doings of children. It is of : this genius Patrick Pearse— genius for the sympathetic portrayal of child life—that ; I wish to treat in this article. ' \ / - ■ I have said that the genius for reproducing faithfully the actions of. children is the outcome of a love for them, consequently I must prove that Pearse loved children before I proceed to illustrate his method of picturing for his readers the various trials, sorrows, and joys of childhood, the miniature dramas enacted before the curtain of life is rung up. • - A poet’s works are, as it were, a mirror which reflects h ls thoughts; his emotions, his affections. His inner self stands before us as we read in a far truer and clearer light than that inner self was known to even his most intimate associates. , We see the man in his works and the sight changes our whole estimate of his - character. Never, perhaps, were these remarks more true than in regard to the author we are considering, and in no portion or his works are these remarks better exemplified than in the works he has devoted to his relations with children. .Here he gives us an insight into his very soul, even that we may see the'emotions and thoughts and reflections aroused within him when he comes in contact with them: .... ‘Raise your comely head Till I kiss your mouth; If either of us is the better for that I am the better for it. "He who has my secrets Is not fit to touch you, Is not that a pitful thing, Little lad of the tricks?” 1 V . In these two stanzas we may read the principle underiymg his affection for children. Children (are pure; children are holy; and “He who. has my secrets is not fit to touch _ you.” The child’s soul is unsullied, and untainted does it carry its treasure of grace, so Pearse stoops with reverence to kiss that ark and murmurs: "If either of us-is the better for that lam the better for it.” a 1 ins thought of the spiritual beauty of children changes Ins whole outlook in life. Riches, fame, honors all are round wanting under this new measure: “I have not garnered gold, The fame that I found that perished: In love I got but grief That withered my life. - ' "Of riches or of store . H I shall not leave behind me; (Yet I deem it, 0 Lord, sufficient) ; But my name in the heart of a child.” Just one more illustration of his relations with children before we proceed to examine his treatment of childr++i ™ P ici,u i, e 18 a beautiful one. He is playing with' a little perhaps hide-and-seek—the little one is hiding and according to correct procedure he searches everywhere save where he knows her to be. He gives up in despair and calls out that he cannot find her, and then— we allknow the sequel—sudden jump from the hiding place, head thrown back, hair flying loose, cheeks flushed with victory and then the clear, thrilling, joyous laugh. We knew it all. Pearse knew it. He was rewarded with the laugh. Ho saw the intense and real joy, on the child’s face. <plf.“nM ha ? W; and then very poet-like, he asks himSB * rt i y cannot this little ones happiness last forfl V6r i A % looks int( | the future. He sees the happy life clouded with sorrow; ho sees the laughing mouth twitching in pain; he 1 sees the sparkling eyes welling up in tears; the most'beauttful riW > is a laughing .month, what tortures me is That thou shalt be weeping; Lovely face it is my pity That thy brightness shall grow grey. V Noble head, thou art proud, J ' -V v . But thou shaft bow in sorrow; ' And it is a. pitiful thing I forbode for thee Whenever I kiss thee/’ 1 .• V ’ ■yr 5% 7 If genius for the portrayal of child-life is the outcome of - love tor children we must expect that Patrick Pearse , is possessed of that genius in an eminent degree.' Our expectations will not prove false.. : ,• ;L. I. : v ; j Tire aspects of child-life of which he treats are many and various, and : from each picture shines forth the peculiarly characteristic feature of the subject he is endeavoring to portray. Whether: we wander in s the woods -with lollann Beag, or wait with , Brideen the mother’s home-

coming . with 1 the mysterious .present, or endeavor to say Mass out of a Second: Reader with Patrick, or listen to the twittering -of | the swallows whispering their wonderful: message to that strange little mystic Eoghneen na n-Ean, we find everywhere the correct _ atmosphere,while word and gesture chosen with exquisite skill transport us in thought from beside the fire and place us among the children and their playthings. We are taken out of ourselves. We go back to the days of our own happy childhood. We experience again for a little while the joys, the simple joys, of c m 1 i dren ’ and we thank God that a . Pears© lived. ~ , T ll ® fa’sf character I would take up for examination is that of lollann Beag m "The Master.” Ciaran, "The Master, has been abroad, and has been converted to Christianity. He returns