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NOTABLE IRISHWOMEN.
113

The story of Mrs. Tighe's life is a sad one, and yet, for a woman who lived at that period, she attained very remarkable success. No one ever gave her a slighting word, or disparaged her work in any way. It was rather over than under-praised. It is impossible to deny that it has great merits. The construction of the verse is never careless or slovenly, the cadences are musical, there is nothing harsh or discordant. For a woman to write an allegorical poem on the subject of love—"such love the purest bosom might confess"—was then rather a hazardous undertaking. The numerous admirers it found proved that Mrs. Tighe did find an audience, and that the verse that cheered her solitude had not been thrown away. And this was something to have lived for.