Padraic Colum

thumb|Padraic Colum Padraic Colum (8 December 1881 – 11 January 1972), an Irishman who emigrated in 1914 to the United States, was a poet, playwright, folklorist, biographer, novelist, essayist, and author of children's books. He and his wife Mary Colum Mary taught comparative literature at Columbia University from 1939 to 1956. Quotes Ireland is a country that has two literatures—one a literature in Irish language Irish—Gaelic literature—that has been cultivated continuously since the eighth century, and the other a literature in English—Anglo-Irish literature—that took its rise in the eighteenth century.Anglo-Irish literature begins, as an English critic has observed, with Goldsmith and Sheridan humming some urban song as they stroll down an English laneway. That is, it begins chronically in that way. At the time when Goldsmith and Sheridan might be supposed to be strolling down English laneways, Ireland, for all but a fraction of the people, was a Gaelic-speaking country with a poetry that had many centuries of cultivation. Anthology of Irish Verse Boni & Liveright, Inc 1922 https://books.google.com/books?id=v78_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5 5 (edited by Padraic Colum) The speech of the Irish country-people is fine material for the dramatist, and the Irish dramatists have made good use of it. John Millington Synge Synge's dialogue reproduces the energy and the extravagance of the people's speech— ... The Road Round Ireland New York Robert M. McBride Robert M. McBride & Company 1926 https://books.google.com/books?id=xZ8NAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA81 81 The editor is seated with a countrywoman at the door of her cottage in an isolated place. Three young girls on their way to a dance come along. They adjust their head-shawls, showing off a little. "They are pretty girls," the editor says to the householder. "If they were hanged for their beauty, they'd die innocent," is her reply. This is a real piece of wit. She did not want to contradict one who is her guest. He has shown, however, that his standard of beauty leaves something to be desired. Her judgment of the beauty under consideration is reasonable, but the expression of it is imaginative.When one puts imagination at the service of criticism, the result is apt to be a piece of malice, and Irish wit is often malicious. An illustration in a Dublin journal shows two farmers seated on a boundary fence. "I don't see a gap in the moon tonight," one says; and the other answers, "If you did you could let your cows in through it." This strikes at the farmer who would save forage by letting his cows into his neighbor's field through a gapped fence. Introduction 2nd A Treasury of Irish Folklore: The Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, Wisdom, Ballads and Songs of the Irish People Crown Publishers 1962 https://archive.org/stream/ATreasuryOfIrishFolklore_619/ATreasuryOfIrishFolkloreComplete_djvu.txt (edited by Padraic Colum; 1st edition 1954) Quotes about Padraic Colum Padraic Colum ... a devout man with a great love of the earth. He has also a fine sense of the traditional ballad. Harold Monro, Some Contemporary Poets Volume 2 of Contemporary series London Leonard Parsons 1920 https://books.google.com/books?id=jJb4jo1xIW8C&pg=PA189 189 External links She Moved Through the Fair - by Padraic Colum My Poetry Readings - with Declan Walsh January 23, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuiRzde1QDo Pádraic Colum (1881 - 1972) LibriVox https://librivox.org/author/1664 Category:1881 births Category:1972 deaths Category:Poets from Ireland Category:Playwrights from Ireland Category:Novelists from Ireland Category:Children's authors Category:Columbia University faculty Category:Biographers from Ireland Category:Essayists from Ireland Category:Catholics from Ireland Category:Immigrants to the United States