By Winding Roads
John Irvine (1903-1965)
William Conor R.H.A., R.O.I. (Illustrator)
H.R. Carter Publications, Ltd.
Belfast
1950
First I am thankful to the National Library of Ireland and their scanning service. Without wich I would have read but one volume from this excellent Irish poet. I appreciate that they will scan out of print and out of copyright works. Especially when I cannot find them almost anywhere else, like most of the works or Irvine. This volume will mark the thirteenth 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 in1941.
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.”
This volume has no preamble quote, or preface likes some of the others. The poems in this volume are:
Over the Hills and Far Away
Tullymore
Little Boats
Rivers
Woodland Music
Three Little Towns
Townlands
Searching for Fairies
The Old Man from Kilkenny
Roaming
The Dancers
Harvest
Music
The Fairy Hill
In Old Donegal
Irish Names
The Fairy Tree
In Ballysadare
The Travellers
The Ladies of Doon
The Farm Horses
The Nine Glens
If
Working
The Irish Counties
The Crow
In Summer Time
Twilight
Portglenone
Topsy Turvy
The Pl'Ovinces
The Girls of Dingle
The Fiddler 21
The Meaning of Names
Blarney
Elderberries
Winds
Ireland's Eye
The Winter Night
Ireland
Goodbye
Before that first poem named in the index we have:
“IRELAND
There is great beauty in the Irish names
That fall like music on the listening ear
And breed a deep~ felt love that never wanes
In hearts of exiles gone for many a year.
Some little county each shall claim his own
And love it's every field and stream and
hill,
Remembering the sweet days he has known
And keep undimmed the love of Ireland
still.”
Which is listed as page vii, the next page is listed as page one. Then at the end of the volume we have page 24 then page ix that has the poem ‘Goodbye’. I am not sure if these characteristics are a mishap in printing, or an artistic embellishment.
I enjoyed this thirteenth volume of poems that I have read from the pen of Irvine. The one bio above mentions 6 collections of poems but I have found a total of 17, including some special editions listed below, and also 6 volumes Irvine edited of other poems including the earliest published as J. Pennington Irvine. A few sample poems from this volume are:
RIVERS
The Liffey flows through Dublin town
And Cork is on the Lee,
The Shannon winds through meadowlands
Of Limerick to the sea.
The Foyle through Derry winds its way,
The Lagan through Belfast,
And men in Tipperary watch
The Suir go gently past.
The Boyne by ancient Drogheda
Flows tranquilly and free,
And that is but a few of them,
Enough for you and me.
But there are many more besides,
North, South, East and West,
So get your map of Ireland out
And try to find the rest.
WOODLAND MUSIC
The blackbird sings at morning
When dew is on the spray
The thrush in sunny weather
Gives all his notes away.
The merry lark upsoaring
Above the fields at noon,
But only nightingales will tell
Their secrets to the moon.
THE TRAVELLERS
Forty miles to Drogheda
And fifty to Dundalk,
Some will go on jaunting cars,
And some will only talk,
But we'll step out along the road
And walk and walk and walk.
Some will carry little lamps
In case the shadows fall,
And some will nearly fall asleep
The lazy ones and small,
And some will dream by candlelight
And never go at all.
THE FARM HORSES
At evening when the work is done
They gt'aze contented, in the sun,
And wander· in the.pleasant heat
Whe.t·e fancy leads, and gtass is sweet.
Or toss their heads and gallop wild
Along the fields, like any child
Who runs and leaps and shouts and sings
For freedom, and the joy of things.
Or stand knee-deep in cooling streams!
think they too have got their dreams
Of sunny mornings, when the breeze
Is humming in the willow trees.
Of splendid days, and cloudless skies,
Far from the harness, and from flies,
In pastu1'es whel'e a beast may be
Free of his load eternally.
I hope those four poems give you a feel for the collection. The poems vary from one stanza to four; all poems are contained on single page, and many pages have 2 poems per page. Some pages have an image, a total of 4 black and white images are interspersed in the volume. And the cover is colour with a zoomed out version of it on the facing paged to the title page. Each of the pieces of artwork is on a left-hand side of 2 facing pages. The artwork appears to be woodcuts. At the back of this volume about the author we are informed:
“JOHN IRVINE, author of eight books of verse and a contributor to leading literary magazines in Britain and America. His work has appeared twice in "Best Poems of the Year" and has been broadcast frequently by the B.B.C. and by Radio Eireann.”
About the artist:
“It has been written of WILLIAM CONOR that he cannot draw the slightest figure without endowing it with life and energy, nor without filling it with a revealing power that makes the onlooker a sharer in the secrets 'of the life concealed behind the passing record.”
I really enjoyed this volume, once I finally received a copy. The National Library of Ireland has 4 copies of this in its collection. And all 4 appear to be kept offsite based on catalogue notes. It is much more playful and jovial than the other collections I have read from Irvine’s pen. I am thankful I read it; it is another volume of poetry from Irvine that I really connected with. If you can track down a copy to read I can easily recommend it. And it is a volume I know I will return to again!
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2026 Catholic Reading Plan!
Books by John Irvine:
A Voice in the Dusk Lyrics
Two Poems
Voces Intimae
…
Edited by John Irvine:
A Christmas Garland - as J. Pennington Irvine
The Flowering Branch: An Anthology of Irish Poetry Past and Present
The Poems of Robert Burns
The Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson
The Poems of Tennyson
The Poems of Thomas Moore
…
