J. M. Synge (1871–1909,) fully John Millington Synge, was an Irish playwright and poet. He played a significant role in the Irish literary renaissance. He was renowned for his poetic dramas, highlighting his mastery of language, vivid imagery, and profound understanding of the Aran Islands and the folklore, culture, and harsh realities of rural Ireland.
Born near Dublin in Rathfarnham, Synge attended Trinity College, Dublin, and pursued music studies in Germany. He then spent several years in Paris, engrossed in literary pursuits. Acting upon the advice of William Butler Yeats, he eventually settled among the inhabitants of the Aran Islands 1899–1902. It was through their experiences and stories that he drew inspiration for his notable plays: In the Shadow of the Glen (1903,) Riders to the Sea (1904,) The Well of the Saints (1905,) and his comedic masterpiece, The Playboy of the Western World (1907,) followed by The Tinker’s Wedding (1909.)
In addition to his dramatic works, Synge published Poems and Translations (1909.) Despite battling Hodgkin’s Disease, he completed his final play, Deirdre of the Sorrows (1910.) Synge’s influence on the subsequent generation of Irish playwrights was profound. He also served as a director of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin from 1904 to 1909.
Besides his plays and poems, Synge left behind translations of Petrarch’s works and authored two books: The Aran Islands (1907) and In Wicklow and West Kerry (1908.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by John Millington Synge
As a man has no right to kill one of his children if it is diseased or insane, so a man who has made the gradual and conscious expression of his personality in literature the aim of his life, has no right to suppress himself any carefully considered work which seemed good enough when it was written. Suppression, if it is deserved, will come rapidly enough from the same causes that suppress the unworthy members of a man’s family.
—John Millington Synge
Topics: Writers, Authors & Writing, Writing
I’m a good scholar when it comes to reading but a blotting kind of writer when you give me a pen.
—John Millington Synge
Lord, confound this surly sister, blight her brow with blotch and blister, cramp her larynx, lung and liver, in her guts a galling give her.
—John Millington Synge
Topics: Family
At first I threw my weight upon my heels, as one does naturally in a boot, and was a good deal bruised, but after a few hours I learned the natural walk of man, and could follow my guide in any portion of the island.
—John Millington Synge
Topics: Weight
In the middle classes the gifted son of a family is always the poorest—usually a writer or artist with no sense for speculation—and in a family of peasants, where the average comfort is just over penury, the gifted son sinks also, and is soon a tramp on the roadside.
—John Millington Synge
Topics: Family
In a good play every speech should be as fully flavored as a nut or apple.
—John Millington Synge
Topics: Theater
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