W. B. Yeats on John Millington Synge, in his poem, In Memory of Major Robert Gregory --
IV
And that enquiring man John Synge comes next,
That dying chose the living world for text
And never could have rested in the tomb
But that, long travelling, he had come
Towards nightfall upon certain set apart
In a most desolate stony place,
Towards nightfall upon a race
Passionate and simple like his heart.
Notes (from elsewhere) --
John Synge was one of Yeats's greatest friends in Dublin until his early death at the age of thirty-eight from cancer. Synge was an Irish poet and playwright during the Irish literary Renaissance. Synge traveled with Yeats all over the Aran Islands, "a most desolate stony place," and based many of his poems on the bleak and tragic lifestyle of the Irish peasants. He was a very passionate writer and isolated himself to produce his most creative, yet critical works. As Yeats says in the second line, "That dying chose the living world for text," Synge knew he was dying, but he decided that his role in the world was to write, which is a statement of a true artist.
You can read more about Synge, who has been one of my favorite authors for more than thirty years, at Teach Synge (Synge House).
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