Oh! Blame Not the Bard

DESCRIPTION: Don't blame the bard for his songs of love rather than glory. Don't blame him if he "should try to forget what he never can heal." "But though glory be gone, and though hope fade away, Thy name, loved Erin! shall live in his songs"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Moore-IrishMelodies-1846)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad minstrel
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Moore-IrishMelodies-1846, pp. 45-46, "(Oh! blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers)" (1 text)
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion, p. 77, "Oh! Blame Not the Bard" (1 fragment)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 43, "Oh, Blame Not the Bard!" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol I, pp. 180-181, "O, Blame Not The Bard"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 375-376, "Oh Blame not the Bard" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Kinsella, _The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse_ (Oxford, 1989), pp. 269-270, (no title) (1 text)
Roud #V3131
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.9(281), "Oh! Blame not the Bard" ("Oh, blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers"), unknown, n.d.
NOTES [39 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion p. 77 is a fragment; broadside Bodleian 2806 b.9(281) is the basis for the description.
Zimmermann [uses] this song to illustrate his point that "the mission of the bard is to weep for his country." - BS
Last updated in version 6.1
File: BrdOBNtB

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