Drawing breath: The origins of moore’s Irish Melodies

The reputation of Thomas Moore as a Romantic poet has foundered on notions of originality. What is most striking is that while the question of Moore and his origins is pivotal to any study of Irish Romanticism, Romanticism(s) generally considered seems to have got along quite happily without him. This is odd considering he was not a peripheral figure; no other poet save perhaps Robert Burns had such international range and influence. Moreover, as we shall see, Moore shared ideas with such figures as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Gottfried Herder, indelibly associated with the origins of Romantic aesthetics in Europe; while his embrace of music in the Irish Melodies (1808-32) drew upon the most representative of Romantic arts. What is more odd is that Romanticism as a whole might be said to concern itself profoundly with origins. So did the Melodies. No poet played with origins and originality more than Moore, although in this playing perhaps he laid a veil over his reputation only now being withdrawn.