D. F. MacCarthy, a Great Poet

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 46, 2 December 1925, Page 11

D. F. MacCarthy, a Great Poet

(By G. F. Cuming, in the Irish World.)

With bounding step up Freedom's rugged side, Advance! Knowledge will lead thee to the dazzling heights, Advance ! Tolerance will teach and guard thy brother's rights, Advance! Faint not! for thee a pitying Future waits, Advance! Be wise, be just, with will as fixed as Fate's Advance! —D. F. MacCarthy. I A town-bred bard, having been born in Dublin on May 26, 1817, Denis Florence MacCarthy, nevertheless, received his most vivid impressions from external nature. Love of all its shifting pageants is evident in his verse. Always, too, there is love of Ireland. Ireland is almost exclusively the theme and inspiration of his original poems, which possess, in a high degree, grace, tenderness, and gaiety, intermingled with that

touch of pathos which one finds in the best ' Irish poetry. MacCarthy's first verses, were published in the Dublin. Satirist, before he had completed his seventeenth year. In 1843, he began contributing a series of political poems to the Nation, over the .signature "Desmond." These contributions were marked by modera- " tion and good taste. Like many of his con- - temporaries', MacCarthy espoused the Repeal • movement, and joined in the work of political associations; but his political interests were always subordinate to his literary tastes. He remained with the O'Connell party on the final disruption of the Repeal Association! Did Not Follow Law. MacCarthy was called to the Bar in 1846, but did not practise. In that year he edited a book of Irish Ballads, with an introductory essay on the history and religion

". of the Irish, and on ballad poetry, and also "Poets and Dramatists of Ireland." His first volume, "Ballads,. Poems and I own first volume, "Ballads, Poems and Lyrics," appeared in 1850, the opening poem I being the beautiful piece entitled "The Bell- ~«, Founder," in which he narrates the legend ':--.[.h pf the bells of Old St. Mary's, Limerick. ■■ f Paolo, a young Italian bell-founder, having completed a beautiful chime of bells, after "".,•; ■■.. many years' labor,, sold them to the Prior ■■} ■■■ r .fl.\ of a neighboring convent, and with the proceeds bought a little villa, where he hoped 'J to settle and enjoy domestic peace. Here '' he would have the happiness of hearing the ': bells toll daily from the convent on the ■:' cliff. But misfortune fell on the young bell's' founder during a period of disturbance. He • ; .-'. lost all and became a. wanderer without home : • or family. Moreover, the convent was rased Ir.-fe and the bells carried off. On discovering this', ]"'■ Paolo's heart withered; his hair grew white ■ C.i and he became prematurely aged. His sole i% aim now was to find the chimes again. At • '£. length, after much fruitless wandering, he :•- approached Limerick, and anchoring near the '■; ■'■ old town, beheld St. Mary's steeple raise §| ; its turreted head above the mist and smoke: . ' : j '■}■ "The old man sees naught but St. Mary's ;• "}; square tower, with its battlements brown. , > .He listens yet all is silent, but now with i p a sudden surprise, A rich peal of melody rings from that tower '- through the clear evening skies. !; Leaning forward, he listens, he gazes, he ; Jt, hears in that wonderful strain \i The long-silent voices that murmur: 'Oh, :■ '■ ';,:. "'■' leave us not, father, again!' • 'Tis granted—he smileshis eye —the """-'"'„ breath from his white lips hath fled. £•' • The father has gone to his children —the old Campanaro is dead!" - ■ In 1854, Denis Florence MacCarthy was r appointed Professor of English Literature .:> and Poetry in Newman's Catholic UniverY sity. At Cardinal Newman's request he de.4 livered three sets of lectures, the first being ; 3j on Poetry; the second and third on the Poets t , of Spain and the Dramatists of the Sixteenth Century, respectively. '" An Irish Legend. Pre-eminently a lyrio poet, MacCarthy has written little in narrative form, but his IC, "Voyage of % St. Brendan" belongs to this -~ latter class. It embodies the legend of- the >;il Irish monk, who, about the year 525, sailed f; across the western main, in the hope of win,j;ning the heathen to Christianity, and reach- ' .:; ed the mysterious land of promise beyond the .; - sea. After seven years' absence, Brendan reV ; turned to his native land and founded the monastery at Clonfert. St. Brendan describes his departure from Ireland: :]: "At length the long-expected morning came, r p When from the opening arms of that wild ;yi bay, . .1; Beneath the hill that bears my humble name, -.. Over the waves we took our untracked way. ' >Over the sea we flew that sunny morn, g\x Not without natural ears and human sighs; J For who can leave the land where he was &&■, born. •-.;..■..,

