s: With honest scorn for that inglorious soul,


s: Which creeps and whines beneath a mob's control,


s: Which courts the rabble's smile, the rabble's nod,


s: There, in those walls--but, burning tongue forbear!


s: Rank must be reverenced, even the rank that's there:


s: So here I pause--and now, dear Hume, we part:


s: But oft again, in frank exchange of heart,


s: Thus let us meet, and mingle converse dear


s: O'er lake and marsh, through fevers and through fogs,


s: 'Midst bears and yankees, democrats and frogs,


s: Thy foot shall follow me, thy heart and eyes


s: With me shall wonder, and with me despise.


s: While I, as oft, in fancy's dream shall rove,


s: With thee conversing, through that land I love,


s: Where, like the air that fans her fields of green,


s: Her freedom spreads, unfevered and serene;


s: The throne and laws more sovereign still than he.


s: A little stream runs through the city, which, with intolerable


s: The picture which Buffon and De Pauw have drawn of the American


s: Alone by the Schuylkill a wanderer roved,


s: And bright were its flowery banks to his eye;


s: But far, very far were the friends that he loved,


s: And he gazed on its flowery banks with a sigh.


s: Oh Nature, though blessed and bright are thy rays,


s: O'er the brow of creation enchantingly thrown,


s: Yet faint are they all to the lustre that plays


s: In a smile from the heart that is fondly our own.


s: Nor long did the soul of the stranger remain


s: Unblest by the smile he had languished to meet;


s: Though scarce did he hope it would soothe him again,


s: Till the threshold of home had been pressed by his feet.


s: But the lays of his boyhood had stolen to their ear,


s: And they loved what they knew of so humble a name;


s: And they told him, with flattery welcome and dear,


s: That they found in his heart something better than fame.


s: Nor did woman--oh woman! Whose form and whose soul


s: Are the spell and the life of each path we pursue;


s: Whether sunned in the tropics or chilled at the pole,


s: If woman be there, there is happiness too:--


s: That magic his heart had relinquished so long,--


s: Like eyes he had loved was _her_ eloquent eye,


s: Like them did it soften and weep at his song.


s: Oh, blest be the tear, and in memory oft


s: May its sparkle be shed o'er the wanderer's dream;


s: Thrice blest be that eye, and may passion as soft,


s: As free from a pang, ever mellow its beam!


s: The stranger is gone--but he will not forget,


s: When at home he shall talk of the toils he has known,


s: To tell, with a sigh, what endearments he met,


s: As he strayed by the wave of the Schuylkill alone.


s: Through shades that frowned and flowers that smiled,


s: Oft have I thought, and thinking sighed,


s: _qua via difficilis, quaque est via nulla_


s: The idea of this poem occurred to me in passing through the very


s: The alligator, who is supposed to lie in a torpid state all the


s: Thou oft hast told me of the happy hours


s: Enjoyed by thee in fair Italia's bowers,


s: Where, lingering yet, the ghost of ancient wit


s: Midst modern monks profanely dares to flit.


s: Haunt every stream and sing through every shade.


s: There still the bard who (if his numbers be


s: His tongue's light echo) must have talked like thee,--


s: The courtly bard, from whom thy mind has caught


s: Those playful, sunshine holidays of thought,


s: Bright without effort, resting while it shines,--


s: There still he roves, and laughing loves to see


s: How modern priests with ancient rakes agree:


s: How, 'neath the cowl, the festal garland shines,


s: And Love still finds a niche in Christian shrines.


s: There still, too, roam those other souls of song,


s: With whom thy spirit hath communed so long,


s: That, quick as light, their rarest gems of thought,


s: By Memory's magic to thy lip are brought.


s: As, far from such bright haunts my course I take,


s: No proud remembrance o'er the fancy plays,


s: That lingering radiance of immortal mind,


s: Which gilds and hallows even the rudest scene,


s: The humblest shed, where Genius once has been!


s: All that creation's varying mass assumes


s: Of grand or lovely, here aspires and blooms;


s: Bold rise the mountains, rich the gardens glow,


s: Bright lakes expand, and conquering rivers flow;


s: But mind, immortal mind, without whose ray,


s: This world's a wilderness and man but clay,


s: Mind, mind alone, in barren, still repose,


s: Nor blooms, nor rises, nor expands, nor flows.


s: Take Christians, Mohawks, democrats, and all


s: From the rude wigwam to the congress-hall,


s: From man the savage, whether slaved or free,


s: To man the civilized, less tame than he,--


s: 'Tis one dull chaos, one unfertile strife


s: Betwixt half-polished and half-barbarous life;


s: Where every ill the ancient world could brew


s: Is mixt with every grossness of the new;


s: Where all corrupts, though little can entice,


s: And naught is known of luxury but its vice!


