Poems by Denis Florence MacCarthy (websites to read books for free .TXT) 📖

the 1884 second edition, or from D. F. MacCarthy's earlier publications, depending on whatever happened to be handy at the time. I have proofread this entire e-text against the 1882 edition. In many instances there are minor variations, mostly in punctuation, among the different source material. In some cases, if the 1882 edition clearly has an error, I have used the other works as a guide. Where there are variations that are not obviously errors, I have followed the 1882 edition. It is certainly possible, where I transcribed from a non-1882 source, that a few variations may have slipt my notice, and have not been changed.

General. In the printed source the first word of each section and poem is in "small capitals," which I have removed as per Project Gutenberg standards. Elsewhere instances of small capitals are rendered as ALL CAPITALS. In the printed source the patronymic prefix "Mac" is always followed by a half space; due to limitations in this electronic format I have rendered names in ALL CAPITALS with a full space (MAC CAURA) and names in Mixed Capitals without any space (MacCaura) throughout. In this plain-text file, italics in the original publication have been either indicated with "double quotes" or 'single quotes' if contextually appropriate; otherwise they have simply been dropt. Accents and other diacritical marks have also been dropt. However, where the original has an accent over the "e" in a past participle for poetical reasons, I have marked an e-acute with an apostrophe (as in "belov'ed") and marked an e-grave with a grave accent (as in "charm`ed") to indicate the intended pronunciation. For a fully formatted version, with italics, extended characters, et cetera, please refer to the HTML version of this collection of poetry, released by Project Gutenberg simultaneously with this plain text edition. The longest line in this plain-text file is 72 characters; this means that in some poems I had to wrap the ends of very long verses to the next line.

Footnotes. In the printed source footnotes are marked with an asterisk, dagger, et cetera and placed at the bottom of each page. In this electronic version I have numbered the footnotes and placed them below each section or poem.

Contents. I have removed the page numbers from the contents list. Text in brackets are my additions, giving alternate/earlier published titles for the poems.

Waiting for the May. This poem was published under the title of "Summer Longings" in "The Bell-Founder and Other Poems," 1857.

Oh! had I the Wings of a Bird. This poem was published under the title of "Home Preference" in The Bell-Founder and Other Poems, 1857.

Ferdiah. The ballad between Mave and Ferdiah includes some long lines of text that would require (due to electronic publishing line length standards) occasionally breaking a line ending to make a new line. Because there is an internal rhyme in these lines, and for more consistent formatting, I have decided to break every line here at the internal rhyme, but not capitalizing the beginning of resultant new line. For example, "Which many an arm less brave than thine, which many a heart less bold, would claim?" is one line of verse in the 1882 edition, but I have formatted it as "Which many an arm less brave than thine, / which many a heart less bold, would claim?" For purposes of recording errata below, I have not numbered these new pseudo-lines. The word "creit" is taken directly from the Irish text untranslated-a roughly equivalent English word is "frame."

The Voyage of St. Brendan. Note 56 refers to a puffin (Anas leucopsis) or 'girrinna.' The bird, at least by 2004 classification, is not a puffin but a barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) and I found one reference to its Irish name as 'ge ghiurain.' As these birds nest in remote areas of the arctic, people were quite free to invent stories of their origins.

The Dead Tribune. The subject of this poem is Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), an Irish political leader and Minister of Parliament. In ill health, his doctor advised he go to a warmer climate; he died en route to Rome for a pilgrimage. The 1882 edition has the word "knawing" which is an obsolete variant of "gnawing"; the latter appears in the 1884 edition.

A Mystery. The spelling of "Istambol" is intentional-the current "Istanbul" was not adopted until the twentieth century. The name probably derives from an old nickname for Constantinople, but the complexity of this city's naming is beyond the capacity of a footnote.

To Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. MacCarthy's translation of Calderon's "The Two Lovers of Heaven: Chrysanthus and Daria" has been released as Project Gutenberg e-text #12173.

