My Gentle Harp
My gentle Harp, once more I waken
The sweetness of thy slumbering strain;
In tears our last farewell was taken,
And now in tears we meet again.
No light of joy hath o'er thee broken,
But, like those harps whose heavenly skill
Of slavery, dark as thine, hath spoken,
Thou hang'st upon the willows still.
And yet, since last thy chord resounded,
An hour of peace and triumph came,
And many an ardent bosom bounded
With hopes -- that now are turn'd to shame.
Yet even then, while Peace was singing
Her halcyon song o'er land and sea,
Though joy and hope to others bringing,
She only brought new tears to thee.
Then, who can ask for notes of pleasure,
My drooping Harp, from chords like thine?
Alas, the lark's gay morning measure
As ill would suit the swan's decline!
Or how shall I, who love, who bless thee,
Invoke thy breath for Freedom's strains,
When even the wreaths in which I dress thee
Are sadly mix'd -- half flowers, half chains?
But come -- if yet thy frame can borrow
One breath of joy, oh, breathe for me,
And show the world, in chains and sorrow,
How sweet thy music still can be;
How gaily, even 'mid gloom surrounding,
Thou yet canst wake at pleasure's thrill --
Like Memnon's broken image sounding,
'Mid desolation tunefull still!
:::
'Tis the Last Rose of Summer
'Tis the last rose of Summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh!
I'll not leave thee, thou lone one,
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o'er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.
So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love's shining circle
The gems drop away!
When true hearts lie withered,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?
:::Believe me if all those endearing charms
Believe me, if all those endearing charms,
Which I gaze on so fondly today,
Were to change by tomorrow and fleet in my arms,
Like fairy gifts fading away,
Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art,
Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
Would entwine itself verdantly still.
It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,
And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear,
That the fervor and faith of a soul can be known,
To which time will but make thee more dear;
No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close,
As the sunflower turns on her god, when he sets,
The same look which she turned when he rose.
::::::
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet, friend of Lord Byron and P.B. Shelley. Moore's writings range from lyric to satire, from prose romance to history and biography. His popular IRISH MELODIES appeared in ten parts between 1807 and 1835. Moore was a good musician and skillful writer of songs, which he set to Irish tunes, mainly of the 18th century.
'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.
(from 'The Last Rose of Summer') }
Thomas Moore was born in Dublin as the son of a grocer. His backgroud was poor and he never varnished it. In his poem 'Epitaph on a Tuft-Hunter' he mocked snobbery:
"Heaven grant him now some noble nook /
For, rest his soul! he'd rather be /
Genteelly damn'd beside a
Duke, / Than sav'd in vulgar company."
Moore studied at Trinity College, Dublin and London, and published his first book, THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS LITTLE, in 1801. He became in 1803 a civil officer to Bermuda, where he stayed for a year, and then returned to England after travels in the U.S. and Canada.
Moore's EPISTLES, ODES AND OTHER POEMS, born from his journeys, appeared in 1806. It criticized Americans and and also arose moral irritation. However, his songs, based on folk tunes, became very popular and gained sympathy for the Irish nationalists. Best known of them are perhaps 'The Last Rose of Summer' and 'Believe Me, If All
Those Endearing Young Charms.'
Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
Would entwine itself verdant still.
(from 'Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms')
In the 1810s Moore was considered as important writer as Byron and Sir Walter Scott. In 1813 he issued THE TWOPENNY POST BAG, a collection of satires directed against the prince regent. He also mocked in his poems his countrymen living in Paris and the Holy Allicance of 1815, a political agreement created after the fall of the Napoleonic empire. At the same time in Germany it was praised by the critic Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829). Moore was paid huge sum of £3000 for his widely translated narrative poem LALLA ROOKH, which was published in 1817. In 1819 Moore was condemned to imprisonment because of debts - his deputy in Bermuda misappropriated £6000, and the responsibility fell on Moore himself. He left England
with Lord John Russell for a visit to Italy and stayed away until the debt to the Admiralty had been paid, returning in 1822. In the next year his LOVES OF THE ANGELS became notorious for its eroticism but was financially successful.
