Publisher's Synopsis
Thomas Moore (1779-1852), the pocket-sized tenor who was the darling of English aristocratic drawing rooms, as he sang 'the wild songs of his dear native plains', was a true patriot. A gifted minor poet, whose first published work was a version of the erotic odes of the Greek poet Anacreon, he managed to create lyrics that, matched to traditional Irish airs, made his name famous throughout the English-speaking world even in his own lifetime. In spite of adulation from society hostesses he never forgot his country, with its present distresses and former greatness. He taught the English that the despised Irish peasants came trailing clouds of glory and would one day have to be reckoned with. It is impossible that the Irish Melodies should ever be forgotten, as married so perfectly to their airs they recreate the beginnings of modern nationalism. And just as the words are bereft without the tune so even a compact life of Ireland's minstrel boy requires as accompaniment a selection of his deathless lyrics.
