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PREFACE.

An earnest wish having been expressed by my Publishers that this new Edition of the IRISH MELODIES should be accompanied by a few prefatory words, I have readily yielded to their request; though so frequently have I been called to this very welcome task, that all I can say upon such a theme, without degenerating into mere needless egotism, must have been long since exhausted.

On the poetical part of this work, it is not for me to give an opinion. Whatever may be its merits, to the music they are almost solely owing. It was, indeed, my strong desire to convey in words some of those feelings and fancies which music seemed to me to utter that first led me to attempt poetry. Thus song was the inspiring medium through which I became initiated into verse. Whatever merit there may be in interpreting the voice that spoke in my country's music, lending it a vent in

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