P O E M S   B Y    C U S H A G by Margaret Letitia Josephine Kermode ________________________________   ABOUT THIS BOOK Kermode's first published work was 'A Lonan Legend', in 1899. Her first collection of poems, Poems by "Cushag", was published in August 1907. It was at this time that she adopted the nom de plume, "Cushag", by which she then came to be universally known. The name comes from the Manx word for ragwort, the official flower of the Isle of Man. The collection featured a poem about the flower: Now, the Cushag, we know,  Must never grow, Where the farmer's work is done. But along the rills, In the heart of the hills, The Cushag may shine like the sun. Where the golden flowers, Have fairy powers, To gladden our hearts with their grace. And in Vannin Veg Veen, In the valleys green, The Cushags have still a place. The collection was well received on the island, which was at the time undergoing the blossoming of the Manx cultural revival, with much work on the island's culture being done in the wake of the poet and T. E. Brown and the novelist Hall Caine. The English press received Cushag's collection in a positive though reserved manner, as shown by a review in the Manchester City News: “a modest little volume of seventy-two pages, contains some forty short poems, mostly tales in verse, in all of which the introspective temperament so characteristic of the Manx people, with its resultant note of sadness, is well reflected. While not soaring to empyrean heights, “Cushag,” in pleasing rhyme and varied measure, sings of the love, the longing, the parting, and the griefs of the Islanders, heightened here and there with homely philosophy, or tinged with the superstition still lingering in the scattered hamlets or lonely farmhouses of Ellan Vannin. The verse, in which most of the poems are written, presents an almost insuperable obstacle to English readers, but if this difficulty can be surmounted, there is in the volume ample reward for the trouble involved" Please check pictures and don't hesitate to ask if you have any queries!   H65