s: Is this the region then, is this the clime


s: For soaring fancies? for those dreams sublime,


s: Which all their miracles of light reveal


s: To heads that meditate and hearts that feel?


s: Her glories round; she scales the mountain heights,


s: And roams the forests; every wondrous spot


s: Burns with her step, yet man regards it not.


s: She whispers round, her words are in the air,


s: But lost, unheard, they linger freezing there,


s: Without one breath of soul, divinely strong,


s: Whom late by Delaware's green banks I knew;


s: Whom, known and loved through many a social eve,


s: 'Twas bliss to live with, and 'twas pain to leave.


s: Not with more joy the lonely exile scanned


s: The writing traced upon the desert's sand,


s: Where his lone heart but little hoped to find


s: One trace of life, one stamp of human kind,


s: Than did I hail the pure, the enlightened zeal,


s: The strength to reason and the warmth to feel,


s: The manly polish and the illumined taste,


s: Which,--mid the melancholy, heartless waste


s: My foot has traversed,--oh you sacred few!


s: I found by Delaware's green banks with you.


s: Long may you loathe the Gallic dross that runs


s: Through your fair country and corrupts its sons;


s: Long love the arts, the glories which adorn


s: Those fields of freedom, where your sires were born.


s: If neither chained by choice, nor doomed by fate


s: To the mob-mania which imbrutes her now,


s: She yet can raise the crowned, yet civic brow


s: Of Rank's rich capital to Freedom's base,


s: Nor fear the mighty shaft will feebler prove


s: For the fair ornament that flowers above;--


s: If yet released from all that pedant throng,


s: So vain of error and so pledged to wrong,


s: Who hourly teach her, like themselves, to hide


s: Weakness in vaunt and barrenness in pride,


s: She yet can rise, can wreathe the Attic charms


s: Of soft refinement round the pomp of arms,


s: And see her poets flash the fires of song,


s: To light her warriors' thunderbolts along;--


s: It is to you, to souls that favoring heaven


s: Has made like yours, the glorious task is given:--


s: Oh! but for _such_, Columbia's days were done;


s: Rank without ripeness, quickened without sun,


s: Crude at the surface, rotten at the core,


s: Her fruits would fall, before her spring were o'er.


s: Believe me, Spencer, while I winged the hours


s: Where Schuylkill winds his way through banks of flowers,


s: Though few the days, the happy evenings few;


s: So warm with heart, so rich with mind they flew,


s: That my charmed soul forgot its wish to roam,


s: And rested there, as in a dream of home.


s: And looks I met, like looks I'd loved before,


s: And voices too, which, as they trembled o'er


s: The chord of memory, found full many a tone


s: Of kindness there in concord with their own.


s: Yes,--we had nights of that communion free,


s: That flow of heart, which I have known with thee


s: So oft, so warmly; nights of mirth and mind,


s: Of whims that taught, and follies that refined.


s: When shall we both renew them? when, restored


s: To the gay feast and intellectual board,


s: Shall I once more enjoy with thee and thine


s: Those whims that teach, those follies that refine?


s: Even now, as, wandering upon Erie's shore,


s: I sigh for home,--alas! these weary feet


s: Have many a mile to journey, ere we meet.


s: In the society of Mr. Dennie and his friends, at Philadelphia, I


s: I knew by the smoke, that so gracefully curled


s: Above the green elms, that a cottage was near.


s: And I said, "If there's peace to be found in the world,


s: "A heart that was humble might hope for it here!"


s: It was noon, and on flowers that languished around


s: Every leaf was at rest, and I heard not a sound


s: But the woodpecker tapping the hollow beech-tree.


s: And, "Here in this lone little wood," I exclaimed,


s: "With a maid who was lovely to soul and to eye,


s: "Who would blush when I praised her, and weep if I blamed,


s: How blest could I live, and how calm could I die!


s: "By the shade of yon sumach, whose red berry dips


s: "In the gush of the fountain, how sweet to recline,


s: "And to know that I sighed upon innocent lips,


s: "Which had never been sighed on by any but mine!"


s: Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.


s: We'll sing at St. Ann's our parting hymn.


s: Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,


s: The Rapids are near and the daylight's past.


s: There is not a breath the blue wave to curl,


s: Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast,


s: Shall see us float over thy surges soon.


s: Saint of this green isle! hear our prayers,


s: Oh, grant us cool heavens and favoring airs.


s: Not many months have now been dreamed away


s: Since yonder sun, beneath whose evening ray


s: Our boat glides swiftly past these wooded shores,


s: Saw me where Trent his mazy current pours,


s: And Donington's old oaks, to every breeze,


s: Whisper the tale of by-gone centuries;--


s: Those oaks, to me as sacred as the groves,


s: Beneath whose shade the pious Persian roves,


s: And hears the spirit-voice of sire, or chief,


s: There, oft, dear Lady, while thy lip hath sung


s: My own unpolished lays, how proud I've hung


s: That notes like mine should have the fate to steal,


s: As o'er thy hallowing lip they sighed along.


