John M. Synge: A Personal Appreciation

Abstract

The death of J. M. Synge, at a comparatively early age (‘the fatal thirty-seven’) will come home with double force to those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. Without exaggeration (of which there has been a good deal in this connection), it can be said that a very potent personality has passed out of the literature of our time. It is not so much by what he has done as by what he would undoubtedly have achieved had he lived, that the loss to letters is so considerable. Personally, I fancy that his brooding genius would have concentrated itself to far greater purpose than his comparatively small literary output suggests. But we have yet to see the poems¹ and the tragedy on the subject of ‘Deirdre,’² which he left unpublished.

The Irish Independent (Dublin) (26 Mar 1909) P.4.