The Legends of Saint Patrick

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Legends of Saint Patrick, by
Aubrey de Vere
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Title: The Legends of Saint Patrick
Author: Aubrey de Vere
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7165]
[This file was first
posted on March 18, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE

LEGENDS OF SAINT PATRICK ***
This etext was prepared by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset.
THE LEGENDS OF SAINT PATRICK BY
AUBREY DE VERE,
LL.D.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MORLEY.
SAINT PATRICK--FROM "ENGLISH WRITERS," BY HENRY
MORLEY.
PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.
POEMS:-
THE BAPTISM OF SAINT PATRICK.
THE
DISBELIEF OF MILCHO.
SAINT PATRICK AT TARA.

SAINT PATRICK AND THE TWO PRINCESSES.
SAINT
PATRICK AND THE CHILDREN OF FOCHLUT WOOD.

SAINT PATRICK AND KING LAEGHAIRE.
SAINT PATRICK
AND THE IMPOSTOR.
SAINT PATRICK AT CASHEL.

SAINT PATRICK AND THE CHILDLESS MOTHER.
SAINT
PATRICK AT THE FEAST OF KNOCK CAE.
SAINT
PATRICK AND KING EOCHAID.
SAINT PATRICK AND
THE FOUNDING OF ARMAGH CATHEDRAL.
THE
ARRAIGNMENT OF SAINT PATRICK.
THE STRIVING OF
SAINT PATRICK ON MOUNT CRUACHAN.
EPILOGUE.
THE CONFESSION OF SAINT PATRICK.
INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MORLEY.
Once more our readers are indebted to a living poet for wide circulation
of a volume of delightful verse. The name of Aubrey de Vere is the
more pleasantly familiar because its association with our highest
literature has descended from father to son. In 1822, sixty-seven years
ago, Sir Aubrey de Vere, of Curragh Chase, by Adare, in the county of

Limerick--then thirty-four years old--first made his mark with a
dramatic poem upon "Julian the Apostate." In 1842 Sir Aubrey
published Sonnets, which his friend Wordsworth described as "the most
perfect of our age;" and in the year of his death he completed a
dramatic poem upon "Mary Tudor," published in the next year, 1847,
with the "Lamentation of Ireland, and other Poems." Sir Aubrey de
Vere's "Mary Tudor" should be read by all who have read Tennyson's
play on the same subject.
The gift of genius passed from Sir Aubrey to his third son, Aubrey
Thomas de Vere, who was born in 1814, and through a long life has put
into music only noble thoughts associated with the love of God and
man, and of his native land. His first work, published fortyseven years
ago, was a lyrical piece, in which he gave his sympathy to devout and
persecuted men whose ways of thought were not his own. Aubrey de
Vere's poems have been from time to time revised by himself, and they
were in 1884 finally collected into three volumes, published by Messrs.
Kegan Paul. Left free to choose from among their various contents, I
have taken this little book of "Legends of St. Patrick," first published in
1872, but in so doing I have unwillingly left many a piece that would
please many a reader.
They are not, however, inaccessible. Of the three volumes of collected
works, each may be had separately, and is complete in itself. The first
contains "The Search after Proserpine, and other Poems--Classical and
Meditative." The second contains the "Legends of St. Patrick, and
Legends of Ireland's Heroic Age," including a version of the "Tain Bo."
The third contains two plays, "Alexander the Great," "St. Thomas of
Canterbury," and other Poems.
For the convenience of some readers, the following extract from the
second volume of my "English Writers," may serve as a prosaic
summary of what is actually known about St. Patrick.
H. M.
ST. PATRICK.

FROM "ENGLISH WRITERS."
The birth of St. Patrick, Apostle and Saint of Ireland, has been
generally placed in the latter half of the fourth century; and he is said to
have died at the age of a hundred and twenty. As he died in the year
493--and we may admit that he was then a very old man--if we may say
that he reached the age of eighty-eight, we place his birth in the year
405. We may reasonably believe, therefore, that he was born in the
early part of the fifth century. His birthplace, now