s: Such breath of passion and such soul of song.


s: Yes,--I have wondered, like some peasant boy


s: Who sings, on Sabbath-eve, his strains of joy,


s: And when he hears the wild, untutored note


s: Back to his ear on softening echoes float,


s: Believes it still some answering spirit's tone,


s: And thinks it all too sweet to be his own!


s: I dreamt not then that, ere the rolling year


s: Had filled its circle, I should wander here


s: In musing awe; should tread this wondrous world,


s: See all its store of inland waters hurled


s: In one vast volume down Niagara's steep,


s: Or calm behold them, in transparent sleep,


s: Where the blue hills of old Toronto shed


s: Their evening shadows o'er Ontario's bed;


s: Should trace the grand Cadaraqui, and glide


s: Down the white rapids of his lordly tide


s: Through massy woods, mid islets flowering fair,


s: And blooming glades, where the first sinful pair


s: For consolation might have weeping trod,


s: When banished from the garden of their God,


s: Oh, Lady! these are miracles, which man,


s: Caged in the bounds of Europe's pigmy span,


s: Can scarcely dream of,--which his eye must see


s: To know how wonderful this world can be!


s: But lo,--the last tints of the west decline,


s: And night falls dewy o'er these banks of pine.


s: Is rocked to rest, the wind's complaining note


s: Dies like a half-breathed whispering of flutes;


s: Along the wave the gleaming porpoise shoots,


s: And I can trace him, like a watery star,


s: Down the steep current, till he fades afar


s: Amid the foaming breakers' silvery light.


s: Where yon rough rapids sparkle through the night.


s: Here, as along this shadowy bank I stray,


s: And the smooth glass-snake, glid-o'er my way,


s: Shows the dim moonlight through his scaly form,


s: Fancy, with all the scene's enchantment warm,


s: Hears in the murmur of the nightly breeze


s: Some Indian Spirit warble words like these:--


s: Thus have I charmed, with visionary lay,


s: And now, fresh daylight o'er the water beams!


s: Once more, embarked upon the glittering streams,


s: Our boat flies light along the leafy shore,


s: Shooting the falls, without a dip of oar


s: Or breath of zephyr, like the mystic bark


s: Borne, without sails, along the dusky flood,


s: And, with his wings of living light unfurled,


s: Coasted the dim shores of another world!


s: Yet, oh! believe me, mid this mingled maze


s: Of Nature's beauties, where the fancy strays


s: From charm to charm, where every floweret's hue


s: Hath something strange, and every leaf is new,--


s: So inly felt, as when some brook or hill,


s: Or veteran oak, like those remembered well,


s: Some mountain echo or some wild-flower's smell,


s: (For, who can say by what small fairy ties


s: The memory clings to pleasure as it flies?)


s: I once indulged by Trent's inspiring stream;


s: Of all my sunny morns and moonlight nights


s: On Donington's green lawns and breezy heights.


s: Whether I trace the tranquil moments o'er


s: When I have seen thee cull the fruits of lore,


s: With him, the polished warrior, by thy side,


s: When thou hast read of heroes, trophied high


s: In ancient fame, and I have seen thine eye


s: For pure and brightening comments on the dead;--


s: The festal grandeur of those lordly halls,


s: When guests have met around the sparkling board,


s: And welcome warmed the cup that luxury poured;


s: When the bright future Star of England's throne,


s: With magic smile, hath o'er the banquet shone,


s: Winning respect, nor claiming what he won,


s: But tempering greatness, like an evening sun


s: Whose light the eye can tranquilly admire,


s: Radiant, but mild, all softness, yet all fire;--


s: Even the regret, the very pain they wake


s: Is mixt with happiness;--but, ah! no more--


s: Those vanished times, till all that round me lies,


s: Stream, banks, and bowers have faded on my eyes!


s: The glass-snake is brittle and transparent.


s: "The mountains appeared to be sprinkled with white stones, which


s: 'Twas but for a moment--and yet in that time


s: She crowded the impressions of many an hour:


s: Her eye had a glow, like the sun of her clime,


s: Which waked every feeling at once into flower.


s: Oh! could we have borrowed from Time but a day,


s: To renew such impressions again and again,


s: The things we should look and imagine and say


s: Would be worth all the life we had wasted till then.


s: What we had not the leisure or language to speak,


s: We should find some more spiritual mode of revealing,


s: And, between us, should feel just as much in a week


s: As others would take a millennium in feeling.


s: Her sails are full,--though the wind is still,


s: And there blows not a breath her sails to fill!


