A 1881; Nov. 28, minot Finnnel. 1.33 Copyright, 1881, BY ALFRED M. WILLIAMS.. All rights reserved. UNIVERSITY PRESS : ΤΟ SIR SAMUEL FERGUSON, WHO HAS DONE SO MUCH BY GENIUS TO ADORN, AND BY LEARNING TO ILLUSTRATE, The Poetry of Ereland, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED. PREFACE. HE purpose of this volume is to present in con THE nected and illustrative form the national Irish poetry, from the earliest period to the present time, with such historical and biographical information and criticism as would thoroughly illustrate without overloading it. The aim has been to make it as completely national as possible without absolutely excluding everything not distinctively Irish in theme or dialect, and on the other hand, while not burdening it with verse of a merely antiquarian or historic interest, to have it contain what is fairly representative of Irish poetry. With the purpose of confining it within national limits, the poetry of Swift, Goldsmith, and others who wrote exclusively for English readers and were Irish only by nativity so far as their literary product is concerned, has been entirely omitted. Less space is also given to Moore than he would be entitled to from his position as the representative poet of Ireland, both from the reason that his works are so generally accessible and familiar, and because so considerable a portion of his poetry with the exception |