To Ethna. This poem was published under the listing of "Dedicatory Sonnet" and dated 1850 in The Bell-Founder and Other Poems, 1857.

O'Connell. See note a few lines up on "The Dead Tribune." My correction of the phrase "heaven's high fault" is not based on any other published edition. It is conjectural, based on the illogicality of the phrase and MacCarthy's use of the phrase "heaven's high vault" in his translation of Calderon's "The Purgatory of St. Patrick" (Project Gutenberg e-text #6371) published two years before this poem was written.

Moore. The subject of this poem is Thomas Moore (1779-1852). A collection of his poems has been released as Project Gutenberg e-text #8187, but note that the biographical sketch therein mistakenly lists 1780 as his birth year. In this poem "Shakspere" is not misspelt; it is one of many variants used during and after the bard's lifetime (my favorite is "Shaxpere" from 1582).

To Ethna. This poem bears the same title as a sonnet, also in this collection of poems.

The Irish Emigrant's Mother. This poem was published under the title of "The Emigrants" in The Bell-Founder and Other Poems, 1857.


Errata.


Printer's errors found in the 1882 edition have been corrected in this electronic edition. While I have no desire to standardize Mr. MacCarthy's spelling or curtail his poetic license, in some cases where I could not find a documented variant matching the printed source I have replaced it and listed the change here. Occasionally I have inserted punctuation where it is obviously missing. Naturally it is possible that some of these "corrections" are themselves erroneous. When in doubt about either a spelling or punctuation error, I have followed the text of the original. The list below does not include minor corrections (punctuation and capitalization) in notes or introductions.

The [original text is in brackets] and {corrected text is in braces} below.


Contents. [The Year King] {The Year-King} / [The Awakening] {The Awaking} / [The Voice and the Pen] {The Voice and Pen}

Waiting for the May. line 9 [longing] {longing,}

Kate of Kenmare. line 37 [and] {land}

A Lament. line 117 [strewn] {strown}

Oh! had I the Wings of a Bird. line 35 [home] {home,}

The Fireside. line 20 [fireside.] {fireside!}

Autumn Fears. line 40 [field] {field!} / line 48 [field] {field!}

Ferdiah. line 69 [birds sing] {bird sings} / line 590 [ogether] {Together} / line 1007 [gle] {glen} / line 1229 [be.'] {be."}

The Voyage of St. Brendan. note 64 [tanagar] {tanager} / note 65 [driole] {oriole}

The Foray of Con O'Donnell. line 347 [and come] {and some} / line 407 [seagull] {sea gull}

The Bell-Founder. subheader [Vicissitude and Rest.] {Part III.-Vicissitude and Rest.}

Alice and Una. line 77 [Glengarifl's] {Glengariff's} / note 100 [Digialis] {Digitalis}

The Voice and Pen. line 35 [orator s] {orator's}

The Arraying. line 59 [verduous] {verdurous}

Welcome, May. line 30 [footseps] {footsteps}

The Progress of the Rose. line 65 [beateous] {beauteous}

The Year-King. line 114 [iu] {in}

The Awaking. line 11 [fear] {fear,} / line 29 [known] {known:}

The First of the Angels. line 32 [grass-bearing; lea] {grass-bearing lea}

Spirit Voices. title [VOICES] {VOICES.} / line 78 [prodnce] {produce}

O'Connell. line 123 [fault] {vault} / line 283 [it] {its}

Moore. line 101 [countr y] {country}

"Not Known". line 39 [Not] {NOT}

The Lay Missioner. line 20 [tis] {'tis}

Recollections. line 94 [hundreth] {hundredth}

Spring Flowers from Ireland. line 96 [own] {own.}

The Birth of the Spring. line 21 [When] {when} / line 29 [nowledge] {knowledge}

Darrynane. line 30 [Lowne?] {Lowne-} / line 52 [main] {main?}

The Irish Emigrant's Mother. line 10 [Tis] {'Tis}

The Rain: a Song of Peace. line 32 [again] {again!}

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Publication Date: 05-20-2008

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