Book Reviews and More: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

John Irvine (1903-1965)

W.H. Conn (Illustration)

Sign of the Three Candles

Belfast

1943

This volume is a special edition board book of a single poem and full page illustration. 'Sic transit gloria mundi' translates as 'So the glory of the world'. It was published by Sign of the Three Candles, the back of the booklet states: Printed for Gerry Morrow at the Sign of the here Candles, Ltd., Dublin. This poem also appears in the volume, With No Changed Voices: Poems, and also the volume Selected Poems. The National Library of Ireland has it catalogued in:

Elegiac poetry, English > Irish authors.

Death > Poetry.

This volume will mark the tenth 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 in1943.

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.”

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 5 of the 8 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. We are also informed 10 of the poems in this volume are reprinted with permission. I also recently discovered a previously unfound volume called Voces Intimae, as a selection of poems from it is in the Selected Poems volume. I have also discovered the earlies volume from Irvine a collection edited in 1929 called A Christmas Garland an Anthology of Verse, but published under the name J. Pennington Irvine.

I am glad I tracked this edition down, I absolutely love the illustration. Memento Mori!