THE MUSE OF ULSTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 128, 30 May 1914, Page 18

THE MUSE OF ULSTER.

■—i " POETRY" OF THE HOME RULE CRISIS. PIETY, FERV-OCB. AND IXCOI-EREXCX.

Olel Fletcher, of Sattonn, whose pious aspiriiii'.n to "write thp songs of a country, let ihem write its history who may." has long since g.me the way of all flesh, but his saying has apparently attained the immortality 'hat attaches to a piece of There are many who believe wiuh him to-day. to judge from the tremendous rush of self-appointed pools to celebrate the Home Utile crisis in verse. For six months past Kngllsh and Irish weekly uewspapers Oiave liiiel ITsterieal poems in nearly every issue, iiiiel even daily papers have opened •their columns to that species of literature. Perhaps the npwspapers are jiistiflpd in giving space to songs of the crisis. These are generally awful rubbish, but they are preferable to the "history" preeesenitcd by some journals, such as those that raved and bowled about a deliberate "plot" to have a St. Bartholomew massacre of lister Protestants. line of the poets combines ibistory ewlth appeal. He starts his effusion with thp declaration of the undoubted fae-t — King William crossed the Boyne; l)ur forefathers did bis army Join; and ethis hit of ancient history somehow leads him to the grand climacteric:— i Let ristermen determined be i .gainst Home Itule with heart and mind, (ir l'operv will be on us; L'lstermeii, keep your powder dry. Another, wilh a rather firmer grasp of rhyme and rhythm than the author of the foregoing apostrophises "The Volunteers" thus:— Stand for your heritage, Antrim and Heed'not a traitorous Government".! frown, stauii to it t>errv Armagh, and Tyrone! Freemen of' Donegal, stand for your own! A fervent Belfasit bard twanged the lyre to the following effect, under the title of '■■Saviours of Ulster: The Immortal One Hundred": — "One Hundred Noble Officers, of England's pride to-day _ _ enas siood upon the Cnrragtt Camp, a summons to obey." Hold, enough! T'ngranrmaticnl as these lines arc, however, they are to be admired for tbe candour with which they state that : the ".Voble Officers" who resigned did so in obediene-e to a "summons" —presumably from tbe Uncrowned King of Ulster. A most extraordinary farrago of nnsrramTna treat rhyme was published in a Newcastle weekly paper. It took the form of an address to Ulster, and .the following is a fair sample of its style:— fan's* thon he alone when hearts are with Inspired'by that. Truth, which thou doth Think not'all are faithless, heedless of thy Pea. _ Men frown, amazed, where er thy wrongs have flown. .rt thou alone with Bngllsbmen neaT th«? •Sons of thy kindred in years long ago; Shall thy bark glide to HarrthotomeWs sea, England! oh. l.nglaud'. what misery ye Boast not "Go tell the worM our rights we'll guard" Alone thy puuy strength bnt ill accords-. House not tbe pale terrlflc king's reward. Or "irislnnac," and lawful, lawlee-S s-words. Tbe publication of nonsee?usp of this kind gives a faint idea of tbe lengths to wnl\c_ English Unionists were prepared to go in order to incite Ulster to revolt A rather well-written poem by 11. F. W. Eees contains a direct incitement to soldieTs nnd | bluejackets to disobey orders. It opens:— Waneee-Hpes rhling ln DrabEn Bay. furtseVins down to the longshore frwell, An.l a shotted gun with a shoreward lay, ißm. never a lad to pass the shell: Marshalled trooiis in v bold array, And a long-told tale of a dreadful tight, But never a sword unsheathed to slay, And never a rifle shoulder-height! A Oleasgow lyrist. J. C_ Bowes, broke forth, to the tune of "Scots "Wha Ua'e," as follows: — Ulstermen whom <.od has led, IMstermeu whom tiod has fed With His true and living bread— llstermeu, be true. See the day of danger draws, imty on you ever culls. Stand like living forts and walls— ULsiernien, be true. Then we have "Ulster's Try to England," by reroival Carleion, a plea for sympathy and for liberty lo tight; and "Lister's Vldl." by M." Adair tMacdonald —a saber appeal, made in such good poetic form that il obtained a place In 'the Dondon "Spectator"; and "The Ulster Road." a song written h v .Mr. Wm. Moore, M.TV. and set to musiec by I-ady "Bagot, a loyal UlsterwOTuau. Last of the Ulster poems we have one sent anonymously 10 Sir Edward Carson, "In Memory of the rovenanl." which contains such stirring lines as these: The rl"hr must win lbe fight at length; aud Ulster, glad again. Shall yet go singing on her way, through sunlight after rain. When time .hew led to victory, and night unveils tiie sky. The stars themselves will shine to light the dead who never die. There can be no donbt abont tile nationality of the writer of thee«e lines, with etheeir peculiarly Hibernian allusion to "the dead who never die." Among the few bards wno have hurst into song on the Nation-allst side, Mr. Harold Bogbte takes first place with some verses entitled "Better Times." Here are samples:— I'd like to lay a mild haH-orowTi With any Child of sporting habits, That Orangemen will not go down Like rabbits. Deluded hooligans and roughs May have to go to quod for arson. •But blood will never especk the cuffs Of Carson. No martial speech from brazen throat Next year will make a single pulse stir, No fighter strip hi in of his coat In Ulster. Instead of dying tr. a ditch. Or scuttling olf like nit and bunny. Tin- Orange poor will toil, lbe rich Make money. Workman and clerk, dismiss your dread, The lope still ln his prison lingers: Pirrie won't burn 'his boats, nor Ned His augers. The spirit of these verses, and the literary merit too, are better than Is to be found In the mock-heroic effusions meant to incense tbe Ulstermen. Now comes an anoymous minstrel with "A Call to Arms," ' which Is apparently an appeal to the ! Nationalists and Ulstermen to combine and | light the hnted Saxon. The writer calls ' upon Ireland to wrest Ibor green flag from ' \ tralrors; "iet Orange and Blue unite," ; Ulster. I.clister, Connaughl, nnd Bfnnste.r' 1 ire one. tn "d c e v ,t the r ed stains in that ■ mingled dy" - whatev-- that may mean;' i-.r.ri i].- in-oheren: sTain concludes: ! Iteilsc |v_.| inn i""v p»nn«n of sunlight Tin " -ic. le I- ■ I'-.,: banner e-j,!; I A nation uultrrl need fetir no fall, . And God save ou: dear Irealand! |

