Synge Snippet: There could be no more terror in my life

I seemed to traverse whole epochs of desolation and bliss. All secrets were open before me, and simple as the universe to its God. Now and then something recalled my physical life, and I smiled at what seemed a moment of sickly infancy. At other times I felt I might return to earth, and laughed aloud to think what a god I should be among men. For there could be no more terror in my life. I was a light, a joy.

- From "Under Ether," Synge's essay recollecting of the effects of the anesthetic given to him during his neck surgery in 1897.

Synge grew up sickly (from asthma), and this was the first of a few surgeries he underwent to remove a swelling in his neck, which was diagnosed too late as a lymphoma. He seems to have lived with much physical discomfort, and probably a lot of fear from not knowing what was wrong with him.

This was the year before Synge went to Aran, when he witnessed the islanders' strength against the elements firsthand, and was moved by their relationship to mortality. It no doubt made him reflect on his own.

Sunday Synge Snippet

Prelude

Still south I went and west and south again,
Through Wicklow from the morning till the night,
And far from cities, and the sites of men,
Lived with the sunshine and the moon's delight.

I knew the stars, the flowers, and the birds,
The grey and wintry sides of many glens,
And did but half remember human words,
In converse with the mountains, moors, and fens.



Written 189-? Revised 1907. Published 1909.
(from Synge Collected Works Volume 1)

Synge Snippet: Synge's Emo Love Letters

Synge was a brilliant playwright and essayist, but as far as love letters goes...

8 October 1906

Monday night 12:30

Dear Heart,

I have been in bed for half an hour and I've suddenly taken a notion that I must write you a line before I go to sleep. My little treasure if you knew how I longed to have a little chat with you all the evening but it wasn't possible. I wonder if you felt I was neglecting you? It couldn't be helped. Perhaps you'll think I'm an ass to write to [you] so soon when I've nothing to say except that you're my only changling and I'm always thinking about you, and yearning to be with you even when I seem to be taking no notice of you at all.

Be good and faithful to your old Tramp and we'll have great times yet. I don't know why I am writing this. A thousand blessings on you.

J.M.S.

A little whiny? A little clingy? Sure. The rest of his letters are no better. But hey, you know what? I think it's endearing to know that he's got complicated, messy emotions, and that his relationship with Molly wasn't the picture of some romantic ideal. It makes him more human.

Synge Snippet

"Once men sought in art to make natural things beautiful. Now we seek to make beautiful things natural."

- Aran 3/11/99 (from Notebook 17, Synge Collected Works v2)

New homes, old homes, and rainbow on Inis Mor, 2007