Ellenore - Sligo Poets

Sligo Times 4 May 1912

            ELLENORE.

While I sat in deepest musing
Weaving webs of fancies choosing—
Choosing things strange and amusing
   From my mind’s collective store—
Came a whispered, happy feeling
Softly o'er my senses stealing.
Stealing went and left revealing
   That sweet name of Ellenore.

Whilst open that name I pondered,
Fancy leading back I wandered
Wandering if she still remembered
   Me, as in the days of yore;
But no answer, brightly beaming,
Comes to wake my fancied scheming,
So I'm left to finish dreaming
   Of that maid whom I adore.

                               —J. Allingham.

There is no evidence as to the identity of this J. Allingham and this seems to be his only published newspaper poem. There are only five of that surname in County Sligo in 1911 (one is an Eleanor aged 88). The name is more common in County Leitrim and there are some in the Glencar area.

The proximity of a item about Glencar (see below) may suggest a connection with that area. The writer may even be the "Rustic" who wrote Votes for Women also published in the Sligo Times.

There appears to be no one with the name Ellenore in either Sligo or Leitrim in 1911 but there are six Elleanors in Leitrim and four in Sligo.

This poem is a standard lament for lost love made interesting to some extent by its brevity and its careful rhyming. It has some nice repetition in the first stanza, choosing - Choosing and stealing - Stealing, and it seems a pity that this is not continued in the second stanza.