Padraic Colum is one of the most gifted, if not the most gifted, of the younger Irish poets…. Some of the other younger Irish poets have seemed to echo Mr. W. B. Yeats, as was indeed quite natural; but Mr. Colum by no means wears the mantle of the older poet. Whereas Mr. Yeats' own dreams are usually reflected in his poems representing peasant life, or whereas Mr. Yeats almost always sees the peasant through the glamour of "old mythologies," Mr. Colum gives us the peasant as nearly as possible in the peasant's own terms, and with a direct, concrete touch. Of course the distinction is not watertight, nor meant to be. Mr. Yeats' old woman making the fire at dawn, when "the seed of the fire gets feeble and low," is as direct as possible; and Mr. Colum's poems are not untouched by the glamour of tradition and "the thought of white ships and the King of Spain's daughter." How else could it be, and he a poet?
However, the reader who turns to Mr. Colum's poems [in Wild Earth and Other Poems] with this distinction in mind will realize something of his artistic method. He has identified himself with his subject, and his own personality is not obtruded except as it is incidentally revealed. This is the method of genuine "folk" poetry—be it Greek or Irish or of any race at all. Such poetry has the solidity of life, of the hills or of the earth itself, and the title Wild Earth is indeed appropriate. (pp. 105-06)
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Read the rest of this Criticism with our Colum, Padraic 1881–1972: Critical Essay by Alice Corbin Henderson Access Pass.
