Book Reviews and More: By Winding Roads - John Irvine and William Conor

By Winding Roads

John Irvine (1903-1965)

William Conor R.H.A., R.O.I. (Illustrator)

H.R. Carter Publications, Ltd.

Belfast

1950

First I am thankful to the National Library of Ireland and their scanning service. Without wich I would have read but one volume from this excellent Irish poet. I appreciate that they will scan out of print and out of copyright works. Especially when I cannot find them almost anywhere else, like most of the works or Irvine. This volume will mark the thirteenth I have read by Irvine.

I 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 in1941.

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 volume has no preamble quote, or preface likes some of the others. The poems in this volume are:

Over the Hills and Far Away

Tullymore

Little Boats

Rivers

Woodland Music

Three Little Towns

Townlands

Searching for Fairies

The Old Man from Kilkenny

Roaming

The Dancers

Harvest

Music

The Fairy Hill

In Old Donegal

Irish Names

The Fairy Tree

In Ballysadare

The Travellers

The Ladies of Doon

The Farm Horses

The Nine Glens

Working

The Irish Counties

The Crow

In Summer Time

Twilight

Portglenone

Topsy Turvy

The Pl'Ovinces

The Girls of Dingle

The Fiddler 21

The Meaning of Names

Blarney

Elderberries

Winds

Ireland's Eye

The Winter Night

Ireland

Goodbye

Before that first poem named in the index we have:

“IRELAND

There is great beauty in the Irish names

That fall like music on the listening ear

And breed a deep~ felt love that never wanes

In hearts of exiles gone for many a year.

Some little county each shall claim his own

And love it's every field and stream and

hill,

Remembering the sweet days he has known

And keep undimmed the love of Ireland

still.”

Which is listed as page vii, the next page is listed as page one. Then at the end of the volume we have page 24 then page ix that has the poem ‘Goodbye’. I am not sure if these characteristics are a mishap in printing, or an artistic embellishment.

I enjoyed this thirteenth volume of poems that I have read from the pen of Irvine. The one bio above mentions 6 collections of poems but I have found a total of 17, including some special editions listed below, and also 6 volumes Irvine edited of other poems including the earliest published as J. Pennington Irvine. A few sample poems from this volume are:

RIVERS

The Liffey flows through Dublin town

And Cork is on the Lee,

The Shannon winds through meadowlands

Of Limerick to the sea.

The Foyle through Derry winds its way,

The Lagan through Belfast,

And men in Tipperary watch

The Suir go gently past.

The Boyne by ancient Drogheda

Flows tranquilly and free,

And that is but a few of them,

Enough for you and me.

But there are many more besides,

North, South, East and West,

So get your map of Ireland out

And try to find the rest.

WOODLAND MUSIC

The blackbird sings at morning

When dew is on the spray

The thrush in sunny weather

Gives all his notes away.

The merry lark upsoaring

Above the fields at noon,

But only nightingales will tell

Their secrets to the moon.

THE TRAVELLERS

Forty miles to Drogheda

And fifty to Dundalk,

Some will go on jaunting cars,

And some will only talk,

But we'll step out along the road

And walk and walk and walk.

Some will carry little lamps

In case the shadows fall,

And some will nearly fall asleep

The lazy ones and small,

And some will dream by candlelight

And never go at all.

THE FARM HORSES

At evening when the work is done

They gt'aze contented, in the sun,

And wander· in the.pleasant heat

Whe.t·e fancy leads, and gtass is sweet.

Or toss their heads and gallop wild

Along the fields, like any child

Who runs and leaps and shouts and sings

For freedom, and the joy of things.

Or stand knee-deep in cooling streams!

think they too have got their dreams

Of sunny mornings, when the breeze

Is humming in the willow trees.

Of splendid days, and cloudless skies,

Far from the harness, and from flies,

In pastu1'es whel'e a beast may be

Free of his load eternally.

I hope those four poems give you a feel for the collection. The poems vary from one stanza to four; all poems are contained on single page, and many pages have 2 poems per page. Some pages have an image, a total of 4 black and white images are interspersed in the volume. And the cover is colour with a zoomed out version of it on the facing paged to the title page. Each of the pieces of artwork is on a left-hand side of 2 facing pages. The artwork appears to be woodcuts. At the back of this volume about the author we are informed:

“JOHN IRVINE, author of eight books of verse and a contributor to leading literary magazines in Britain and America. His work has appeared twice in "Best Poems of the Year" and has been broadcast frequently by the B.B.C. and by Radio Eireann.”

About the artist:

“It has been written of WILLIAM CONOR that he cannot draw the slightest figure without endowing it with life and energy, nor without filling it with a revealing power that makes the onlooker a sharer in the secrets 'of the life concealed behind the passing record.”

I really enjoyed this volume, once I finally received a copy. The National Library of Ireland has 4 copies of this in its collection. And all 4 appear to be kept offsite based on catalogue notes. It is much more playful and jovial than the other collections I have read from Irvine’s pen. I am thankful I read it; it is another volume of poetry from Irvine that I really connected with. If you can track down a copy to read I can easily recommend it. And it is a volume I know I will return to again!