With No Changed Voice
John Irvine (1903-1965)
Talbot Press
Dublin
1946
I sort of stumbled upon this author. I was reading one of the Vision Books for young readers, Irish Saints by Robert T. Reilly, and there was an excerpt of a poem from A Treasury of Irish Saints A Book of Poems. It was really intriguing and after reading that first volume I made it a mission to try and track down everything Irvine published. At first my dyslexia had me thinking it was John Irving, and I have read a few of his fiction books. But some quick searching put that idea to rest. This author John Irvine lived from 1903-1965. This volume was originally published in1946 and limited to a run of 300 copies, it was reprinted in 1952. It is the third collection from Irvine I have read.
About the author on a site with information about Irish authors states:
“John Irvine was born in Belfast and published several collections of poems: A Voice in the Dark, 1932; Willow Leaves: Lyrics in the Manner of the Early Chinese Poets,1941; Lost Sanctuary and other poems among others. He edited The Flowering Branch: An Anthology of Irish Poetry Past and Present.”
Another online description of the author states:
“Irvine, born in Belfast, published about six collections of lyrics between 1932 and 1954, mostly from small presses in Belfast and Dublin. He also edited an anthology of Irish poetry, The Flowering Branch.”
This book begins with a dedication to Elizabthe and then a quote:
“.... The trembling poplar whispers by the lawri;
With no changed voice for all the years that pass!”
Victor Le Fanu
The chapters in this volume are:
Desire
Song
The Swans
The Throstle
To A Blackbird
Spring Rhapsody
The Marching Morning
On A Garland of Elizabethan Love Songs
Lines Address To A Great Artist
Lyric
The Philosopher Muses On His Beloved
A Philosopher Acknowledges The Folly Of His Heart
Sic Transit Gloria Mund!
Thoughts In A City On A Winter's Night
Song For Sylvia
London Sketches
Chelsea
Stales Inn Holdborn
The Church Of St. Bartholomew The Great Smithfield
A Lost Cause
The Undying Dream
Beyond
Three Fragments
To Omar Khayyam
Beethoven (Fifth Symphony)
Schubert
Sibelius
Dark and Roses
Sea-Haunted
The North Countrie
The Grecian Garland
Hellas
One Haunted Night
The Guerrilla
The Mother
Carrowdore
The Barley Field
The Changeling
Faery
To One Grown Old
Words for Music
Elegy
Restless Woods
Night
The Heart Remembers Morning
Ave, Atque Vale
“Such Stuff As Dreams”
To the Muse
Vale
I very much enjoyed this third collection of poems that I have read from the pen of Irvine. It is another volume I could easily see myself returning to. The one bio above mentions 6 collections of poems but I have found 9 listed below, 3 other works, also 6 volumes Irvine edited of other poems. A few sample poems from this volume are:
THE THROSTLE
You on the topmost bough
With song ecstatic,
Flooding the morning air
By roof and attic.
Who but the witless fool
Could pass unheeding
Such unconstrained delight,
Such artless pleading.
You of the golden throat
And speckled feather,
Turning my bead astray
In the wild March weather.
LYRIC
(For Walter de la Mare)
With so few words
A poet can
Fill with delight
The heart of man.
A turn of phrase
An artless rhyme,
And he defeats
The tyrant Time.
So small a song
He sings, yet he
With it transcends
Mortality.
THOUGHTS IN A CITY ON A WINTER'S NIGHT
To-night a clean wind blow$ on the mountain,
But here in the streets of the restless city
The feet grow tired of the concrete pavements,
The heavy air, and synthetic moonlight.
And the thoughtless crowds in search of pleasure
Stand like a herd by electric temples,
To hear a half-wit's piteous moaning
And swoon with joy at grimacing shadows.
Shades of Mozart, and the sad Beethoven,
Of Shelley, Keats, and William Morris,
Behold these things in your scorn, and anger
How man bows down to the base and vulgar.
Clamorous noise when I long for silence,
Babel of tongues till the mind grows wearied.
But peace still broods on the upland meadows,
The wind is fresh, and the stars are shining.
I hope those three poems give you a feel for the collection. The poems vary from one paragraph to a few, but all poems are contained on single pages. They were well worth reading. I read a few of them a number of times before moving on. It was an excellent collection to work through on a cold winter evening. The one theme that frequented the collection was nature and specifically birds. I even copied a few of the poems to share with friends who I thought would particularly appreciate them.
The last page of this volume and the inside of the back cover have a number of accolades for Irvine’s volume ‘The Fountain of Hellas’. I was able to track down a copy of this thanks to the National Library of Ireland. The NLI has all volumes I have found written by Irvine and 4 of the 6 edited by him. I am now trying to hunt them all down. These poems were very enjoyable, and I am certain they would be to you as well, if you give them a chance.
If you can track down a copy to read it is well worth it! Another great collection of poems I can easily recommend it.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2026 Catholic Reading Plan!
Books by John Irvine:
By Winding Roads
Green Altars: Poems
Lost Sanctuary and Other Poems
Nocturne: Poems
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
The Quiet Stream
Two Poems
Voces Intimae
Willow Leaves: Lyrics in the Manner of the Early Chinese Poets
Wind From the South
…
Edited by John Irvine:
A Christmas Garland - as J. Pennington Irvine
Fountain Of Hellas: Poems From The Greek Anthology
The Flowering Branch: An Anthology of Irish Poetry Past and Present
The Poems of Robert Burns
The Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson
The Poems of Tennyson
The Poems of Thomas Moore
…
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