kathleen wolverine
Mavourneen, mavourneen, my sad tears are falling, / To think that from Erin and thee I must part! / It may be for years, and it may be forever, / Then why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart? / It may be for years and it may be forever, / Then why art thou silent, Kathleen, mavourneen?

Yes, it's really "Kathleen Mavourneen," but that's an impossible word to spell correctly. It's the name of a "Little House" song you won't read about in any "Little House" book. I may just do a song page on it anyway...

Mary Power sang the lead in "Kathleen Mavourneen," performed by the De Smet Dramatic Company in the 1880s. Mary was supposedly rather gifted, and she was highly praised for her part in the production.

I ran across another LH reference to the song last night. I'm reading Millbank (yes, I'm reading Ivanhoe too), and the main character, Magdelene, sings "Kathleen Mavourneen" at her graduation from finishing school. And if you needed another reason to seek out and read Millbank if you haven't already, there you have it.

Mauvourneen isn't a name; it's the Irish equivalent of "my darling." The hauntingly sentimental song was popular during the Civil War. It was composed by Frederick Nichols Crouch in 1837.

I read Millbank years ago when I first got a copy. I may have read it more than once, but when I realized recently that I couldn't remember a thing about it, I decided to read it again. Millbank is mentioned in On the Banks of Plum Creek as a book that Laura can recite the beginning of because she's heard Ma read it aloud to Pa so many times.

It seems awfully racy to have a treasured place in the little houses -- full of romance, abandoning children, flirting, marrying one when you love another, etc. It has all the basics of a good soap opera today, in fact. It's about as un-Little-Housey as you can get, which makes it all the more interesting to read. You just have to stop every now and then and think about the fact that this was something Charles and Caroline Ingalls obviously enjoyed... hmmmm....
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:10 AM