A Poem for Christmas

The countdown to Christmas is well underway this week in No. 6 Kildare Street, with the Christmas decorations around our beautiful building helping to get us all into the festive spirit!

For book shops this period is their busiest of the year, as festive shoppers rush to pick up the latest must-reads for the Christmas stockings. The Christmas trade in books is nothing new, however. One booklet in the Kirkpatrick Bequest within the RCPI library collections, written by Dr Samuel Lenox L. Bigger (1809-1890), is A Triplet of Poems. Published by Hodges and Figgis, Dublin, A Triplet of Poems was released in Christmas 1886. Its author, Dr. Bigger, was a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland whose career had taken in periods as Medical Officer in Simpson’s Hospital and in Richmond Institution for the Blind. In his retirement years, Dr Bigger turned his hand to poetry.  

The final poem published in A Triplet of Poems is ‘The Romaunt of Coom Castle’. An epic poem of the Victorian era, it is a tale of how the heroine Rosalie comes to rescue her imprisoned lover, the righteous Sir Gilbert, from a dungeon in Coom Castle. To free Sir Gilbert, Rosalie must first defeat his imprisoner, the malicious and vengeful Sir Lionel. Spread out over 22 pages, the poem makes for perfect reading by the fire at Christmas time. You can read the entire poem by clicking on the images below.

The Heritage Centre will be re-open following a Christmas break on Monday 5 January. We would like to wish all of our readers a very Happy Christmas, and a prosperous New Year.