Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry

Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry

IN this foreword I must deal cursorily with a great and fascinating subject, for Lyra Celtica has extended beyond its original limits, and Text and Notes have absorbed much of the space which had been allotted for a preliminary dissertation on the distinguishing qualities and characteristics of Celtic literature. For most readers, the interest of an anthology is independent of any introductory remarks: the appeal is in the wares, not in the running commentary of the hawker. For those, however, who have looked for a detailed synthesis, as well as for the Celticists who may have expected an ample, or, at least, a more adequately representative selection from the older Celtic literatures, I have a brief word to say before passing on to the matter in hand. In the first place, this volume is no more than an early, and, in a sense, merely arbitrary, gleaning from an abundant harvest. For Lyra Celtica is not so much the introduction to a much larger, more organic, and more adequately representative work, to be called Anthologia Celtica, but is rather the outcome of the latter, itself culled from a vast mass of material, ancient, medival, and modern. It is, moreover, intentionally given over mainly to modern poetry. Anthologia Celtica may not appear for a year or two hence, perhaps not for several years; for a systematic effort to compile a scholarly anthology, on chronological and comparative lines, of the ancient poetry of Irish and Scottish Gaeldom, of the Cymric, Armorican, and other{xxii} Brythonic bards, is a task not to be lightly undertaken, or fulfilled in anything like satisfactory degree without that patience and care which only enthusiastic love of the subject can give, and for which the extrinsic reward is payable in rainbow-gold alone. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 64260
Author: Sharp, William
Release Date: Jan 11, 2021
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Matthay, J , Sharp, Elizabeth A. (Elizabeth Amelia), 1856-1932