In 1824 Moore received Byron's memoirs, but according to some sources, he burned them with the publisher John Murray, presumably to protect his friend. On the other hand, Leslie Marchand claims in his biography on Byron, that it was Moore who tried to prevent Murray from burning the memoirs, and he actually tried to retrieve the pages from the fire. Later Moore used some material from Byron's manuscript and brought out the LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF LORD BYRON (1830). In 1835 Moore was awarded a literary pension. In the same year he published THE FUDGES IN ENGLAND. It was a light satire on an Irish priest turned Protestant evangelist and on the literary absurdities of the day. Moore remained a popular writer for the rest of his life.
He was awarded a Civil List pension in1850. Moore died on February 25, 1852 in Wiltshire. He is still Ireland's national poet. His statue for some reasons was raised above Dublin's largest public urinal.
For further reading: The Minstrel Boy by A.G. Strong (1937); The life of Thomas Moore, Ireland's National poet by Herbert O. Mackey (1951); The Harp That Once--; A Chronicle of the Life of Thomas Moore by Howard Mumford Jones (1970); Tom Moore: The Irish Poet by T. de Vere White (1977) - see also: Byron: A Portrait by Leslie A. Marchand (1993)Lalla Rookh: An Oriental Romance (1817) - Four narrative poems,
with a connecting tale in prose. The work depicts princess Lalla Rookh's journey from Delhi to Cashmere to be married to the King of Bucharia. During the journey a young poet, Feramorz, tells stories.
In 'The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan' the beautiful and mourning Zelica is killed by his lover Azim, whom Zelica believed to have died in a battle. In 'The Paradise and the Peri' a spirit, a peri in Persian mythology, tries to gain admission through the heaven's gates. 'The Fire-Worshippers' is also based on Persian mythology. It tells the tragic love story of young Hafed and Hinda. In 'The Light of the Harem' Nourmahal wins back the love of her husband Selim. - Lalla Rookh's journey ends happily: she falls in love with the poet who turns out to be the King of Bucharia, her prospective husband. "Paradise itself were dim / And joyless, if not shared with
him!"
Selected works:
THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS LITTLE, 1801
EPISTLES, ODES AND OTHER POEMS, 1806
CORRUPTION AND INTOLERANCE, 1808
A SELECTION OF IRIS MELODIES, 1808
IRISH MELODIES, 1808-34, 10 VOL. includes THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER -
Kesän viimeinen ruusu
INTERCEPED LETTERS, 1813
LALLA ROOKH: AN ORIENTAL ROMANCE, 1817
THE FUDGE FAMILY IN PARIS, 1818
IRISH MELODIES, 1821
THE LOVES OF THE ANGELS, 1823
SACRED SONGS, 1816-1824
MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SHERIDAN, 1825
THE EPISCUREAN, 1827
LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF LORD BYRON, 1830
LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD, 1831
TRAVELS OF AN IRISH GENTLEMAN IN SEARCH OF RELIGION, 1833
THE FUDGES IN ENGLAND, 1835
THE HISTORY OF IRELAND, 1835-40
POETICAL WORKS, 1840
MEMOIRS, JOURNALS AND CORRESPONDENCE, 1853-1956
LYRICS AND SATIRES, 1929
TOM MOORE'S DIARY; A SELECTION, 1925
THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE, 1964 (ed. by W.S. Dowden)
LYRICS AND SATIRES FROM TOM MOORE, 1971 (ed. by Sean O'Faolain)
THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE, 1983
THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE: 1821-1825, 1984
THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE: 1826-1830, 1986
THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE: 1831-35, 1987
THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE: 1936-1942, 1988
THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE, 1843-47, 1991
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