"In the Wild Earth a Grecian Vase!"
For Padraic Colum (1881-1971)

ANDREW B. jMYERS

IN the universe of letters Padraic Colum was a man of many
worlds. In multiple forms of prose and verse, on the printed
page or in person, he was for nearly three quarters of a cen¬
tury a man of genuine if modest moment in contemporary letters
—and a delightful person to know. And his years on the Columbia
faculty (1939-1956) are part enough of his long history to de¬
serve the present tribute, let alone his place on the Irish and the
American literary scene

From whatever corner of poets' heaven he occupies, with char¬
acteristic rumpled ease, Padraic must still be remarking, in quiet
amusement, at the fact that the crowded New York Times gave
him a front-page obituary, and with picture! For years before¬
hand, already into his hale eighties, he had seldom clearly broken
rhe surface of newspaper notice. There he was, tableted in mem¬
oriam, on January 12, 1972, "Padraic Colum, 90, Irish Poet/Essay¬
ist and Folklorist, Dead." Lest old Morningside Heights acquain¬
tance be too soon forgot, this piece is written, for a Columbia
audience familiar, if not necessarily with the author or e\'ery one
of his books, certainly with places and associations hete so long
a part of Colum's very long life.*

Surely that obit belonged where it «'as, especially in a city he
had first come to in 1914, and in a country where he resolutely
kept acquired citizenship. The caption quoted underlined his Irish-
ness, and justly, but he thought of himself as an American too, and
declared so when queried. In any case his Irish-and-American
career had distinction enough to be so specially remembered.

* For help with details I am grateful to Mr. Andreas Brown, Mr. James
Gilvarry, Mr. Emmet Greene, Mrs. Shirley Hess, and Miss Frances Stcloff.