to Ireland and, hiding himself in the woods, opens a school for boys. ' lollann Beag is the youngest of his pupils and his pet.. The introduction ot lollann is characterestic of the child: He is heard coming down the woodland path singing, as it turns out later, a little rann which he has composed himself. He is late, and Ciaran. asks him the reason. Of course' he lias been tree-climbing. He has been up to the top of an oak he has not climbed before and (this with a touch ot pride) has swung himself from one tree to another We begin to suspect here that lollann has not overmuch respect for Ciaran, neither does he seem to be imbued with that wholesome fear which is a usual characteristic ot pupils towards their masters. We begin, in short to rash-judge lollann who replies by promptly cutting the ground from under our feet and leaving us blushing shamefacedly by saying with child-like earnestness, fearing that he has hurt Ciaran; "I’m sorry, Master.” He is a lovable little fellow is lollann, and stands up for his friends and for his friends’ rights even when such friends happen to be in the enviable condition of sainthood. Ciaran, “The Master,” has asked the boys to name lor him Jesus friends. All goes well until Art: "There was Peter who—— ” lollann: "Aye! Good Peter of the sword!” Ciaran: Nay, lollann! It is Paul has a sword.” lollann: “Peter should have his sword, too. I will not have him cheated of his sword. It was a mod blow he struck.” Brendan: "Yet the Lord rebuked him for it.” lollann : "The Lord did wrong to rebuke him. He was always down on Peter.” Ciaran: "Peter was fiery and the Lord was very gentle. J lollann: “But when He wanted a rock to build His Church He had to go to Peter. No John of the Bosom then, but the good old swordsman. Paul must yield his sword to Peter. Ido not like that Paul.” t A Surety a formidable champion, and yet we can trace distinctly the workings of the childish mind running through the speech, especially if we notice that lollann nays no heed to Ciaran’s last remark, and continues his line of thought unbroken. jollann’s little song illustrates how Pearse was able to give expression to a child’s thought in a child’s language. Jhe adaptation of the subject to lollann’s own environment is a peculiarly true and happy touch. The poem is called the “Rann of the Little Playmate,” and lollann puts the words into the mouth of John the Baptist: ! ' “Young losa plays with me every day (With an oro and an iaro); . V • Tig and Pookeen and Hide in the Hay (With an oro and an iaro). \ We race in the river with otters grey; We climb the tall trees where red squirrels play ; We watch the wee lady-bird fly far away (With an oro and 'an iaro and an umbo ero).” i , The four stories, “Bairbrq,” “The Priest,” "The Thief” and Eoghneen of the Birds,” treat simply of, the adventures and the every day, doings of children. For this reason the child characters which appear in them are given a wider and more minute development than was possible in the case of lollann Beag. In these stories, too, does Pearse show his genius to more advantage. Here is no artificial setting. The homes, the cabins, the wilds of Connacht form the naturally beautiful background against which his characters stand out clearly, and in such settings is the portrayal of his children truly life-like. The , adventures are in no wise strange. They happen in the lives of most children, and always; with much the same effectand yet there is a strange fascinating, power lurking in these sketches as if an unseen hand had drawn aside the veil and had enabled memory to return; to gather sweets and treasures too long , looked upon as lumber, as if some power allowed us to retrace our steps in life and pluck, even in manhood, the lost flowers of childhood’s joys. .-V .; v -jr*kplk I have never, had a doll, ! but I have sisters, and can appreciate the minute perfection of Pearse’s Brideen on 1 the occasion of being presented with that much-coveted and much-loved companion of : our: sisters’ : -childhood; ’ Pearse must have witnessed a scene - kindred to that -in which Brideen’s mother !,:■ presents ' her : with the /1011, for I defy any i “grown-up” to invent ■ such a': heartfelt’ outburst ' of jov as comes from the little girl when she receives' the : gift. fk k^^i ;; mk.bkk

