“The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls”

Description

"The harp that once through Tara's halls The soul of music shed Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls As tho' that soul were fled." Tara's glory is fled, and the only sign that freedom still exists "Is when some heart, indignant, breaks."

Notes

This is one of the classic poems of Irish melancholy; Granger's Index to Poetry cites no fewer than fifteen anthologies. Ironically, it seems rare in tradition.

Tara, according to legend at least, was the seat of the ancient Irish high kings. - RBW

Same tune

• The Highland Maid (File: Ord297)
• Old Ireland I Adore (File: OCon113)

Cross references

• cf. "The Highland Maid" (tune)

Broadsides

• Bodleian, Firth b.28(8a/b) View 8 of 8, "The Harp That Once Throug Tara's Halls," R. March and Co. (London), 1877-1884; also Harding B 11(1155), "The Harp that Once Tara's Halls"; Firth b.26(381), "The Harp That Once in Tara's Halls"; Firth c.26(121), "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Hall"; Firth b.27(457/458) View 2 of 4, "The Harp of Tara's Hall"
• LOCSheet, sm1851 490660, "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls," William Hall and S (New York), 1851; also sm1851 680650, "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls"; sm1851 491690, sm1879 02685, "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Hall" (tune)
• LOCSinging, as105190, "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls," Thos. G. Doyle (Baltimore), 19C
• NLScotland, RB.m.143(144), "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls," Poet's Box (Glasgow), 1875

References

1. O'Conor, p. 10, "Harp That Once" (1 text)
2. Silber-FSWB, p. 320, "The Harp That Once Thro' Tara's Halls" (1 text)
3. DT, TARAHARP*
4. ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 381, "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls" (1 text)
5. Donagh MacDonagh and Lennox Robinson, _The Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1958, 1979), pp. 32-33, "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls" (1 text)
6. Roud #13392
7. BI, FSWB320C