It has often been said that the popularity of J. M. Barrie stands as a warning to those who think they understand the Edwardians and much the same is true of Tom Moore and the Age of Romanticism. With the exceptions of Byron and Scott, Moore was by far the most successful literary figure of his day, and if his success clearly had more to do with personality and charm than anything he actually wrote, just how much charm does a man have to have to get away with verse like this?
‘Alla illa Alla!’ — the glad shout renew —
‘Alla Akbar!’ — the Caliph’s in Merou.
Hang out your gilded tapestry in the streets,
And light your shrines and chaunt your ziraleets.
Thus and much more, Tom Moore — there are another five and a half thousand lines of Lalla Rookh in fact — and the depressing thing about them is that they are not entirely atypical of his work.
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