The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #158788 Message #3758380
Posted By: GUEST,Pat 'de Verse' Burke
14-Dec-15 - 02:06 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Roisin Dubh (Dark Rosaleen)
Subject: RE: Origins: Roisin Dubh (Dark Rosaleen)
'Oh my Dark Rosaleen, do not sigh, do not weep....Yes, that's James Clarence Mangan all right. The original poem was indeed a love-lyric, though we are far more familiar with 'Róisín Dubh' as an aisling (vision poem) where Ireland is portrayed as a mystical female, as in a beautiful version you will find in 'An Duanaire' 1600-1900, 'Poems of the Dispossessed, published by Dolmen Press in 1981. It is considered a folk poem, and we don't appear to know the original author at all. This would be common for a lot of these aislingí. Reading it again today, my educated guess is that it was written in the 18th century. Hope that is some help?