“Ora, isn’t it pretty! ' Ara, mama, heart, where did /you; get; it? Ora, 0! I’ll have a little child of my very v # own - now child of my very owneen own! . Brideen will have a child!” /• / / ■■/.:/■/•■. 'W ‘' v- .True to life and the description of her actions is not less so: /:■:/ /;//,/// ’/ : •/. '• “She snatched the little doll and squeezed'it to her heart. She kissed its little bald ' head and its two red cheeks. She kissed its little mouth and its little snub _nose. Then she remembered herself, raised her head, and says she to her mother; ‘Kith!’ (Like that she would :■ say ‘ Kiss ’).” : "i . /. ; . / That one word “kith” .uttered in spite of such distractions wins all hearts to Brideen, and again illustrates what a keen observer the author must have been, and by what slight touches he could create a beautiful picture. •; / Let us glance at the description of the reception given :■ to the second doll, “Niamh Oinn Oir.” Her. mother has /just opened the box for Brideen and they are both looking ydown at a beautiful doll asleep. -/// - “A queen!” says Brideen in a whisper, for there was a kind of dread on her before this glorious fairy. ‘.‘A ; queen from Tir-na-n-Ogl Look, mama, she’s asleep. Do you think will she waken.” “Take her in your hand,” says the mother. /The little girl stretched out her two hands timidly, ’ laid them reverently on the wonderful doll, and at last ylifted it out of the box. y ' Simple words descriptive of a simple scene, and vet there is a vast power behind them. We seem to feel / the wonder and excitement of the little girl. We feel a kind of fear when her hands touch the vision. We are relieved when she draws it from the box and it turns •i .out to be _ but a doll. But why were we so foolish as to be deceived?' Why did we share the emotions of Brideen? Because the picture was drawn so close to life > that, for the moment, we forgot it was a picture. / . Pearse was anxious to avoid giving occasion for jealousy, and he determined to furnish the male element with a typical picture from the life of a little boy.-“ The Priest” therefore was added to his creations to act, as, /it were, as a balance for Barbara. ■ Patrick is the central figure of “The Priest,” and I feel sure that Patrick or, at least, the little boy on whom this character is modelled, became a priest. It is always the case. So much so that Irish mothers have come to look upon playing at priest as an almost infallible sign of a vocation. , * y .; “The Priest” is not an easy story to treat in parts. - The incidents do not stand out sufficiently from the story to call for individual quotation, yet the description of Patrick’s vesting and preparation for saying his Mass ‘..are very typical and as true to life as the other pictures we have been considering. His mother looks into the room -and this is what she' sees # - “Patrick was standing beside the table and he dressed in the shirt again. Outside of this and hack over his shoulders he was fixing on a red bodice of. his mother’s that she had hanging on the wall. When he had this arranged properly h© took out the biggest book he had in his satchel—the ‘Second Book” it was, I believehe //opened it and laid it before him on the table, propped against the looking-glass. Then he ( began the antics in /earnest.' Patrick stood out opposite the table, bent his / knee, blessed himself and began praying loudly.” , . Of course, he made use ‘of any Latin words he knew, ! and when he had no Latin he made sounds as near the / orthodox ones as possible, as I remember another youthful Levite used to do, saying, “Wee, wee, said the Raynas,” ft: as the equivalent of “qui vivis et regime ” at the end of / the prayer at Benediction. It may not be out of place to mention that that “youthful Levite” is well on his way //to the priesthood by this. //; The final scene is worth quoting: - Patrick was dressed in the shirt and bodice, exactly //as, he was the day before that, and he praying piously. : . . . At. last my lad turned round, and setting his face towards the people as it would be: “Orate, jratres ,” says he out loud. , While this was saying he saw his mother and the - priest at the door. He reddened and stood without a , . stir. ’ •// / Jif'u “Come here to me,” says Father Honan. Patrick v; came over shyly. x“What’s this you have going on?” says the priest. < “I ; was reading Mass, Father,” says Patrick. He // said this much shyly, but it was plain he didn’t think that ohe0 he had -done anything out of the way—and, sure, it’s not much he had. ;£/.• “The . Thief” takes its name from the chief actor [//in the story, Anthony. >--Anthony’s .little sister being, ill gi;'he v steals the doll of the schoolmaster’s daughter, Nance, for bier. He tells the little girl that Nance has sent the , /'doll as a. present, and his stealing is counterbalanced • by the improvement which at once set in. But “con-i'-[science doth make cowards of us all,” and Anthony is no -exception; The struggle between fear arid satisfaction // in " the little boy’s heart , are very / well reproduced. - His /- /anxiety in the schoolroom;; his -guilty self-consciousness in the street / his fateful dreams replete.with policemen and / gaols—jail are wonderfully.: pictured ~ and \ all lead up to • the climax when - Nance pays' a ; visit ‘ to,, the little sick r;* girl. - ' " ‘ N , •

