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'Reprinted 25 May, 4, with [a report on] an angry letter from Harpur protesting against editor's changes and the poem in its original form.' (Webby)
The first published version of this poem, printed in the Morning Chronicle newspaper on the 11 May 1844, was extensively altered by the Chronicle's editor.
Charles Harpur's correct version of the poem is published in the Morning Chronicle 25 May 1844 alongside the editor's altered version of the poem and a column apologising for but defending the editor's alterations.
For more information on Harpur's dispute with the editor of the Morning Chronicle see J. Normington-Rawling, Charles Harpur, An Australian (Angus & Robertson, 1962): 98-99.
Notes
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Epigraph: 'Oh, breathe not his name! let it rest in the shade,/ Where cold and unhonored his relics are laid;/ Sad, silent and dark be the tears that we shed,/ As the night-dews that fall in the grass o'er his head.' Moore.
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Listed under the title 'Robert Emmett' in The Poems of Charles Harpur in Manuscript in the Mitchell Library and in Publication in the Nineteenth Century: An Analytical Finding List by Elizabeth Holt and Elizabeth Perkins (Canberra: Australian Scholarly Editions Centre, 2002).
Published under the title 'Robert Emmett' in The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur edited with Introduction and Bibliography by Elizabeth Perkins (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, (1984).
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The date '1843' appears at the foot of Charles Harpur's corrected version of the poem published in the Morning Chronicle (25 May 1844): 4.
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Robert Emmet (1778-1803) 'Irish nationalist leader who inspired the abortive rising of 1803, remembered as a romantic hero of Irish lost causes.' He was hanged for treason on 20 September 1803. Charles Harpur's epigraph is from a Thomas Moore song inspired by Emmet's love for his fiancée Sarah Curran.
Source: 'Robert Emmet', Encyclopædia Britannica Online (sighted : 07/03/2012)
Affiliation Notes
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This work has been affiliated with the Irishness in Australian Literature dataset because it contains Irish characters, settings, tropes or themes.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Original Poetry
1844
single work
column
— Appears in: The Morning Chronicle , 25 May vol. 1 no. 67 1844; (p. 4)This column is an apology for and in defence of 'some alterations ... made in ... [Charles Harpur's] poetical lines on Robert Emmitt ...' The author of the column details the changes made and defends them by stating, 'We did it, not from a wish to injure the Parnassian fame of Mr. H., but the contrary ...'
An 'angry' letter sent to the Morning Chronicle newspaper by Charles Harpur disclaiming the alterations is extensively quoted.
The altered version of the poem, published in the Morning Chronicle 11 May 1844, is republished with Charles Harpur's corrected version in the Morning Chronicle 25 May 1844. The altered and corrected versions are separately indexed.
-
Original Poetry
1844
single work
column
— Appears in: The Morning Chronicle , 25 May vol. 1 no. 67 1844; (p. 4)This column is an apology for and in defence of 'some alterations ... made in ... [Charles Harpur's] poetical lines on Robert Emmitt ...' The author of the column details the changes made and defends them by stating, 'We did it, not from a wish to injure the Parnassian fame of Mr. H., but the contrary ...'
An 'angry' letter sent to the Morning Chronicle newspaper by Charles Harpur disclaiming the alterations is extensively quoted.
The altered version of the poem, published in the Morning Chronicle 11 May 1844, is republished with Charles Harpur's corrected version in the Morning Chronicle 25 May 1844. The altered and corrected versions are separately indexed.
