Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/94

feature, as I have treated of it, and have given specimens, in my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' pp. 200-202.

As might be expected, the schoolmasters, as well as others, who used these strange words often made mistakes in applying them; which will be seen in some of the following examples. Here is one whole verse of a song about a young lady—'The Phoenix of the Hall.'

'I being quite captivated and so infatuated

I then prognosticated my sad forlorn case;

But I quickly ruminated—suppose I was defaited,

I would not be implicated or treated with disgrace;

So therefore I awaited with my spirits elevated,

And no more I ponderated let what would me befall;

I then to her repated how Cupid had me thrated,

And thus expostulated with The Phoenix of the Hall.'

In another verse of this song the poet tells us what he might do for the Phoenix if he had greater command of language:—

'Could I indite like Homer that celebrated pomer.'

One of these schoolmasters, whom I knew, composed a poem in praise of Queen Victoria just after her accession, of which I remember only two lines:—

'In England our queen resides with alacrity,

With civil authority and kind urbanity.'

Another opens his song in this manner:—

'One morning serene as I roved in solitude,

Viewing the magnitude of th' orient ray.

The author of the song in praise of Castlehyde speaks of

'The bees perfuming the fields with music';