Chase of a Shadow (ePub)

"The Chase of a Shadow: A Narrative Poem in Four Cantos" was written by Irish-American Denis M. Cronin. Completed in 1898, the poem recounts the trying and, according to Cronin's Preface, true-life story of Fergus, a young, Irish aristocrat from The Sheep's Head Peninsula in Southwest County Cork. After Fergus is separated from his home, his true love and all he holds dear by events following Ireland's 1798 Rebellion, he struggles to find his way in his new home, Boston, clinging to his memories even as the years go by.

Which side was Fergus on, Irish Rebel or English Rule? Does he succeed despite the odds? Are Fergus and his true love reunited in the end? Or is this story a tragedy? Read "The Chase of a Shadow" and judge for yourself!

Denis Cronin died in August of 1929, having given his never published manuscript to his youngest daughter Cecelia. 58 years later, Cecelia mailed her father's manuscript to her granddaughter, Jenny Warsen, who published the first edition of The Chase of a Shadow for her great-grandfather posthumously in 1998.

Denis Cronin's cause of death was noted on his death certificate as "manic depressive insanity." Judging from the perfect eloquence of his preface and the perfect poetry in his story, it is clear that Denis M. Cronin was yet one more example in history of mental illness going hand in hand with true, artistic genius.

For those with an interest in the topics of mental illness, psychiatry and, in particular, the phenomenon of "voice hearing," you will find in "The Chase of a Shadow" hints that the poem's hero suffered certain symptoms of mental illness. What you will find too, if you read carefully, are certain lines describing the struggling hero's experiences as a "a voice hearer" too. Was the author, Denis Cronin, trying to hide clues that he was a voice hearer himself? Read "The Chase of a Shadow" for yourself and decide.