s: Say, what doth that vessel of darkness bear?


s: And the flap of the sails with night-fog hung.


s: Where, under the moon, upon mounts of frost,


s: Yon shadowy bark hath been to that wreck,


s: And the dim blue fire, that lights her deck,


s: To Deadman's Isle, in the eye of the blast,


s: By skeleton shapes her sails are furled,


s: And the hand that steers is not of this world!


s: Thou terrible bark, ere the night be gone,


s: As would blanch for ever her rosy light!


s: With triumph, this morning, oh Boston! I hail


s: The stir of thy deck and the spread of thy sail,


s: For they tell me I soon shall be wafted, in thee,


s: To the flourishing isle of the brave and the free,


s: And that chill Nova-Scotia's unpromising strand


s: Is the last I shall tread of American land.


s: Well--peace to the land! may her sons know, at length,


s: That in high-minded honor lies liberty's strength,


s: That though man be as free as the fetterless wind,


s: As the wantonest air that the north can unbind,


s: Yet, if health do not temper and sweeten the blast,


s: If no harvest of mind ever sprung where it past,


s: Then unblest is such freedom, and baleful its might,--


s: Free only to ruin, and strong but to blight!


s: Farewell to the few I have left with regret:


s: May they sometimes recall, what I cannot forget;


s: The delight of those evenings,--too brief a delight!


s: When in converse and song we have stolen on the night;


s: When they've asked me the manners, the mind, or the mien,


s: Of some bard I had known or some chief I had seen,


s: Whose glory, though distant, they long had adored,


s: Whose name had oft hallowed the wine-cup they poured;


s: And still as, with sympathy humble but true,


s: I have told of each bright son of fame all I knew,


s: They have listened, and sighed that the powerful stream


s: Of America's empire should pass like a dream,


s: Without leaving one relic of genius, to say,


s: How sublime was the tide which had vanished away!


s: Farewell to the few--though we never may meet


s: On this planet again, it is soothing and sweet


s: To think that, whenever my song or my name


s: Shall recur to their ear, they'll recall me the same


s: I have been to them now, young, unthoughtful, and blest,


s: Ere hope had deceived me or sorrow deprest.


s: But, Douglas! while thus I recall to my mind


s: The elect of the land we shall soon leave behind,


s: I can read in the weather-wise glance of thine eye


s: As it follows the rack flitting over the sky,


s: That the faint coming breeze would be fair for our flight,


s: And shall steal us away, ere the falling of night.


s: Dear Douglas! thou knowest, with thee by my side,


s: With thy friendship to soothe me, thy courage to guide,


s: There is not a bleak isle in those summerless seas,


s: Where the day comes in darkness, or shines but to freeze,


s: Not a tract of the line, not a barbarous shore,


s: That I could not with patience, with pleasure explore!


s: Oh think then how gladly I follow thee now,


s: When Hope smooths the billowy path of our prow,


s: And each prosperous sigh of the west-springing wind


s: Takes me nearer the home where my heart is inshrined;


s: Where the smile of a father shall meet me again,


s: And the tears of a mother turn bliss into pain;


s: Where the kind voice of sisters shall steal to my heart,


s: And ask it, in sighs, how we ever could part?--


s: But see!--the bent top sails are ready to swell--


s: To the boat--I am with thee--Columbia, farewell!


s: Remember the glories of Brien the brave,


s: Tho' lost to Mononia and cold in the grave,


s: That star of the field, which so often hath poured


s: But enough of its glory remains on each sword,


s: Mononia! when Nature embellished the tint


s: Of thy fields, and thy mountains so fair,


s: Did she ever intend that a tyrant should print


s: No! Freedom, whose smile we shall never resign,


s: That 'tis sweeter to bleed for an age at thy shrine,


s: Forget not our wounded companions, who stood


s: While the moss of the valley grew red with their blood,


s: They stirred not, but conquered and died.


s: That sun which now blesses our arms with his light,


s: Oh! let him not blush, when he leaves us to-night,


s: exhibited."--_"History of Ireland_," book xii. chap i.


s: Erin, the tear and the smile in thine eyes,


s: Blend like the rainbow that hangs in thy skies!


s: Erin, thy silent tear never shall cease,


s: Erin, thy languid smile ne'er shall increase,


s: Oh! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade,


s: Where cold and unhonored his relics are laid:


s: Sad, silent, and dark, be the tears that we shed,


s: As the night-dew that falls on the grass o'er his head.


s: But the night-dew that falls, tho' in silence it weeps,


s: Shall brighten with verdure the grave where he sleeps;


s: And the tear that we shed, tho' in secret it rolls,


s: Shall long keep his memory green in our souls.