And where, perchance, a buried mother lies, -' " : "'. ' " "" :: " " : : Where all the friends of ; riper manhood dwell,, : - ; L And where the playmates of his childhood ' sleep; Who can depart and breathe a cold farewell, Nor let his eyes their honest tribute weep Until 1864, the. poet's chief residence was on Killiney Hill, overlooking Dublin Bay. In that year he broke up his home, owing to the ill-health of some members of his family, and after a prolonged stay on the Continent, settled in London, where he published a volume on Shelley's Early Life, giving interesting details of the poet's visit to Dublin in 1812. . Translations from Spanish. A passage in one of Shelley's Essays first drew MacCarthy's attention to Calderon, the great Spanish dramatist and he devoted the best years of his life to giving beautiful and almost faultless renderings in English of Calderon's works. In 1853 he published translations of six of Calderon's dramas, among them being "The Purgatory of St. Patrick." His work excited the admiration of Spanish scholars. It was praised by Ticknor and Longfellow. "Particularly in the most poetical passages' you are excellent," wrote Longfellow. Such a sentence was indeed a supreme tribute to a translator, testifying, as it did, to his capacity, of rising to the highest level of his original. "He has," says the writer of an interesting sketch of the poet in the Dublin Review of 1883, "by his translations earned himself a permanent place in English literature, where his name must ever remain indissolubly associated with that of the great poet of Spain." A fine sample of MacCarthy's power as a translator is that soliloquy uttered by Sigismund, Prince of Poland, which is one ol Calderon's most celebrated passages. The opening lines are as follows: ". -. . Since 'tis plain, In this world's uncertain gleam, That to live is but to dream; Man dreams what he is, and wakes Only when upon him breaks Death's mysterious morning beam. The King dreams he is a King; And in this delusive way Lives and rules with sovereign sway; All the cheers' that round him ring Born of air, on air take wing." In recognition of his labors, the poet was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Spain, and in 1881 a medal was sent-him which had been struck in commemoration of the bi-centenary of Calderon's death. Died on Good Friday. Denis Florence spent the last few months of his life in Ireland, his death occurring at Blackrock, on Good Friday, the 7th April, 1882. At the Moore Centenary, when his splendid ode was read before a delighted audience, he was crowned Poet Laureate ot Ire-

land. After his death many of his friends and admirers combined to raise a simple memorial to him, and a bust in white marble, by the . Irish sculptor, Thomas Farrell, R.H.A., was erected in the City Hall 'between Chantrey's "Grattan," and Hogau's "O'Connell." Among the subscribers were Cardinal McCabe, who had been a fellow student Cardinal Newman, and Cardinal McCloskey, representing the Catholic Church of Ireland, England, and America. "A better memorial," says Father Mats Russell, S.J.the kindly friend of many a, budding poet and author"was the issue of a popular edition of his poems." This collection was brought out by his son, in 1884, at the instance of the Memorial Committee; but- some of the poet's best work has been omitted from it, including his humorous, and most of his national pieces. "Seldom," says the writer in the Dublin Review, already referred to, "has a writes name been transferred from the list of those still living and active among their contemporaries to the ever-growing roll of pass celebrities, amid such a universal, feeling of regret as that evoked by "the recent death of Denis Florence MacCarthy. Ireland lost in him one' of the most graceful of her lyrists; a large circle of intimates deplore a friend endeared to them, not more by his brilliant intellectual endowments than by the genial sympathies of his nature."

