Poetry Codex

Modern

Thomas MacDonagh

1878–1916

Thomas MacDonagh (1878–1916) was an Irish poet, critic and teacher. Born in Cloughjordan, County Tipperary, he taught at St Colman's College and St Enda's School and later lectured in English at University College, Dublin. His verse, much of it lyrical and some of it translated from the Irish, appeared in Songs of Myself (1910) and Lyrical Poems (1913); he also wrote criticism and a play.

A member of the Irish Volunteers and of the Irish Republican Brotherhood's military council, MacDonagh signed the Proclamation of the Irish Republic at Easter 1916 and commanded the garrison at Jacob's factory during the Rising. He was court-martialled and shot at Kilmainham Gaol on 3 May 1916. The poems printed here follow The Poetical Works of Thomas MacDonagh (Dublin: The Talbot Press, 1916; London: T. Fisher Unwin), with an introduction by James Stephens.

Poems (90)

  1. In the Storm
  2. In Absence
  3. In an Island
  4. After a Year
  5. The Suicide
  6. In Fever
  7. In Dread
  8. A Dream of Age
  9. The Anchoret
  10. In Calm
  11. In September
  12. At the End
  13. Our Story
  14. To Eoghan
  15. Death
  16. The Rain it Raineth
  17. Death in the Woods
  18. At Dawn
  19. My Poet
  20. Requies
  21. A Song of Another
  22. A Woman
  23. A Dream of Being
  24. Two Songs from the Irish: II
  25. John-John
  26. To a Wise Man
  27. Offering
  28. Envoi
  29. Of My Poems
  30. Grange House Lodge
  31. The Song of Joy
  32. Introit
  33. Images
  34. The Tree of Knowledge
  35. O Star of Death
  36. Litany of Beauty
  37. The Great
  38. The Poet Captain
  39. The Golden Joy
  40. The Yellow Bittern (from the Irish of Cathal Buidhe Mac Giolla Ghunna)
  41. Druimfhionn Donn Dilis
  42. Isn't it Pleasant for the Little Birds
  43. Eve
  44. Catullus: VIII
  45. Catullus: LXXVI
  46. When in the Forenoon of the Year
  47. I Heard a Music Sweet To-day
  48. Love is Cruel, Love is Sweet
  49. The House in the Wood beside the Lake
  50. A Dream of Hell
  51. Of a Poet Patriot
  52. Of a Greek Poem
  53. Ideal
  54. The Seasons and the Leaves
  55. A Season of Repose
  56. With only This for Likeness, only These Words
  57. Fairy Tales
  58. The Coming-in of Summer
  59. O Bursting Bud of Joy
  60. For Victory
  61. Of the Man of My First Play
  62. Envoi: 1904
  63. Inscriptions
  64. In Paris
  65. The Night Hunt
  66. The Man Upright
  67. Wishes for My Son
  68. Postscriptum
  69. Barbara
  70. Within the Temple
  71. To James Clarence Mangan
  72. Snow at Morning
  73. The Sentimentalist
  74. The Poet Saint
  75. Luna Dies et Nox et Noctis Signa Severa
  76. May Day
  77. Eamonn an Chnuic
  78. Cormac Og
  79. Quando Ver Venit Meum?
  80. Averil
  81. Sundown
  82. My Love To-night
  83. Uber allen Gipfellen ist Ruh
  84. To My Lady
  85. To Eoghan
  86. The Stars
  87. Catullus: V
  88. Dublin Tramcars
  89. The Philistine
  90. Inscription on a Ruin

See Thomas MacDonagh in the full archive →