s: When he, who adores thee, has left but the name


s: Oh! say wilt thou weep, when they darken the fame


s: Yes, weep, and however my foes may condemn,


s: For Heaven can witness, tho' guilty to them,


s: With thee were the dreams of my earliest love;


s: In my last humble prayer to the Spirit above,


s: Oh! blest are the lovers and friend who shall live


s: But the next dearest blessing that Heaven can give


s: And hearts, that once beat high for praise,


s: 'Tis then their soft attractions glowing


s: And thus, should woman's heart and looks,


s: Oh! think not my spirits are always as light,


s: And as free from a pang as they seem to you now;


s: Nor expect that the heart-beaming smile of to-night


s: Will return with to morrow to brighten my brow.


s: No!--life is a waste of wearisome hours,


s: Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns;


s: And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers,


s: Is always the first to be touched by the thorns.


s: But send round the bowl, and be happy awhile--


s: May we never meet worse, in our pilgrimage here,


s: Than the tear that enjoyment may gild with a smile,


s: And the smile that compassion can turn to a tear.


s: The thread of our life would be dark, Heaven knows!


s: If it were not with friendship and love intertwined:


s: And I care not how soon I may sink to repose,


s: When these blessings shall cease to be dear to my mind.


s: But they who have loved the fondest, the purest.


s: Too often have wept o'er the dream they believed;


s: And the heart that has slumbered in friendship, securest,


s: Is happy indeed if 'twas never deceived.


s: But send round the bowl; while a relic of truth


s: Is in man or in woman, this prayer shall be mine,--


s: That the sunshine of love may illumine our youth,


s: And the moonlight of friendship console our decline.


s: Tho' the last glimpse of Erin with sorrow I see,


s: Yet wherever thou art shall seem Erin to me;


s: In exile thy bosom shall still be my home,


s: And thine eyes make my climate wherever we room.


s: To the gloom of some desert or cold rocky shore,


s: Where the eye of the stranger can haunt us no more,


s: I will fly with my Coulin, and think the rough wind


s: Less rude than the foes we leave frowning behind.


s: And I'll gaze on thy gold hair as graceful it wreathes;


s: And hang o'er thy soft harp, as wildly it breathes;


s: Nor dread that the cold-hearted Saxon will tear


s: One chord from that harp, or one lock from that hair.


s: And a bright gold ring on her wand she bore;


s: "So lone and lovely through this bleak way?


s: "As not to be tempted by woman or gold?"


s: "Sir Knight! I feel not the least alarm,


s: "For though they love woman and golden store,


s: "Sir Knight! they love honor and virtue more!"


s: In safety lighted her round the green isle;


s: As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow


s: While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below,


s: So the cheek may be tinged with a warm sunny smile,


s: Though the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the while.


s: One fatal remembrance, one sorrow that throws


s: Its bleak shade alike o'er our joys and our woes.


s: To which life nothing darker or brighter can bring


s: For which joy has no balm and affliction no sting--


s: Oh! this thought in the midst of enjoyment will stay,


s: Like a dead, leafless branch in the summer's bright ray;


s: The beams of the warm sun play round it in vain,


s: It may smile in his light, but it blooms not again.


s: There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet


s: As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;


s: Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,


s: Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.


s: Yet it _was_ not that nature had shed o'er the scene


s: Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;


s: 'Twas _not_ her soft magic of streamlet or hill,


s: Oh! no,--it was something more exquisite still.


s: 'Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,


s: Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,


s: And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,


s: When we see them reflected from looks that we love.


s: Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest


s: In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best.


s: Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,


s: And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.


s: How dear to me the hour when daylight dies,


s: For then sweet dreams of other days arise,


s: And memory breathes her vesper sigh to thee.


s: And, as I watch the line of light, that plays


s: Along the smooth wave toward the burning west,


s: I long to tread that golden path of rays,


s: And think 'twould lead to some bright isle of rest.


s: Of the brightest hue, while it lingered here.


s: To sully a heart so brilliant and light;


s: But balmy drops of the red grape borrow,


s: To bathe the relic from morn till night.


s: Your warmest smile for the child of song.


s: Keep this cup, which is now o'er-flowing,


s: Then, then my spirit around shall hover,


s: And hallow each drop that foams for him.


s: We may roam thro' this world, like a child at a feast,


s: Who but sips of a sweet, and then flies to the rest;


s: And, when pleasure begins to grow dull in the east,


s: We may order our wings and be off to the west;


s: But if hearts that feel, and eyes that smile,


s: Are the dearest gifts that heaven supplies,


s: For sensitive hearts, and for sun-bright eyes.


s: Then remember, wherever your goblet is crowned,


s: Thro' this world, whether eastward or westward you roam,


s: When a cup to the smile of dear woman goes round,


s: Oh! remember the smile which adorns her at home.