Archbishop Cerretti to be Elevated to the Cardinalate

• A cable message from Rome under date October 5, to an American exchange, says: Monsignor Cerretti, Papal Nuncio to Paris and formerly Auditor of the Apostolic Delegation at Washington, is to be elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals' at the next Consistory, which will be convoked by the Holy Father in late November or early December. The Nuncio was received in aud- .>. ience by the Pope on Saturday, and will rer ~ v turn to his post in the French capital within a few days. Prior to his appointment as Nuncio to Paris, which marked the resumption of diplomatic relations between France and the Vatican, Monsignor Cerretti had served as Secretary of the Apostolic Delegation to Mexico, as Auditor at Washington, and as Apostolic Delegate to Australia. It is regarded as probable that Monsignor Carlo Perosi, Assessor of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, will also be made a Cardinal at the coming Consistory. —— OBITUARY MR. JOHN SCANLON, WAIPUKU. • By the death of Mr. John Scanlon at the Stratford Hospital the ranks of Taranaki's pioneer settlers were depleted of yet another of their rapidly diminishing number. Mr. Scanlon's last birthday marked the 78th year of his life, 60 years of which were spent in New Zealandmainly in Taranaki. . He left his native home in Co. Wicklow, Ireland, and landed at Port Nicholson in 1865. :;•' Here he was one of the first men engaged in the construction of the railway from Welling- ; ton to the Hutt. Coming later to Taranaki, he was favorably impressed with the possibilities of advancement offered by farming pursuits, and for .a considerable number of \ * years he followed that occupation at Ka- ,«£ ponga, Kapuni, and Te Kiri. From Te Kiri X -hie went to Waipuku, where he farmed up to the time of his death. y.2 . Mr. Scanlon's first wife, who was a daugh-

ter of Mr! and Mrs. P. Brown, of Bulls, predeceased him 30 years ago.. Of this marriage there were five daughters and two sons, the former being Mrs. J. W. H. Gardner (Riverlea), Mrs. Owen McPhillips (Stratford) the late Bridget Scanlon, ■ who died during childhood, the late Mrs. W. Lister (Manaia), and Mrs. . Jas. McPhillips (Kaponga), and the sons being Messrs. John and Michael, residing at Kaponga. Mr. Scanlon is survived by his secorfd wife, who is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Ryder, of Christ church, and has seven sons, all of whom are still living. They are Messrs. William (Kaponga), and Bernard, Vincent, Victor, Eric, Cyril, and Conrad, of Waipuku.—R.l.P. MRS. MARY ABBOTT, PAHAUTANUI. Quite a gloom was cast .over Pahautanui and the surrounding districts when it became known that Mrs. Mary Abbott, relict of the late Henry Abbott, had passed peacefully away at her home, "The Grange," Pahautanui, after a short illness. The deceased lady was attended in her last hours by the Rev. Father Griffin, Johnsonville, and died fortified by the rites of Holy Church, in the presence .of her sorrowing family. A Requiem Mass was celebrated by Rev. Father Griffin, assisted by Rev. Father John O'Connell (Christchurch), Rev. Father Walsh (NaiNai), and Very Rev. Dean Regnault (Wellington). The funeral was very largely attended, the interment taking place in the Catholic cemetery, Pauhautanui. Rev. Father John O'Connell, of St. Mary's, Christchurch, officiated at the graveside, and spoke in feeling terms of the late Mrs. Abbott's good qualities. The deceased was born in Elphin, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, in 1845, and arrived in New Zealand in the ship Asterope in 1865, accompanied by her sister, Mrs. R. Mulhern, "Mt. Erin," Pahautanui, and her brother, the late Michael Power,. In 1868 she was married to Henry Abbott who predeceased her many years ago. Her eldest daughter, Sister Mary of St. Magdalen de Pazzi, Convent of the Good Shepherd, Oakleigh, Melbourne, passed to her eternal reward two years ago, after doing God's holy work for many years. The surviving members of her family are three daughters —Mrs. Frederick Brady, "Bay View," Pahautanui, and the Misses Elizabeth and Ada Abbott, and three sons (Messrs. Henry, Charles, and Oliver Abbott) to mourn the loss of a devoted mother; also sixteen grandchildren and four great grand-children. The late Mrs. Abbott was one of the pioneers of this district who, being engaged in farming, had all the hardships of the bush settlers to endure, and at her home there was always a welcome to the priests journeying through the country from the late Fathers Petitjean and Lampila's time until the present day. A most exemplary Catholic, having special devotion to the holy rosary, her life being one long prayer; God rewarded her with a peaceful happy death. She will be sadly missed by a large circle of friends, among whom she was held in the highest esteem. Numerous telegrams and letters of sympathy have been received by her sorrowing family, who will ever cherish the memory of a loving devoted mother. —R.I.P.

