THE

POEMS

OF

THOMAS DAVIS.

NOW FIRST COLLECTED,

With Notes and Historical Vllustrations.

Thy striving, be it with Loving;
Thy living, be it in Deed.

Goethe.

DUBLIN:

PUBLISHED BY JAMES DUFFY,
7, WELLINGTON-QUAY.

LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO.,
STATIONERS HALL COURT.

Brief, brave and glorious, was his young career,

His mourners were two hosts, his friends and foes;
For he was Freedom's champion, one of those,
The few in number, who had not outstept
The charter to chastise which she bestows

On such as wield her weapons. He had kept

The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o'er him wept.

DUBLIN:

PRINTED BY PATTISON JOLLY,

12, Anglesea-street.

Buron.

ADVERTISEMENT.

I HAVE spared no pains to make this volume as correct and complete as a first edition can be expected to be. But there were obstacles in the way, which no solicitude on my part could overcome. The reader will bear in mind, that one half of these poems were never collected during the author's lifetime, and that many of them had never received the slightest revision since their first appearance in the columns of a weekly journal. Thrown off too, during the brief intervals of leisure, which his multifarious pursuits afforded, they could seldom have obtained that complete finish which would have precluded the necessity of their revision.

The classification and order under which they appear is altogether the work of the Editor. It has been his aim to group them in such a manner as by contrast or sequency, to make them throw light upon each other, and produce their full effect. The passages from MR. DAVIS'S prose writings have been inserted with the same view.

A partial attempt has been made in a few of the ballads, to restore the Irish names of places and persons to their correct forms. But from the opposite character of the two languages, many difficulties arose, and the altera

tions have been confined to a few of the Ballads in Part III. MR. DAVIS was a warm advocate of the restoration of the Irish forms, where practicable, and he was constantly making experiments to that end. Instances of the length to which he carried this, may be found in the 4to Spirit of the Nation. But he had the right to take any liberties he pleased with his own verses, and where he spoiled, could alter and amend. But the Editor could not venture to tamper to any such extent with the harmony and integrity of the poems confided to him. Accordingly, the reformation of the spelling of Irish names and places has been contined to a few of the earlier Historical Ballads, where these purely Irish forms seemed more in keeping with the subject and the scene.

The Glossary of these phrases, which was promised, and which is occasionally referred to in the notes, is un avoidably postponed until the next edition.

AS MR. DAVIS contributed largely to the Spirit of the Nation, and to the Ballad Poetry of Ireland, it is necesBary to state here, that there are more than Thirty Poems in this volume, which have not been included in any previous collection.

T. W.

CYMRIC RULE AND CYMRIC RULERS

A BALLAD OF FREEDOM

THE IRISH HURRAH