Pearse treats, as, I believe, only Pears© could treat of • ;; Anthony’s embarrassment/ of Nance’s recognition ,of the missing doll; of her diplomatic, sheltering of the guilty: boy; ;of her generosity’and forgiveness of the culprit. 'Anthony’s i gratitude made . tangible in . little weekly gifts, , closes with | a characterestic -touch one of the most beautiful of Pearse’s \ . stories. // .WN’//////v. ■; “Eoineen of the Birds’’ stands in a totally different category from the other stories. Eoineen is a little boy given to wandering over the field and by the sea alone. He has a wonderful affection for animal life and is neither feared nor shunned by the various wild creatures which v reside in , the country.around him. The birds, however, receive the major part of his attentions, particularly the swallows. These he awaits eagerly each year, and if they delay he watches all through the long days until they arrive. i “Come in,' pet. It’s rising cold,” ' “I can’t stir a while yet, little mother. I’m waiting lor the swallows.” V “For what, little son?” 1 / - ' / “The swallows. I’m thinking they’ll be here to-night. • . .- I r mind that it was. this day surely they came last year. I was coping up from the well when I heard their • t^ 1 T tt f ring a sweet, joyful twittering as they’d be saying, ‘We ve come to you again, Eoineen! News to you from the southern world!’ and, then one of them flew past'me, rubbing his wing to my cheek.” , Eoineen is a strange little mystic,, and the whole story has something eerie and preternatural about it. He is delicate, in fact, fast sinking in consumption, and the south, where, as the swallows tell him: “There is summer always,” has a strong fascination for him. He knows he is sinking; he feels himself growing weaker, and he likes to picture Heaven as a happy, sunny country from which the swallows will come to tell him of all its beauties, j-i “Hm lonely since they left me in the harvest,” says the little boy again, like one that would be talking to himself. They had much to say to me. They -are not like the song-thrush or yellow-bunting that do spend the best part of their lives by the ditch side in the garden. They do have wonderful stories to tell-about the lands where it does be summer always, and about the wild sea where the ships are drowned, and about the lime-bright cities where •' the kings do be always living. It’s long, long, the road from the southern country ,to this country. They see every- ‘ coming over, and they don’t- forget anything. I think long, wanting them.” It is useless to criticise Pearse’s rendering of the character of Eoineen. It is an unusual one and the getting is more unusual still. Yet we feel instinctively that did we know such a boy he would speak and act just as Pearse has made Eoineen speak and act. Only a child could entertain such thoughts about the birds, -and only a child could give them such a welcome when they return to him again. “0, my love, my love you 'are! Welcome to me from the strange countries. Are you tired after your lonely journey over lands and over seas? Ora, my thousand, thousand loves you are, beautiful little messenger from the country where it_ does be summer always.” . The description of Eoineen’s death is beautiful and' infinitely. pathetic, but it cannot detain us here. I will only quote the little boy’s last words, in which he is seen torn between two loves, - words which again impress upon ns the force of the genius for child portrayal which the author possessed. ' The -swallows are flying round Eoineen, who is sitting, very weak, on his mother’s knee: “Mother, they’re calling me. ‘ Come to the country where the sun. does be . shining always—-come, Eoineen, over the wild seas to the Country of Light—come, Eoineen of the Birds!’ I can’t deny them. A blessing with you, little mother —my thousand thousand blessings to you, little mother of my heart. I’m going from you [/■ . . over the wild seas ; ... ' to the country, where -it does be summer always.’.’ . v He let his head back on his mother’s shoulder and he put a sigh out: of him. There was heard the crying of a. woman in that lonely place—the crying of a mother keen- . ing her child. /Eoineen was ' departed . with ; the j swallows. I have done. .I . have drawn but a faint and hazy sketch of the beauties to -he gathered from this field of Pearse’s work, and I foretell that anyone who reads these works, preferably in the mother tongue, in which they were written, will add to his reverence for Pearse, the idealist, and Pearse, the patriot, a love,, a reverence, , and a great admiration for Patrick Pearse/ the lover and portrayer of • little children. . , v ■_ u , «• - - r~" 1 - rr ——— , x • Catholics insist upon religion in the school, because , God is the Creator and Sovereign Lord of all men. To ' teach without mentioning: His name gives a distorted view .of the universe and a false outlook on life. ' ' /•'■