Irish poet, friend of Lord Byron and P.B. Shelley. Moore's writings range from lyric to satire, from prose romance to history and biography. His popular IRISH MELODIES appeared in ten parts between 1807 and 1835. Moore was a good musician and skillful writer of songs, which he set to Irish tunes, mainly of the 18th century.

'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.
(from 'The Last Rose of Summer')

Thomas Moore was born in Dublin as the son of a grocer. His background was poor and he never varnished it. In his poem 'Epitaph on a Tuft-Hunter' he mocked snobbery: "Heaven grant him now some noble nook / For, rest his soul! he'd rather be / Genteelly damn'd beside a Duke, / Than sav'd in vulgar company." Moore studied at Trinity College, Dublin and London, and published his first book, THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS LITTLE, in 1801. He became in 1803 a civil officer to Bermuda, where he stayed for a year, and then returned to England after travels in the U.S. and Canada.

Moore's EPISTLES, ODES AND OTHER POEMS, born from his journeys, appeared in 1806. It criticized Americans and also arose moral irritation. However, his songs, based on folk tunes, became very popular and gained sympathy for the Irish nationalists. Best known of them are perhaps 'The Last Rose of Summer' and 'Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms.'

Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart
Would entwine itself verdant still.
(from 'Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms')

In the 1810s Moore was considered as important a writer as Byron and Sir Walter Scott. In 1813 he issued THE TWOPENNY POST BAG, a collection of satires directed against the prince regent. He also mocked in his poems his countrymen living in Paris and the Holy Alliance of 1815, a political agreement created after the fall of the Napoleonic empire. At the same time in Germany it was praised by the critic Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829). Moore was paid a huge sum of £3000 for his widely translated narrative poem LALLA ROOKH, which was published in 1817. In 1819 Moore was condemned to imprisonment because of debts - his deputy in Bermuda misappropriated £6000, and the responsibility fell on Moore himself. He left England with Lord John Russell for a visit to Italy and stayed away until the debt to the Admiralty had been paid, returning in 1822. In the next year his LOVES OF THE ANGELS became notorious for its eroticism and was financially successful.

In 1824 Moore received Byron's memoirs, but according to some sources, he burned them with the publisher John Murray, presumably to protect his friend. On the other hand, Leslie Marchand claims in his biography on Byron, that it was Moore who tried to prevent Murray from burning the memoirs, and he actually tried to retrieve the pages from the fire. Later Moore used some material from Byron's manuscript and brought out the LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF LORD BYRON (1830). In 1835 Moore was awarded a literary pension. In the same year he published THE FUDGES IN ENGLAND. It was a light satire on an Irish priest turned Protestant evangelist and on the literary absurdities of the day. Moore remained a popular writer for the rest of his life. He was awarded a Civil List pension in1850. Moore died on February 25, 1852 in Wiltshire. He is still Ireland's national poet. His statue for some reason was raised above Dublin's largest public urinal.

Lalla Rookh: An Oriental Romance (1817) - Four narrative poems, with a connecting tale in prose. The work depicts princess Lalla Rookh's journey from Delhi to Cashmere to be married to the King of Bucharia. During the journey a young poet, Feramorz, tells stories. In 'The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan' the beautiful and mourning Zelica is killed by his lover Azim, whom Zelica believed to have died in a battle. In 'The Paradise and the Peri' a spirit, a peri in Persian mythology, tries to gain admission through heaven's gates. 'The Fire-Worshippers' is also based on Persian mythology. It tells the tragic love story of young Hafed and Hinda. In 'The Light of the Harem' Nourmahal wins back the love of her husband Selim. - Lalla Rookh's journey ends happily: she falls in love with the poet who turns out to be the King of Bucharia, her prospective husband. "Paradise itself were dim / And joyless, if not shared with him!"

For further reading: The Minstrel Boy by A.G. Strong (1937); The life of Thomas Moore, Ireland's National poet by Herbert O. Mackey (1951); The Harp That Once--; A Chronicle of the Life of Thomas Moore by Howard Mumford Jones (1970); Tom Moore: The Irish Poet by T. de Vere White (1977) - see also: Byron: A Portrait by Leslie A. Marchand (1993)

• THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS LITTLE, 1801
• EPISTLES, ODES AND OTHER POEMS, 1806
• CORRUPTION AND INTOLERANCE, 1808
• A SELECTION OF IRIS MELODIES, 1808
• IRISH MELODIES, 1808-34, 10 VOL. includes THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER - Kesän viimeinen ruusu
• INTERCEPED LETTERS, 1813
• LALLA ROOKH: AN ORIENTAL ROMANCE, 1817
• THE FUDGE FAMILY IN PARIS, 1818
• IRISH MELODIES, 1821
• THE LOVES OF THE ANGELS, 1823
• SACRED SONGS, 1816-1824
• MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF SHERIDAN, 1825
• THE EPISCUREAN, 1827
• LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF LORD BYRON, 1830
• LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD, 1831
• TRAVELS OF AN IRISH GENTLEMAN IN SEARCH OF RELIGION, 1833
• THE FUDGES IN ENGLAND, 1835
• THE HISTORY OF IRELAND, 1835-40
• POETICAL WORKS, 1840
• MEMOIRS, JOURNALS AND CORRESPONDENCE, 1853-1956
• LYRICS AND SATIRES, 1929
• TOM MOORE'S DIARY; A SELECTION, 1925
• THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE, 1964 (ed. by W.S. Dowden)
• LYRICS AND SATIRES FROM TOM MOORE, 1971 (ed. by Sean O'Faolain)
• THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE, 1983
• THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE: 1821-1825, 1984
• THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE: 1826-1830, 1986
• THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE: 1831-35, 1987
• THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE: 1936-1942, 1988
• THE JOURNAL OF THOMAS MOORE, 1843-47, 1991