Katharine Tynan*

Katharine Tynan (1859—1931) is an Irish poet who was raised Catholic, educated at the Dominican Convent of St. Catherine, and married a Protestant barrister. They then lived in England for many years. To call her a prolific writer would be an understatement; she wrote over 100 novels, a dozen books of short stories, and more than a dozen poetry collections. Her Collected Poems appeared in 1930.

Her writing often dwells on matters of faith, concern for the poor, feminism, and the landscape of Ireland. She wrote many poems about the human impact of World War I.

In 1907 the Dun Emer Press produced a limited-edition handmade collection of her poetry called Twenty One Poems written by Katharine Tynan: Selected by W.B. Yeats. The press, in fact, was an ambitious project of Yeats’ sisters and a friend who produced cards, broadsheets, and literary books.

The following is the opening poem in Twenty One Poems. Another poem from this collection is the current selection at my journal Poems For Ephesians.

Sheep and Lambs

All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad;
The sheep with their little lambs
Passed me by on the road.

The sheep with their little lambs
Passed me by on the road;
All in the April evening
I thought on the Lamb of God.

The lambs were weary and crying
With a weak, human cry.
I thought on the Lamb of God
Going meekly to die.

Up in the blue, blue mountains
Dewy pastures are sweet;
Rest for the little bodies,
Rest for the little feet.

But for the Lamb of God,
Up on the hill-top green,
Only a Cross of shame
Two stark crosses between.

All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad;
I saw the sheep with their lambs,
And thought on the Lamb of God.

*This is the second Kingdom Poets post about Katharine Tynan: first post.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of five poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), and three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is forthcoming from Paraclete Press.

Katharine Tynan

Katharine Tynan (1859—1931) is the most prominent female writer associated with the Irish Revival which began in the 1880s. She and W.B. Yeats were close friends for years, and encouraged one another in their poetry. They wrote to one another for decades; his side of the correspondence was eventually published as Letters to Katharine Tynan (1953). She also exchanged letters with Gerard Manley Hopkins whom she first met in 1886.

Her first book of poetry Louise de la Vallière and Other Poems (1885) established her reputation. The following poem comes from her collection Twenty One Poems By Katharine Tynan (1907); the poems for the book were selected by Yeats. The second poem comes from Flower of Youth: Poems in War Time (1915).

Easter

Bring flowers to strew His way,
Yea, sing, make holiday;
Bid young lambs leap,
And earth laugh after sleep.

For now He cometh forth
Winter flies to the north,
Folds wings and cries
Amid the bergs and ice.

Yea, Death, great Death is dead,
And Life reigns in his stead;
Cometh the Athlete
New from dead Death's defeat.

Cometh the Wrestler,
But Death he makes no stir,
Utterly spent and done,
And all his kingdom gone.

A Prayer (For Those Who Shall Return)

LORD, when they come back again
From the dreadful battlefield
To the common ways of men,
Be Thy mercy, Lord, revealed!
Make them to forget the dread
Fields of dying and the dead!

Let them go unhaunted, Lord,
By the sights that they have seen:
Guard their dreams from shell and sword;
Lead them by the pastures green,
That they wander all night long
In the fields where they were young.

Grant no charnel horrors slip
'Twixt them and their child's soft face.
Breast to breast and lip to lip,
Let the lovers meet, embrace!
Be they innocent of all
Memories that affright, appal.

Let their ears love music still,
And their eyes rejoice to see
Glory on the sea and hill,
Beauty in the flower and tree.
Drop a veil that none may raise
Over dreadful nights and days.

This is the first Kingdom Poets post about Katharine Tynan: second post.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the award-winning author of the poetry collections Poiema (Wipf & Stock) and So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed (Rubicon Press). They are both available at: www.dsmartin.ca