In romantic nationalist writing, an array of emotions and feelings can be seen in the works of several authors. The extremes of these emotions help us to understand the despair and hope felt by the writers, for their country which was in a weak condition.
Jonathan Swift, in his lifetime, became the voice of a unique perspective, being both Anglican and colonial, but also an Irish citizen. He was able to comment on the Irish people from an English elite perspective, but also sympathised with the Irish people. He provided a new social commentary and radical new ideas that perhaps the civilised are not as civil as was widely perceived.
In Swift's poem "Holyhead," we see Swift's personal dissatisfaction with living in a peripheral location, and the bleak situation of Ireland. Holyhead, a busy Welsh port, is the location of the poem. Its shoreline marks a connection between cosmopolitan London, which was the centre of decision making and aristocratic society, and the desolate, arrested shores of Ireland.
In the poem, Swift's mood and tone suggests a feeling of being marginalised or excluded. This sense of hopeless marginalisation is a common theme in Irish writing of the time. He describes a feeling of being marginalised or excluded.
He describes politicians being forced to read "old gazettes" [1] after waiting for delayed packet ships. This emphasises the delay in action of the British parliament, but also the sense of being left behind or forgotten. He also describes the "bleaky shore," [2] and how nature seems not to exist in the location. Swift suggests, I believe, that the Anglo-Irish are suffering exclusion or a form of purgatory or limbo, a sentiment unique to that particular community. He provides a new, frustrated outlook on the life of settlers in Ireland and their sympathetic allegiance to their fellow citizens.
In Swift's work "A Modest Proposal," he produces a satirical view of the Irish people through the eyes of an Anglo- Irish projector, or economist. Swift is toying with the tradition of projectors and the inhumanity of applying cold, statistical, detached economics to a humanitarian crisis.
The Irish peasantry of this time were considered to be living in squalor, or like animals, by projectors, an attitude which has been highly documented in pamphlets and essays of the time. A crippled Irish economy and a weak Irish parliament inhibited the growth of wealth and living standards.
In "A Modest Proposal," Swift takes the clinical, analytical stance of a projector and pushes the form to its furthest extent. The projector suggests a means of transforming the starving, poor children of Ireland into "useful members of the Commonwealth." [3] The manner in which they become useful is to have Irish infants sold into the meat market as an alternative food source. The projector believes it will reduce starvation, increase income of poor families, improve the diet of the wealthy and improve social relations in families.
In the piece, the projector refers to women as "breeders" [4] and reduces personal tragedy, such as miscarriage and cot death to mere statistics. Swift is personifying the detached English attitude towards Ireland, and its application economics to a humanitarian problem.
Later in the piece, Swift suggests that the meat will not be exported to England and will not impact on trade restrictions of the time, which were imposed by England, as the meat would perish if preserved in salt for too long. Swift then subtly suggests that England would eat Ireland without salt, an opinion formed by his bitterness and anger towards the colonial power. By creating this inversion of civil society, Swift elevates the status of the Irish citizenry.
Swift inverts the ideas of barbarism and civility in the piece. A common view of the time was that foreign or exotic cultures were barbaric. The custom of cannibalism was seen to be the most bestial and uncivilised of them all. By having a civil, well educated projector suggest that the Irish youth should be "roasted like pigs," [5] Swift is asking his audience to question their current morals and notions on the idea of civility. He suggests perhaps that civil society is more barbaric than first perceived. Swift displays both a discomfort with the Irish people's inability to gain authority and respect, but also England's dislocated and cold attitude towards the plight of the Irish, a perspective only available to an Anglo- Irish colonial citizen.
Swift, in his lifetime, was able to provide an opposing thought to common, stereotypical beliefs of Ireland by the 'civilised' world of the time. His works have successfully transcended both cultures and societies but also time itself.
In the works of James Clarence Mangan, we can see an array and wide range of emotions. In his work "To My Native Land" we can see a sense of frustration as he believes that Ireland has been shut out of the world of progress and is lingering outside of time unless we can restore our state of 'nationhood.'
Mangan believes that the past riches and pride of Ireland are now gone. He cleverly uses the Irish symbol of the harp to suggest that Ireland is in decline, "The harp remaineth where it fell, with mouldering frame and broken chord; Around the song there hangs no spell." [6] This symbolises the loss of Irish culture and articulacy, something which deeply upsets Mangan.
Mangan believes that new nations will be created, rise and then collapse, all the while Ireland will not have progressed at all "Nations, and thrones, and powers, whose birth As yet is not, shall rise to fame, Shall flourish, and may fall- but thou Shalt linger as thou lingerest now. [7] "
Mangan believes that the Irish people are responsible for their own destruction and demise due to self castigation from the Act of Union. Mangan is mourning what he believes to be the tragic loss of a once great country and is both frustrated and pitiful of the lack of progress and bleak future of the nation.
In the poem "The West's Asleep" by Thomas Davis, we can get a sense of brewing positivity and togetherness for the nation.
Set in Connaught, symbolic for the Cromwellian era as being a desolate location, the notion of a degraded location has now been inverted and creates a sense of liberty and a feeling of freedom. "Sing oh! Let man learn liberty From crashing wind and lashing sea." [8] The boisterous weather and natural conditions are a form of pathetic fallacy that Ireland is ominously ascending again. Davis also describes Connaught as "a home so grand, [9] " a new upbeat view on the location which had once been considered the most desolate and uninhabitable location in Ireland.
The rugged landscape and harsh weather seems to spark activity and awaken the very soul of Ireland. The poem ends with the sentiment "The West's awake, the West's awake' Sing, oh! Hurra! Let England quake, We'll watch till death for Erin's sake!" [10] This euphoric, new found sense of activity is almost a new axiom for the Irish people to follow, to restore their pride and call them to action.
In the work "Lament over the Ruins of the Abbey of Timoleague," by John Collins, we can see his frustration and despair with the sense of silence that has been inflicted on the Irish nation due to how is has been treated by its colonial power.
The poem describes the "woeful sorrow" [11] that the author feels when reflecting on the ruins of a once majestic and busy abbey. The once active church now leaves images of inactivity, silence, inarticulacy and desolation as its legacy, "...was a time when bells were tinkling...Psalms a-singing...Empty aisle, deserted chancel, tower tottering to your fall." [12]
Collins' opinion of the colonial power is made quite clear further on in the piece. "Oh! The hardship, oh" the hatred, Tyranny, and cruel war, Persecution and oppression, That have left you as you are!" [13] The words "hatred," "persecution," and "oppression" shows us his belief that Ireland has been subjected to maltreatment by the British Empire, and are suffering abuse under their rule, but also by the Irish Parliament. This hatred is not associated with one specific group, he believes that divisions and mistakes have been made by all, and Collins refuses to blame any particular power.
The span of emotions from euphoria, as seen in the work of Davis, and despair, as seen in the work of Collins, emphasises the scattered range of hope seen in Ireland at the time. These emotions provide a large scope of sentiment felt by not only the authors, but also the Irish citizenry during this terse period in Irish history.