To which everyone wonld gladly say "Amen," i£ only they had an inkling ot what it Is all about. Last of all comes an original poem, *'I.a Harpe Britanniqne," contributed by an Aucklander to the "Star.'' This production is more weird and wonderful than .'.ny of those published in the Old Country, and it extends to some fifty stnuzsis, most t.f them-| couched in cryptic language. It opens:— Believe mc, Ireland's views anil lakes Are halru tv _lm who soothment seeks; CN'o milder, cncaieer air ne takes Than ou MacjlUicuddy's Kecks. This reads like the prelude to a panegyric on the Emerald Isle; hut it is only a cunning Introduction to an appeal t... readers to "fciuk Asquithisni, that wizen tiling," aud give Ulster liberty ti, "liun-tmu strum? strings of minstrelsy and hards." Then follow a dozen stanzas, mostly unintelligible, wilh references to ladonsay, Allah, Moses, New Zealand, the liible, St. Patrick, Kosmos and Kaliban, ISy gentle gradations we get hack to Ulster, the Harp of Tarn, Londonderry, the Linn and the Unicorn, I>an Flngal, and somebody who is threaten.-d with the doom of being dubbed "Tomlit" by Heaven. At the twenty-second stanza we get a glimmering of what tho writer in driving at. lie says:— Dismiss nome Hale then, nor again Disintegration's rupture moot; . | From minute cobbling pray refrain. And stretch the mind lo far Hajpuot. Britannia! Un and take in hand Theese Sister Inlanders who drift; Start engineering, drain their land, And ull the while persuade to thrift. Passing over obscure rererences to Angles and Celts (who arc compared to cats and dogs), to broad churchmen aud Wilebcrforces (who are adjured to make Redmond their brother and to "kiss the poor race for which he pleads"), we .a«ain reach the Lion and Unicorn and the Harp, .ending up to an apostrophe to "King John" •Itedmond, in which he Is advised to stay in the English Parliament, because he may tbns "attract Prance." Then the poet again becomes practical and csclalnis:-^ England! Rrjnt Ireland models; rouse For labour, rampamy aud zeal: And as for horses, hogs and cows Jdake pedigree do a great deal. •Alas! The lucid interval is brief, for about the forty-fifth stanza we reach this bit of rhodouionta.de: — If Loo paw the virile Harp. If Unicorn approve the twang, Whate'er tile-bit tag viper carp. Whate'er vile mood curse etrimg harangue, Disruptiv.-s shall he converts sharp, When Harmony t:uglutte.U_ clang! It Is to be feared that Harmony and Clang have combined to "englut" sense in that stanzea. By a final stupendous effort, however. Clang is kicked downstairs, as it were, aud the effusion ends on a sweetly dulcet note. The bard prays that Ulster's .harp may "strum amain" aud —thrill whilst deathless virgin rhythm •pnlse it. As sensitised by vim and .toucli of Irish Dane, With wizardry, ah. mc! so sweetly dulcet — Sweetly dulcet, sweetly dulcet. And a well beloved refrain: Sweetly, swee-ee-eet-ly dulcet— ■Sweetly, swee-ee-eet-ly dulcet— 4>weet_y dulcet sweetly dulcet. And a well bdov'd refrain! On that note let us leave the subject, joining fervently In the hope that we shall soon And all Ireland celebrating the end of strife and setting up of Home Rule, withe, inestcad of the tihriek of shells and "the diapason of fhe cannonade."' the once distresesful isle will reesouml with the "swee-ee-eetly dulcet" strains of the Harp of I'eaca And If the chorus .should be eswolleu by the deep bass or shrill treble of the pedigree "horees, hogs and cows" of Uie poet's ecstatlc vision, eso much the better: