Literary Output

Colum's earliest success came as a dramatist with his early peasant drama, The Land (1905) being a success. Another play, Thomas Muskery was also staged by the Abbey but thereafter he failed to fulfil his early promise as a dramatist. His plays are all concerned with Irish problems of the early 1900's and like Synge's are concerned with the expression of national character. The influence of Ibsen is also apparent as both saw drama as a means of calling attention to the gross social problems of the day. His first book of verse, Wild Earth, appeared in 1907, containing some of his more popular lyric poems such as "A Drover", and "A Poor Scholar of the Forties". In 1912 he married Mary McGuire whom he first met when she was a student at University College Dublin. She was a former fiancée of Thomas McDonagh (a leader of the 1916 rising) and about this time both Colum and McDonagh launched the literary periodical The Irish Review.

The Colums moved to America in 1914. and settled in New York where Pauric began to contribute childrens' stories to the Sunday Tribune newspaper, which led to a collection, The King of Ireland's Son in 1916. In fact Colum published many books for children throughout his career, attempting to instil in them his own love of mythology and in 1922 the Hawaiian legislature commissioned him to write for children some of the island's folklore with three volumes resulting from his visit. The Colums also worked as teachers of comparative literature at Columbia University.

An augmented edition of Wild Earth consolidated his poetic reputation in America with his brevity, emotional incandescence and avoidance of mere sentimental decoration being immediately memorable. Works such as "She Moved Through the Fair" and "The Cradle Song" published in this volume have had an endearing popularity and entered folk memory where the poet's name is unknown. In fact it is almost impossible to do justice to the full range of Colum's output.

Apart from literary efforts already mentioned, his principal works also include The Desert Song and My Irish Year (1912); Broad Sheet Ballads (1913); A Boy in Eirinn (1915); The King of Ireland's Son (1916); The Adventures and the Tale of Troy (1920); The Children of Odin and Dramatic Legends and Other Poems (1922); The Island of the Mighty and The Gateway of the Day (1924), The Forge in the Forest and The Bright Island (1925); Anthology of Irish Verse and The Road Around Ireland (1926); Balloon Play (1929); Old Pastures (1930); Poems (1932); The Big Tree of Bunlahy (1933); The Legend of Columba (1936); The Story of Lowery Mack (1937); Flower Pieces (1938); The Collected Poems of Padraic Colum (1953); The Flying Swans (1957) and Irish Elegies (1958), a collection interesting for its portraits of Roger Casement, Arthur Griffith, James Joyce and others.

Throughout the years these works were supplemented by anthologies and much writing in various journals and magazines and also two biographies of Arthur Griffith and his friend, James Joyce.