to the exquisite interior of the "Eve of St. Agnes," or to the ghost scene in "Isabella," or to the sombre solitude of "Hyperion,' whose primeval air, and the large presence of the early gods, remind one of the Atys of Catullus; and thence to listen to the Nightingale in his ode thereon, or to the silent harmonies which live in the marble of his "Grecian urn." One of the charms of the poetry of Keats is derived from the naturalness of his spontaneous Greek imagination, and a diction, which though that of a language less varied and inferior to the Greek, surpasses in occasional passages some of the most admired in classic poetry. Carlyle says of the poetry of Eschylus, that it is as if the rocks and waves had taken speech, and begun to tell us of what they had been thinking of from eternity. In the "Hyperion" it is as if the sombre and beauteous cloud forms in some region of forgotten space, touched by the light of poetry, had been rendered. visible and vocable, telling us the grandeur and sorrows of the dooms of the old gods—as Memnon's statue gave out its music when smitten by the rising sun. His early poems offer a good study of a fine imagination in a purely unintellectualized state. He allows the rhyme to lead the thought; the result is generally in some sort beautiful, but, with all this, his work, being devoid of contrast, human interest or variety, is often beauty without muscles or bones. He may, however, be said to have orginated the school of Tennyson, which followed him as Raphael followed Perugino. His idea of poetry was that it should surprise by a fine excess; and some of his objective paintings of beauty are indeed more truly poetic than those of Tasso or Ariosto.

How fresh and simple is the introduction to his poem "Endymion," "the music of whose very name," he says, "has gone into his being!" Here there is no formal invocation to the muse, but he conjectures how far his contemplated poem will have advanced with each coming summer month. Many and many a verse he hopes to write before the daisies, vermeil-rimmed and white, hide in deep herbage; ere the bees hum about globes of clover and sweet peas, he will be near the middle of his story, which he hopes to see finished before comes autumn, cold “with universal tinge of sober gold, and we sigh to think of yellow leaves and owlets' cry, and logs piled solemnly."

N. W.

INNISFALLEN.

ITS lone, wild and solemn beauty, and the sacred and historic associations entwined around the venerable pile of monastic ruin, crumbling on its silent shore, render Innisfallen one of the chief attractions in the romantic region of Loch Lein. Nature, indeed, seems to have lent her every charm to enhance the exquisite loveliness of this sequestered Eden isle, shaded with grand and sombre woods and rich groves of the dark arbutus, affording through their fantastic openings enchanting vistas of the crystal expanse of the encircling lake and the dark purple mountains beyond. Vain, truly, would be any attempt to portray the beauty of this favoured spot. Under the spell of its magic loveliness, the sweetest of Irish bards has sung—

"Sweet Innisfallen! long shall dwell

In memory's dream that sunny smile,
Which o'er thee on that evening fell
When first I saw thy fairy isle.

"'Twas light indeed too blest for one
Who had to turn to paths of care,
Through crowded haunts again to run
And leave thee bright and silent there.

"No more unto thy shores to come,

But on the world's dim ocean tost,
Dream of thee sometimes as a home

Of sunshine he had seen and lost."

Amid this charming solitude, in centuries long gone by, arose one of those olden sanctuaries of piety and learning which shed so great lustre upon ancient Erinn. Here, in this calm retreat, the peaceful holy monk,

"bending o'er the deathless page,

Garnered up for future story, fruit from each successive age.'

The monastery of Innisfallen was founded in the seventh century by St. Finan Lobhar, or the Leper, so named from his having been afflicted, during thirty years of his life, with some cutaneous distemper. According to Dr. Lanigan, this saint was a native of Ely O'Carroll, and was descended of an illustrious family. He was erroneously supposed to have been a disciple of St. Columbkille, and to have been placed by the latter over the monastery of Swords. No doubt St. Finan presided for a considerable time over the monastery of Swords, of which Dr. Lanigan is inclined to consider him the probable founder; but, though a monk of the Columbian order, he could not have been a disciple of St. Columbkille, as he was not born till after the death of the latter saint. In addition to Swords and Innisfallen,

St. Finan established a monastery at Ardfinan, in Tipperary. He died during the reign of Finnachta, Monarch of Erinn, towards the close of the seventh century." *

During the succeeding centuries, Innisfallen took rank among those renowned schools which shone like so many beacon lights of religion, culture and refinement, amid the darkness which barbarian invasion spread over western Europe. Here were compiled the extensive body of ecclesiastical and general historic records, known as the "Annals of Innisfallen." According to the most reliable authority, the original projector of this work was the celebrated Maelsuthain O'Cearbahill (Maelsoohan O'Carroll), who flourished in this monastery in the tenth century. He was prince of the Eugenian tribes of the territory of Loch Lein, and is styled by the Four Masters, "the Chief Saoi or Doctor of the Western World." It was under the care of this Maelsuthain, in this monastery of Innisfallen, that the Dalcassian prince, Brian Boru, the renowned victor of Clontarf, received his education. We also find that when Brian, having attained the chief sovereignty of Erinn, visited the city of Armagh, in the course of a royal progress through the island, this same Maclsuthain accompanied him in the capacity of Anmchara or chief counsellor. "Taking into account," writes Professor O'Curry, "the acknowledged learning of O'Carroll, the character of his mind, his own station and the opportunities. afforded him by his association with the chief monarch of Erinn, there is certainly no improbability in connecting him with the compilation of these annals, and, for my own part, I have no doubt that he was either the original projector of them, or that he enlarged the more meagre outlines of ecclesiastical events, kept in the monastery of Innisfallen, or probably in most others, into a great historic work."

These annals, of which it is to be regretted no genuine copy exists in Ireland, contain a brief history of the ancient world, and a chronicle of Ireland, from the arrival of St. Patrick to the year 1319. The Bodleian library copy of the "Annals of Innisfallen" is a quarto MS. on parchment, containing fifty-seven leaves. Dr. O'Connor, describing this MS., says: "The latter part of this valuable MS., when the division of each page into three columns ceases, and when a leaf is missing, appears to be written by a more recent hand. So that from inspection it might be argued that the real original ended with the year 1130, and that the remainder has been added by different abbots of Innisfallen afterwards. Down to 1130 the initials are rudely adorned and coloured, and the writing is elegant, but from thence there is no attempt at any species of ornament, and the writing. declines as we approach the end."

"Eccles. Hist. of Ireland," vol. iii.