BOOK NOTICES Place Names in County Dublin, by M. A. MacNamara, B.L. Dublin. Price 4/- net. If you concluded from the title of, this book that it is a dry tome of a soporific nature you would be much .mistaken. Opening its pages this reviewer found it intensely interesting, and learned from it a great deal on topics concerning which he had wrong notions heretofore. For instance, it always seemed strange that the old name for Dublin should be Baile-atha-cliath, or "the ford of the hurdles." From what we knew of the Liffey near Dublin a ford there looked impossible, and why hurdles? Mr. MacNamara blows this fanciful derivation sky-high. Balacliah, which is the ancient and also the present clay name for the city, comes from Baile-atha-cliath, but the words mean the Town of the battle plain, which, taking the Phoenix Park into consideration, is reasonable. The Park was the rendez-vous of the from time immemorial, and one of its Gaelic names was Atha-cliath, or the battle field. So when a town grew up there, naturally enough it was Baile-atha-cliath, or the town of the battle field. Another old name for th« Park was fath-aighneas', pronounced "fainas," from which an average English scholar would conclude that it was the mere Hirish way of saying Phoenix. Father William Doyle, S.J., C.F. by Professor Alfred O'Rahilly. Third edition, revised and enlarged. Longmans, Green and Co., London. Price 15/- net. This delayed third edition of the best of modern Catholic biographies more than compensates for the period of waiting, during which there was an insistent demand for its appearance. It has been thoroughly revised and much new material has been added. A great amount of additional matter was gleaned ifrom Father Doyle's note-books and letters from the Front. There are several newillustrations, and a good deal of appropriate and enlightening explanation of Catholic ideals of Asceticism. All this entailed delay, and now we have this remarkable spiritual work in what may be regarded as its definite form. Reader's all over the world have endorsed the chorus of praise with which the reviewers welcomed it, and it has been translated into German and Italian, while other versions in many languages are in preparation. Already it has become in the English language a spiritual classic, and hence this carefully prepared third edition was due to all. It is high praise for such a volume to find it warmly recommended for spiritual reading. The spirit of the book may be best gathered from Professor O'Rahilly's own words': "To those who know only the Jesuits of fiction or of Pascal,' such a life of Father Doyle will be convincing proof that, as he declared when yet a novice, The Society was instituted to glorify the Name of Jesus by its learning, by .its zeal, but above all by its holiness.' To those who know Catholicism only as an institution, -jjiis biography will be testimony that, in a world teeming with selfindulgence and callousness, the Church still fosters the love of Jesus and the following of the Crucified. The most effective apologetic is to be found, not in learned. disserta-

tions, but in lives of the saints; for as an early Christian' martyr pointed out, ' Christianity is not' a work of persuasiveness but of greatness.' " • < Australian C.T.S.: The Story of a Conver- : sion; For the Holy Souls, by Miriam Agatha; The Heal Presence, by Eustace Boylan, S.J. . 2d each. ... r> \ •; —-o-fr ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS Reader. There are certainly oyer 18,000,000 Catholics in the United States. Taking inevitable ommissions into account, one might say a round twenty millions. But if we reckon all those under the American flag we might put the figure as high as thirty millions. There are over twenty thousand priests. Nearly two million children attend parish schools. Inquirer. were two Hawthornes. Nathaniel, the more famous, wrote The Scarlet Letter. Julian was not nearly as great a writer as his namesake, who was and is an American classic. Celt. —They observe no less than three different times in Ireland during summer. They keep the new "summer time" in towns and cities. Then there is "old time" which is an hour later. And in some places, refusing to keep Greenwich time, whether old or new, they abide by the sun, and call it God's time. It is a puzzle when one wants to catch a train. Question. Yes, you are bound to hear Mass either in a public or semi-public oratory, unless you enjoy a privilege of hearing it in a private oratory. At least that is the Canon Law on the point. But your friend was probably right in saying that one could hear Mass anywhere in Ireland. Some maintain that the privilege remains / since the Penal Days. Exhibition Visitor. — you ask with a view to a personal visit of course the answer is Come when you please. But if you ask , for a general direction we beg to say that the most suitable time for visitors who want to talk about the weather to see . the Editor in his office is after five o'clock when the office has been locked and he has escaped home. All are welcome then. R. J. L. —Your poem is full of promise, but it is too long for us. The metre limps here and there. "Thou seems so near" would not-pass the critical eyes of our readers who are particular about the majesty of English grammar. It is very hard to write a good poem of two or three stanzas. It is geometrically N progressively harder to write one of six or nine. Do not blame us for being strict. If we were . not the Spring Poets would spring on us and rend us just now when the flowers are springing and the birds singing.