Poems MacCarthy, Florence Denis

281
or 'girrinna.' The bird, at least by 2004 classification, is not a
puffin but a barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) and I found one reference
to its Irish name as 'ge ghiurain.' As these birds nest in remote areas
of the arctic, people were quite free to invent stories of their
origins.
The Dead Tribune. The subject of this poem is Daniel O'Connell
(1775-1847), an Irish political leader and Minister of Parliament. In
ill health, his doctor advised he go to a warmer climate; he died en
route to Rome for a pilgrimage. The 1882 edition has the word "knawing"
which is an obsolete variant of "gnawing"; the latter appears in the
1884 edition.
A Mystery. The spelling of "Istambol" is intentional--the current
"Istanbul" was not adopted until the twentieth century. The name
probably derives from an old nickname for Constantinople, but the
complexity of this city's naming is beyond the capacity of a footnote.
To Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. MacCarthy's translation of Calderon's
"The Two Lovers of Heaven: Chrysanthus and Daria" has been released as
Project Gutenberg e-text #12173.
To Ethna. This poem was published under the listing of "Dedicatory
Sonnet" and dated 1850 in The Bell-Founder and Other Poems, 1857.
O'Connell. See note a few lines up on "The Dead Tribune." My
correction of the phrase "heaven's high fault" is not based on any other
published edition. It is conjectural, based on the illogicality of the
phrase and MacCarthy's use of the phrase "heaven's high vault" in his
translation of Calderon's "The Purgatory of St. Patrick" (Project
Gutenberg e-text #6371) published two years before this poem was
written.
Moore. The subject of this poem is Thomas Moore (1779-1852). A
collection of his poems has been released as Project Gutenberg e-text
#8187, but note that the biographical sketch therein mistakenly lists
1780 as his birth year. In this poem "Shakspere" is not misspelt; it is
one of many variants used during and after the bard's lifetime (my
favorite is "Shaxpere" from 1582).
To Ethna. This poem bears the same title as a sonnet, also in this