s: In England, the garden of Beauty is kept


s: By a dragon of prudery placed within call;


s: But so oft this unamiable dragon has slept,


s: That the garden's but carelessly watched after all.


s: Oh! they want the wild sweet-briery fence,


s: Which warns the touch, while winning the sense,


s: Nor charms us least when it most repels.


s: Oh! remember the smile that adorns her at home.


s: In France, when the heart of a woman sets sail,


s: On the ocean of wedlock its fortune to try,


s: Love seldom goes far in a vessel so frail,


s: But just pilots her off, and then bids her good-by.


s: While the daughters of Erin keep the boy,


s: The same as he looked when he left the shore.


s: Then remember, wherever your goblet is crowned,


s: Thro' this world, whether eastward or westward you roam,


s: When a cup to the smile of dear woman goes round,


s: The Lord of the Valley with false vows came;


s: And wept behind her clouds o'er the maiden's shame.


s: And heaven smiled again with her vestal flame:


s: Which that dark hour left upon Eveleen's fame.


s: When the Lord of the Valley crost over the moor;


s: Showed the track of his footstep to Eveleen's door.


s: Every trace on the path where the false Lord came;


s: That stain upon the snow of fair Eveleen's fame.


s: When her kings, with standard of green unfurled,


s: Ere the emerald gem of the western world


s: On Lough Neagh's bank as the fisherman strays,


s: Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,


s: Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;


s: Thus, sighing, look thro' the waves of time


s: Silent, oh Moyle, be the roar of thy water,


s: Break not, ye breezes, your chain of repose,


s: While, murmuring mournfully, Lir's lonely daughter


s: Tells to the night-star her tale of woes.


s: When shall the swan, her death-note singing,


s: When will heaven, its sweet bell ringing,


s: Sadly, oh Moyle, to thy winter wave weeping,


s: Yet still in her darkness doth Erin lie sleeping,


s: Still doth the pure light its dawning delay.


s: When will that day-star, mildly springing,


s: Come, send round the wine, and leave points of belief


s: To simpleton sages, and reasoning fools;


s: This moment's a flower too fair and brief,


s: To be withered and stained by the dust of the schools.


s: Your glass may be purple, and mine may be blue,


s: But, while they are filled from the same bright bowl,


s: The fool, who would quarrel for difference of hue,


s: Deserves not the comfort they shed o'er the soul.


s: Shall I ask the brave soldier, who fights by my side


s: In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?


s: Shall I give up the friend I have valued and tried,


s: If he kneel not before the same altar with me?


s: From the heretic girl of my soul should I fly,


s: To seek somewhere else a more orthodox kiss?


s: No, perish the hearts, and the laws that try


s: Truth, valor, or love, by a standard like this!


s: Sublime was the warning that Liberty spoke,


s: And grand was the moment when Spaniards awoke


s: Into life and revenge from the conqueror's chain.


s: Oh, Liberty! let not this Spirit have rest,


s: Till it move, like a breeze, o'er the waves of the west--


s: Give the light of your look to each sorrowing spot,


s: While you add to your garland the Olive of Spain!


s: If the fame of our fathers, bequeathed with their rights,


s: Give to country its charm, and to home its delights,


s: If deceit be a wound, and suspicion a stain,


s: Then, ye men of Iberia; our cause is the same!


s: And oh!  may his tomb want a tear and a name,


s: Who would ask for a nobler, a holier death,


s: Than to turn his last sigh into victory's breath,


s: Ye Blakes and O'Donnels, whose fathers resigned


s: The green hills of their youth, among strangers to find


s: That repose which, at home, they had sighed for in vain,


s: Join, join in our hope that the flame, which you light,


s: May be felt yet in Erin, as calm, and as bright,


s: And forgive even Albion while blushing she draws,


s: Like a truant, her sword, in the long-slighted cause


s: God prosper the cause!--oh, it cannot but thrive,


s: While the pulse of one patriot heart is alive.


s: Its devotion to feel, and its rights to maintain;


s: Then, how sainted by sorrow, its martyrs will die!


s: The finger of Glory shall point where they lie;


s: While, far from the footstep of coward or slave.


s: The young spirit of Freedom shall shelter their grave


s: Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,


s: Were to change by to-morrow, and fleet in my arms,


s: Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art.


s: And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart


s: It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,


s: That the fervor and faith of a soul can be known,


s: To which time will but make thee more dear;


s: No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,


s: As the sun-flower turns on her god, when he sets,


s: The same look which she turned when he rose.


s: Like the bright lamp, that shone in Kildare's holy fane,


s: And burn'd thro' long ages of darkness and storm,


s: Is the heart that sorrows have frowned on in vain,


s: Whose spirit outlives them, unfading and warm.


s: Erin, oh Erin, thus bright thro' the tears


s: Of a long night of bondage, thy spirit appears.


