Слике страница
PDF
ePub

OF

THOMAS MOORE,

AUTHOR OF "IRISH MELODIES," "LALLA ROOKH,"

ETC., ETC, ETC.

BY JAMES BURKE, A.B.,

BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

AUTHOR OF "ABRIDGMENT OF LINGARD'S ENGLAND,”

ETC.

"Dear Harp of my Country, in darkness I found thee,
The cold chain of silence had hung o'er the long,
When proudly, my own Island Harp, unboun/thee,
And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

JAMES DUFFY AND SONS, 15, WELLINGTON QUAY,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

DUBLIN:

Printed by James Moore,

2, CRAMPTON QUAY.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

I CANNOT but feel that to some extent I am open to the charge of presumption, in having attempted so ambitious a task as to sketch the Great Master of Irish Song. The best apology I can plead for my boldness is, that in the following delineation of our National Poet, I have touched the canvass as seldom as possible, and have generally left it to the powerful pencil of MOORE himself, or of some illustrious contemporary, to delight the beholder with that brilliant colouring which I should have in vain attempted to produce.

Nationality has been steadily kept in view in this volume, and I have, therefore, dwelt with especial interest on those portions of MOORE's poems and scarcely less melodious prose, which treat with glowing eloquence of the ancient glories and the protracted struggles of our country, her joys and her sorrows, her triumphs and her woes. As far as lay within the power of my humble pen, I have endeavoured to destroy the idea so industriously propagated in several English and Scotch sketches of MOORE, that he was but the gilded butterfly of

« ПретходнаНастави »