etween
their quaint traditions and a great modern commercial city's customs.

POETRY

The Celtic Renaissance.--Some of the best recent English verse has
been written by poets of Irish birth or sympathies. Because of the
distinctive quality of both the poetry and prose of these Celtic
writers, the term "Celtic Renaissance" has been applied to their work,
which glows with spiritual emotion and discloses a world of dreams,
fairies, and romantic aspiration. As Richard Wagner received from the
Scandinavian folk-lore the inspiration for his great music, as
Tennyson found the incentive for _The Idylls of the Kings_ in Malory's
_Morte d'Arthur_, so the modern Celtic poets turned back to the
primitive legends of their country for tales of Cuchulain who fought
the sea, Caolte who besieged the castle of the gods, Oisin, who
wandered three hundred years in the land of the immortals, and Deirdre
who stands in the same relation to Celtic literature as Helen to Greek
and Brunnhilde to German literature. Some of the fascination that the
past and its fairy kingdom exerted over these poets may be found in
this stanza from Russell's _The Gates of Dreamland_:--

"Oh, the gates of the mountain have opened once again
And the sound of song and dancing falls upon the ears of men,
And the Land of Youth lies gleaming, flushed with rainbow light and
mirth.
And the old enchantment lingers in the honey-heart of earth."[1]

William Butler Yeats.--One of the most talented and active workers
in this Celtic Renaissance is William Butler Yeats, born in 1865 in
Dublin, Ireland. He came from an artistic family, his father, brother,
and sisters being either artists or identified with the arts and
crafts movement. Yeats himself studied art in Dublin, but poetry was
more attractive to him than painting.

He was greatly influenced by spending his youthful days with his
grandparents in County Sligo, where he heard the old Irish legends
told by the peasants, who still believed them. He translated these
stories from Irish into English and wrote poems and essays relating to
them. After reaching the age of thirty-four, he became engaged in
writing dramas and in assisting to establish the Irish National
Theater in Dublin. In thus reviving Ireland's heroic history, Yeats
has served his country and his art.

[Illustration: WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS.]

_The Wanderings of Oisin_ (1889) is his best narrative poem. Oisin,
one of the ancient Celtic heroes