RICHARD D'ALTON WILLIAMS,

POET, PHYSICIAN AND PROFESSOR.

HILE this singer, whose sweet songs have charmed two generations of readers at

home and abroad, doth

Slumber in the gloom

Of a nameless, foreign tomb,

Innisfail keeps his memory fresh and green.

The life's history of every man who devotes his days to literary pursuits is easily told; and that of Richard D'Alton Williams is no exception to this general rule. Born in the city of Dublin, October 8th, 1822, the future bard was taken at a very early age to Grenanstown, in the County Tipperary, where he spent his boyhood years. He was of a shy, sensitive disposition, fond of poetry, fairy lore, and of solitary rambles by the limpid rills and sombre clefts that abound in the vicinity of the "Devil's Bit." His poetic imagination grew strong and vivid among the gorges of Tipperary mountains, where his youthful footsteps often disturbed the eagles from their lofty perches as his brave little heart bounded with delight to watch them sailing gracefully across

the adjacent chasms till they vanished amid the gray rocks of some distant peak. When tired of the wild "Camailte's darkling mountains," he descended to the glens, where his fanciful spirit peopled every gorge and grove with elfin crowds.

About the period that this retiring, timid country lad was bordering on his teens the Irish Nation was nearing a series of memorable events in the history of her people. Three D's-Davis, Dillon and Duffy -representing Mallow, Mayo and Monaghan, met about this time in Phoenix Park, Dublin, and established a newspaper that was destined to become the exponent of Ireland's national hopes and aspirations.

Davis was one of the first poetical contributors to the columns of this national organ, which sent forth its initial number on the 15th of October, 1842, and startled the enemies of Irish freedom.

In January, 1843, D'Alton Williams' first poem appeared in the columns of that journal over the nom de plume of "Shamrock." Thenceforth "Shamrock" was a welcome name in the office of the Nation, and an assurance to the editor that whatever accompanied it was worthy of insertion. Here is what the Nation had to say of "Shamrock's" first effort, some time after Williams had been "borne, an exile on the deep," far from his native land:

"Williams was not among the founders of that memorable school of national poetry which sprang up in '42 and '43, but