s: The nations have fallen, and thou still art young,


s: Thy sun is but rising, when others are set;


s: And tho' slavery's cloud o'er thy morning hath hung,


s: The full noon of freedom shall beam round thee yet.


s: Thy star will shine out when the proudest shall fade.


s: Unchilled by the rain, and unwaked by the wind,


s: The lily lies sleeping thro' winter's cold hour,


s: Till Spring's light touch her fetters unbind,


s: And daylight and liberty bless the young flower.


s: Thus Erin, oh Erin, _thy_ winter is past,


s: And the hope that lived thro' it shall blossom at last.


s: Oh! blame not the bard, if he fly to the bowers,


s: Where Pleasure lies, carelessly smiling at Fame;


s: He was born for much more, and in happier hours


s: His soul might have burned with a holier flame.


s: The string, that now languishes loose o'er the lyre,


s: Might have bent a proud bow to the warrior's dart;


s: And the lip, which now breathes but the song of desire,


s: Might have poured the full tide of a patriot's heart.


s: But alas for his country!--her pride is gone by,


s: And that spirit is broken, which never would bend;


s: O'er the ruin her children in secret must sigh,


s: For 'tis treason to love her, and death to defend.


s: Unprized are her sons, till they've learned to betray;


s: Undistinguished they live, if they shame not their sires;


s: And the torch, that would light them thro' dignity's way,


s: Must be caught from the pile, where their country expires.


s: Then blame not the bard, if in pleasure's soft dream,


s: He should try to forget, what he never can heal:


s: Oh! give but a hope--let a vista but gleam


s: Thro' the gloom of his country, and mark how he'll feel!


s: That instant, his heart at her shrine would lay down


s: Every passion it nurst, every bliss it adored;


s: While the myrtle, now idly entwined with his crown,


s: Like the wreath of Harmodius, should cover his sword.


s: But tho' glory be gone, and tho' hope fade away,


s: Thy name, loved Erin, shall live in his songs;


s: Not even in the hour, when his heart is most gay,


s: Will he lose the remembrance of thee and thy wrongs.


s: The stranger shall hear thy lament on his plains;


s: The sigh of thy harp shall be sent o'er the deep,


s: Till thy masters themselves, as they rivet thy chains,


s: Shall pause at the song of their captive, and weep!


s: We may suppose this apology to have been uttered by one of those


s: Played o'er a stream, in dimpling bliss,)


s: This image was suggested by the following thought, which occurs


s: When daylight was yet sleeping under the billow,


s: And stars in the heavens still lingering shone.


s: Young Kitty, all blushing, rose up from her pillow,


s: The last time she e'er was to press it alone.


s: For the youth! whom she treasured her heart and her soul in,


s: Had promised to link the last tie before noon;


s: And when once the young heart of a maiden is stolen


s: The maiden herself will steal after it soon.


s: As she looked in the glass, which a woman ne'er misses.


s: Nor ever wants time for a sly glance or two,


s: A butterfly, fresh from the night-flower's kisses.


s: Flew over the mirror, and shaded her view.


s: Enraged with the insect for hiding her graces,


s: She brushed him--he fell, alas; never to rise:


s: "Ah! such," said the girl, "is the pride of our faces,


s: "For which the soul's innocence too often dies."


s: While she stole thro' the garden, where heart's-ease was growing,


s: And a rose, further on, looked so tempting and glowing,


s: That, spite of her haste, she must gather it too:


s: But while o'er the roses too carelessly leaning,


s: And light him down the steep of years:--


s: Who close their eyes on victory's breast!


s: May we pledge that horn in triumph round!


s: Night closed around the conqueror's way,


s: Stood few and faint, but fearless still.


s: While mute they watcht, till morning's beam


s: There's yet a world, where souls are free,


s: Where tyrants taint not nature's bliss;--


s: If death that world's bright opening be,


s: 'Tis sweet to think, that, where'er we rove,


s: We are sure to find something blissful and dear.


s: And that, when we're far from the lips we love,


s: We've but to make love to the lips, we are near.


s: The heart, like a tendril, accustomed to cling,


s: Let it grow where it will, can not flourish alone,


s: But will lean to the nearest and loveliest thing


s: It can twine with itself and make closely its own.


s: Then oh! what pleasure, where'er we rove,


s: To be sure to find something still that is dear,


s: And to know, when far from the lips we love,


s: We've but to make love to the lips we are near.


s: 'Twere a shame, when flowers around us rise.


s: To make light of the rest, if the rose isn't there;


s: And the world's so rich in resplendent eyes,


s: 'Twere a pity to limit one's love to a pair.


s: Love's wing and the peacock's are nearly alike,


s: They are both of them bright, but they're changeable too,


s: And, wherever a new beam of beauty can strike,


s: It will tincture Love's plume with a different hue.


