F. R. Higgins

Frederick Robert Higgins (24 April 1896 – 6 January 1941) was an Irish poet and theatre director.^[1][2]

Early years

Higgins was born on the west coast of Ireland in Foxford, which is located in County Mayo. He grew up in Ballivor in County Meath, and then spent the largest part of his adult life in Dublin, in a house he had built beside the River Dodder in Rathfarnham. His health was poor, and though his friends were inclined to regard him as a hypochondriac, his prediction that he would die young was accurate.

Career

Higgins was a student of William Butler Yeats and served on the board of the Abbey Theatre from 1935 until his death. His best-known book of poetry is The Gap of Brightness (1940). He is also well known for his poem, "Father and Son."^[3] He wrote a moving elegy for his fellow poet Pádraic Ó Conaire. He was generally acknowledged to be a fine poet, but was less successful in his Abbey Theatre work: Frank O'Connor said unkindly that Higgins could not direct a children's poetry recitation. He died suddenly of a heart attack in January 1941.

Character

He was a popular and convivial man : even Frank O'Connor, who came to regard him with deep suspicion, admitted that he was a delightful person to know. His circle of friends included many of the leading Irish literary figures of his time, including Yeats, Padraic O Conaire, George William Russell, Lennox Robinson, and for a time Frank O'Connor. O'Connor however came to regard Higgins as untrustworthy and a troublemaker, and describes him unflatteringly in his memoir My Father's Son. For Yeats Higgins seems to have felt a genuine affection, once remarking that he never left Yeats' house without "feeling like a thousand dollars". He was also capable of great kindness and generosity to younger writers like Patrick Kavanagh.

Apologetics FR HIGGINS....Considering Frederick was born in the same village as Michael Davitt ,it is not surprising he became a playrite.

The home he shared with other people of note Admiral Brown for instance ,...the first breath of air ...would be one contested as was the tradition for these men whom changed or significantly contributed to the "Free Word" ...as his play of the Neiphin sought to address in that the alpine brevet would surely deliver the best cardio vascular return....The removal of Foxford people (A Gaelthacht).under the electricity ro0ll out introduction scheme earned it the term "Foxford of the miseries"..as people returned from false timshares offered by the government in the 1950s...to establishing new Gaelthachts...of course in Meath the center of Irish royalty it could have been considered a "Man on business from Porlock scheme" as Coleridge would have put it in retrospect,however the young Higgins managed to cut a dash in the Royal county. His poems Song for the Clatterbones and his greatest work and the only apologetics needs to be made...son of seventy eight...

 FATHER AND SON
       by F. R. Higgins

Only last week, walking the hushed fields Of our most lovely Meath, now thinned by November, I came to where the road from Laracor leads To the Boyne river—that seems more lake than river, Stretched in uneasy light and stript of reeds.

And walking longside an old weir Of my people's, where nothing stirs—only the shadowed Leaden flight of a heron up the lean air—I went unmanly with grief, knowing how my father, Happy though captive in years, walked last with me there.

Yes, happy in Meath with me for a day He walked, taking stock of herds hid in their own breathing; And naming colts, gusty as wind, once steered by his hand, Lightnings winked in the eyes that were half shy in greeting Old friends—the wild blades, when he gallivanted the land.

For that proud, wayward man now my heart breaks—Breaks for that man whose mind was a secret eyrie, Whose kind hand was sole signet of his race, Who curbed me, scorned my green ways, yet increasingly loved me Till Death drew its grey blind down his face.

And yet I am pleased that even my reckless ways Are living shades of his rich calms and passions—Witnesses for him and for those faint namesakes With whom now he is one, under yew branches, Yes, one in a graven silence no bird breaks.

Bibliography

His five collections of poems are:

• Salt Air (1923)
• Island Blood (1925)^[4]
• The Dark Breed (1927)
• Arable Holdings (1933)
• The Gap of Brightness (1940)

References

1. Frederick Robert Higgins Poetry Irish culture and customs - World Cultures European
2. Irish Playography
3. http://web.archive.org/web/20040815143514/http://search.able2know.com:80/About/3793.html. Archived from the original on August 15, 2004. Retrieved October 10, 2007. Missing or empty |title= (help)
4. Finding Aid : John F. Deane papers, 1971–2000 [Works edited by Deane] : Irish Literary Collections

External links

• Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry