Poem of the Day (12/01/19)

Day 4,071, 14:19 • Published in Ireland Japan • by Violence Seth
Poem of the Day

A New World by George William Russell (1867 – 1935)



George William Russell, also known by his pseudo-names A.E or Æon within the literary world was an Irish writer, painter. theosophist and mystic. He was born in Lurgan, Co. Armagh, on a small farm. He was 11 years old when his family moved to Dublin. His father found employment within a prosperous linen firm which greatly improved his prospects as a young artist. He enrolled in Rathmines College and then enrolled in the Metropolitan School of Art (now known as the National College of Art and Design or NCAD) where he began a lifelong friendship/rivalry with William Butler Yeats.

George Russell was heavily involved in the Workers rights movement of the time and worked alongside Horace Plunkett as Assistant Secretary of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (through the reference of W.B Yeats) helping to set up co-operative farming organisations and banks in the rural West and taking part in the 1913 Dublin Lock-out, during which he wrote an open letter to the Irish Times, criticizing the attitude of Irish employers towards their workforce which helped draw national and international attention to the true nature of the worker's plight.

As a pacifist he was against armed rebellion which he seen as counter productive and undemocratic. However he was deeply moved by the sacrifice of martyred rebels who had fought and was disgusted by the executions and subsequent reprisals wrought upon the Irish by the British Empire thereafter.

He became editor of The Irish Statesman where he worked diligently during the Irish War of Independence, leaving him almost destitute. His writings and paintings during this period weren't providing him with anything close to an adequate living wage. Perhaps recognizing such great potential laying dormant, his friends and acquaintances pooled money together for him to travel to the U.S to help him find a new market for the burgeoning Irish Literary Revival (as it latter became known). He was presented with a cheque for £800 from the Plunkett House by Fr. T. Finlay which was more than enough for his trip abroad were he was well received all over the country and his books sold in large numbers. He began using the pseudonym "AE", or more properly, "Æ". This derived from an earlier Æon signifying the lifelong quest of man.


Bathers by Æ (191😎

He was a revered figure among the intellectuals of Ireland upon his return. He met with Joyce, who included him in his masterpiece Ulysses during the Scylla and Charybdis episode, where A.E rebuffs Stephens theories on Shakespeare.

From his home in Rathgar he played host to the best and brightest during one of Ireland's most tempestuous and creative times, from fellow writers and painters such as Jack Butler Yeats, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Frank O'Connor and Seamus O'Sullivan to political leaders such as Micheal Collins and Éamon de Valera, he never failed to make a deep impression on the great minds of his era.

He became weary of the Home Rule stalemate in Ireland during his latter years to which he confided in Yeats as "a country given over to the Devil". He gave a final tour in the U.S but exhausted himself in the process. He died in Bournemouth in 1935. He was given a extravagant state funeral, attended by both the lowest and the highest of Irish society.

Perhaps because of his desire to stay out of the spotlight, his friendship with both higher and lower class people and his deep passion for the clairvoyant and mystical he remains mostly hidden within early modern Irish history. There is an almost willing detachment from his art by simply signing it A.E.

Patrick Kavanagh called him "a great and holy man" and perhaps that is enough.

George William Russell may not be in every Irish schoolkid's Literature study book, but the people who are have left his ghost hidden in the pages.

Here's a link to his Collected Poems: https://amzn.to/2H8pZEn

And without further ado, here's a favourite of mine..

A New World

I WHO had sought afar from earth
The faery land to meet,
Now find content within its girth
And wonder nigh my feet.

To-day a nearer love I choose
And seek no distant sphere;
For aureoled by faery dews
The dear brown breasts appear.

With rainbow radiance come and go
The airy breaths of day;
And eve is all a pearly glow
With moonlit winds a-play.

The lips of twilight burn my brow,
The arms of night caress:
Glimmer her white eyes drooping now
With grave old tenderness.

I close mine eyes from dream to be
The diamond-rayed again,
As in the ancient hours ere we
Forgot ourselves to men.

And all I thought of heaven before
I find in earth below:
A sunlight in the hidden core
To dim the noonday glow.

And with the earth my heart is glad,
I move as one of old;
With mists of silver I am clad
And bright with burning gold.

Thanks for reading, it's been a while since I've posted one of these so please let me know what you think and let me know if you have any suggestions.

Also if you want to see any Poems or Poets covered here on the Skald let me know!

Slán go fóill!

Sethesin