Air—“Ballymoney.”
“YE >maids of green Erin, why sigh ye so sad,
The summer is smiling, all nature is glad.”
The summer may smile, and the shamrock may bloom,
But the pride of green Erin lies cold in the tomb ;
And his merits demand all the tears that we shed,
Though they ne'er can awaken the slumbering dead;
Yet still they shall flow—for dear Carolan we mourn,
For the soul of sweet music now sleeps in his urn.
Ye bards of our isle, join our grief with your songs,
For the deepest regret to our memory belongs ;
In our cabins and fields, on our mountains and plains,
How aft have we sung to his heart-melting strains.
Ah I these strains shall survive, long as time they shall last,
Yet they now but remind us of joys that are past ;
And our days, crowned with pleasure, can never return,
For the soul of sweet music now sleeps in his urn.
Yes, thou pride of green Erin I thy honours thou'lt have,
Seven days, seven nights, we shall weep round thy grave;
And thy harp that so oft to our ditties has rung,
To the lorn-sighing breeze o'er thy grave shall be hung ;
And the song shall ascend thy bright worth to proclaim,
That the shade may rejoice in the voice of thy fame ;
But our days, crowned with pleasure, can never return,
For the soul of sweet music now sleeps in thine urn.
Note by Muir.—“Note from ‘The Wild Irish Girl’ by Miss Owenson:—‘Carolan is the most celebrated of all the modern Irish bards. He was born in the village of Nohher, County of. Westmeath, 1670, and died in 1739. He never regretted the loss of his sight, but used gaily to. say—‘My eyes are only transported into my ears.’ It has been said of his music by O'Connor, the celebrated historian, who knew him intimately, that so happy, so elevated was he in some of his compositions, he attained the approbation of that great master Geminiani, who never saw him. His execution, too, on the harp, was rapid and impressive,—far beyond that of all the professional competitors of the age in which he lived. The charms of woman, the pleasures of conviviality, and the power of poetry and music, were at once his theme and inspiration; and his life was an illustration of his theory, for, until his last ardour was chilled by death, he loved, drank, and sang. While in the fervour of composition, he was constantly beard to pass sentence on his own effusions as they rose on his harp or breathed from his lips,—blaming and praising, with equal vehemence, the unsuccessful effort and felicitous attempt. He was the welcome guest of every house, from the peasant to the prince, but in the true wandering spirit of his profession he never stayed to exhaust that welcome. He lived and died poor.’ ”
Ramsay, in his edition, transposed the first line to the end of the Note, and said—“This note is taken from ‘The Wild Irish Girl’ by Miss Owenson (now Lady Morgan);” and added the contraction Ed., although only a copy of Muir's Note.
Oliver Goldsmith, in his Essay XX., says—“The Irish bards are still held in great veneration, and of all the bards that country ever produced “The last and greatest was CAROLAN, THE BLIND. He was at once a poet, a musician, a composer, and sung his own verses to his harp. Being once at the house of an Irish nobleman, where there was a musician present who was eminent in his profession, Carolan immediately challenged him to a trial of skill. To carry the jest forward, his Lordship persuaded the musician to accept the challenge, and he accordingly played over on his fiddle the fifth concerto of Vivaldi. Carolan immediately taking his harp, played over the whole piece after him without missing a note, though he never had heard it before, which produced some surprise.” Goldsmith has very well described Turlough O'Carolan, the Irish Bard.
Miss Sydney Owenson, Irish novelist, was born in Dublin on 25th December, 1783, and “The Wild Irish Girl,” (originally the “Princess of Inismore,”) was published in 1806, when she was twenty-two years of age. She married Sir Thomas Charles Morgan in 1811. In 1850, an edition of “The Wild Irish Girl” by Sidney Owenson, edited by Lady Morgan, was published. A prefatory explanatory address and many notes were added by the Editress (Lady Morgan) of Miss Owenson's popular works. Sir Thomas died in 1843, and Lady Morgan on 13th April, 1859, in the 76th year of her age.—Ed.
[Semple 165]