6 ALsS, one ACS, to Sylvia Lynd, poet and novelist, with one Autograph Poem and a signed photograph.

6 ALsS, one ACS, one Autograph Poem and a signed photograph. 3 letters from 30 Chelmsford Road, Ranelagh, one from the Rugby Road, Ranelagh, and one from Marlborough Road, Sonnybrook; three of the letters dated between 2 Sept.1904 and 17 Nov. 1907. One letter without date or place, but written from Dublin, perhaps in 1904. Card postmarked 24 Nov. 1905. Card and two envelopes addressed to 'Miss Sylvia Dryhurst'. The letters total 7pp, 4to; 4pp, 12mo. An intimate correspondence, as the card indicates: 'My dear Miss Sylvie | I am leaving Oxford this morning. [...] I get to London Sat night. St 9 p.m Good-bye till then | [signed] Colm'. The undated letter, with crude pencil drawings of horses on it, is docketed by MG: 'Part of a Padraic Colum apology. Perhaps the beginning was destroyed by S.' In it Colum observes 'Perhaps Dublin is exceptionally scandal-making. A card address [sic] to me there vexed Mrs Robinson & made it very uncomfortable for Miss Maguire. She was not well at the time. All this seems very trivial now. But it was not trivial then. I saw red & struck out shamefully & unjustly. There is no excuse to be made. I did a very ill thing & one that I will regret. I ask pardon, but I do not expect that I can receive it.' He begins his letter of 2 Sept. 1904: 'So the respectabilities are eating a shadow on you. I'm so sorry.' Informs her that J. B. Yeats is painting his portrait, and that he is 'having supper with Countess Markavicz [sic] to-night, but I am sure it will be tame and respectable compared with a supper of my recollection.' Ends 'I am glad you have written to me. I wish I could send you the sunshine and the great spaces and clouds of Ireland. Do not let the respectables quite crush you, and do not forget to come to Erinn again. We talk of you and think of you often. | Well good-bye. The world is said to be a small place and I may see you again soon'. Letter of 28 Sept. 1906: 'Now for gossip! Helen is giving a party to-night, and I'm going. Whatever is brilliant, beautiful and adventurous-minded in Dublin will be there. [...] By the way, how can you keep up the story that I have any influence over you. I haven't a bit. You're not a bit afraid of me except when your conscience tells you you should be.' The holograph poem, apparently unpublished, is signed 'Padraic Colum', and in an envelope postmarked 1 October 1904. It is neatly-written, twelve lines long, on one side of a 12mo leaf. It begins 'Christ! By thine own darkened hour | Live within me, limbs & brain!' and ends 'Ah, a moment let me feel | Thy most sacred hands & see | Thyself, lonely in the dark | Perfect, without wound or mark.' The photograph, with monogram of 'AR' in the bottom left-hand corner, is 5 x 6cm, printed on a piece of 14.5 x 23cm art paper. With signature of 'Padraic MacCormac Colm [sic]' beneath the image.