Padraic Colum he became involved with the National Theatre Society and became involved in the founding of the Abbey Theatre, writing several of its early productions. His first play, "Broken Soil" (revised as The Fiddler's House) (1903) was performed by W. G. Fay's Irish National Dramatic Company. "The Land" (1905), was one of that theatre's first great public successes. He wrote another important play for the Abbey named "Thomas Muskerry" (1910). His earliest published poems appeared in "The United Irishman", a paper edited by Arthur Griffith. His first book, "Wild Earth" (1907) collected many of these poems and was dedicated to Æ.
Victorian literature well as that of Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89), whose poetry was published posthumously in 1918. Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) is also considered an important literary figure of the period, especially his poems and critical writings. Early poetry of W. B. Yeats was also published in Victoria's reign. With regard to the theatre it was not until the last decades of the nineteenth century that any significant works were produced. This began with Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, from the 1870s, various plays of George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) in the 1890s, and Oscar Wilde's (1854–1900) "The Importance of Being Earnest". Charles