1. ‘ Everything in nature is instinct with melody.’ How have the poets recognised this truth? Quote from them to show that they have found music in all the common things named by the writer of ‘The Poetry of Irish Life.’

2.
(a) ‘There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st / But in his motion like an angel sings.’ (Shakespeare)

(b) ‘How many a rustic Milton has passed by, / Stifling the speechless longings of his heart / In unremitting drudgery and care!’ (Shelley)

c.) How does Canon Guinan give expression, in lucid prose, to thoughts similar to those above?

3. How may poetry exist in the heart as an inherent possession and insensibly mould the character, though it remain unuttered by the lips?

4. One of our poets in this anthology writes picturesquely about the call of the sea, of the stars, of the sky, of the river, of the road, and of the bird. Compose ia the same metre as his a stanza on ‘ the call of the land,’ not as an inducement to ‘ wander-thirst,’ but as a call to quiet work in the home, for the good of oneself and one’s country.

5. Enlarge on Dr. Walsh’s statement: ‘When the young men shall not see visions, this is a sad world, indeed.’ Deal especially with the part which ideals should play in Irish life. Compare T. W. Rolleston’s saying that ‘a country is in a sad state when it finds no such voices [as those of the eighteenth-century Gaelic poets] to express its life, to ennoble its emotion, and lift familiar scenes and persons into the light of the ideal.’ Think also of P. H. Pearse’s suggestive words in “Gaelic Inspirations,” where he says that the spirit of our ancient heroes ‘lives on in our poetry, in our music, in our language, and, above all, in the vague longings which we feel for a something, we know not what - our irresistible, overmastering conviction that we, as a nation, are made for higher things.’

6. In pursuing the same line of thought, and in connection with such extracts as ‘The Influence of Art,’ ‘Irish Folk Song,’ etc., study the following stanzas from Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s ode on ‘dreamers of dreams,’ and make use of them for purposes of illustration:-

‘With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world’s great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire’s glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song’s measure
Can trample a kingdom down. ...

‘A breath of our inspiration
Is the life of each generation;
A wondrous thing of our dreaming,
Unearthly, impossible seeming-
The soldier, the king and the peasant
Are working together in one,
Till our dream shall become their present,
And their work in the world be done.’

7. Besides the higher ideals associated with our spiritual welfare and the loyal service we owe to our country, there are personal ideals which come very close to our daily life and duties. They comprise, on the one hand, all those endeavours to make the best and worthiest use of our own powers, and to observe, on the other hand, those unwritten codes and rules which help to sweeten social life. Some of these are indicated in ‘Noble Manners,’ by Coventry Patmore, and in ‘Play the Game,’ by Father Bernard Vaughan. Give your attention, therefore, to these goodly counsels, and say, briefly, what truths they see[m] to teach us, and how we may profit thereby.