s: Thro' grief and thro' danger thy smile hath cheered my way,


s: Till hope seemed to bud from each thorn that round me lay;


s: The darker our fortune, the brighter our pure love burned,


s: Till shame into glory, till fear into zeal was turned;


s: Yes, slave as I was, in thy arms my spirit felt free,


s: And blest even the sorrows that made me more dear to thee.


s: Thy rival was honored, while thou wert wronged and scorned,


s: Thy crown was of briers, while gold her brows adorned;


s: She wooed me to temples, while thou lay'st hid in caves,


s: Her friends were all masters, while thine, alas! were slaves;


s: Yet cold in the earth, at thy feet, I would rather be,


s: Than wed what I loved not, or turn one thought from thee.


s: They slander thee sorely, who say thy vows are frail--


s: Hadst thou been a false one, thy cheek had looked less pale.


s: They say, too, so long thou hast worn those lingering chains,


s: That deep in thy heart they have printed their servile stains--


s: Oh! foul is the slander,--no chain could that soul subdue--


s: Where shineth _thy_ spirit, there liberty shineth too!


s: Meaning, allegorically, the ancient Church of Ireland.


s: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty"--_St. Paul's


s: When thou canst breathe her soul so well?


s: When the cold turf has just been laid o'er him,


s: That can tell how beloved was the friend that's fled,


s: Or how deep in our hearts we deplore him.


s: 'Tis the tear, thro' many a long day wept,


s: Kept alive in our hearts, will improve them,


s: For worth shall look fairer, and truth more bright,


s: When we think how we lived but to love them.


s: So our hearts shall borrow a sweetening bloom


s: These lines were occasioned by the loss of a very near and


s: dear relative, who had died lately at Madeira.


s: 'Tis believed that this Harp, which I wake now for thee,


s: Was a Siren of old, who sung under the sea;


s: And who often, at eve, thro' the bright waters roved,


s: To meet, on the green shore, a youth whom she loved.


s: But she loved him in vain, for he left her to weep,


s: And in tears, all the night, her gold tresses to steep;


s: Till heaven looked with pity on true-love so warm,


s: And changed to this soft Harp the sea-maiden's form.


s: Still her bosom rose fair--still her cheeks smiled the same--


s: While her sea-beauties gracefully formed the light frame;


s: And her hair, as, let loose, o'er her white arm it fell,


s: Was changed to bright chords uttering melody's spell.


s: Hence it came, that this soft Harp so long hath been known


s: To mingle love's language with sorrow's sad tone;


s: Till _thou_ didst divide them, and teach the fond lay


s: To speak love when I'm near thee, and grief when away.


s: Oh! the days are gone, when Beauty bright


s: When my dream of life, from morn till night,


s: But there's nothing half so sweet in life


s: No, there's nothing half so sweet in life


s: Tho' he win the wise, who frowned before,


s: And, at every close, she blushed to hear


s: Still it lingering haunts the greenest spot


s: 'Twas a light, that ne'er can shine again


s: Oh! 'twas light that ne'er can shine again


s: Tho' dark are our sorrows, to-day we'll forget them,


s: And smile thro' our tears, like a sunbeam in showers:


s: There never were hearts, if our rulers would let them,


s: More formed to be grateful and blest than ours.


s: And hope has enwreathed it round with flowers,


s: Oh! the joy that we taste, like the light of the poles,


s: Is a flash amid darkness, too brilliant to stay;


s: But, tho' 'twere the last little spark in our souls,


s: We must light it up now, on our Prince's Day.


s: Contempt on the minion, who calls you disloyal!


s: Tho' fierce to your foe, to your friends you are true;


s: And the tribute most high to a head that is royal,


s: Is love from a heart that loves liberty too.


s: Would shrink from the blaze of the battle array,


s: Oh, my life on your faith! were you summoned this minute,


s: You'd cast every bitter remembrance away,


s: And show what the arm of old Erin has in it,


s: When roused by the foe, on her Prince's Day.


s: He loves the Green Isle, and his love is recorded


s: In hearts, which have suffered too much to forget;


s: And hope shall be crowned, and attachment rewarded,


s: And thus, Erin, my country tho' broken thou art,


s: There's a lustre within thee that ne'er will decay;


s: A spirit, which beams thro' each suffering part,


s: And now smiles at all pain on the Prince's Day.


s: This song was written for a _fête_ in honor of the Prince of


s: The sage's tongue hath warned in vain;--


s: Where rest, at length, the lord and slave,


s: They'll wondering ask, how hands so vile


s: "'Twas fate," they'll say, "a wayward fate


s: "But hearts fell off, that ought to twine,


s: "Till some were heard to curse the shrine,


s: But all so close the nymph hath laced it,


s: Presumes to stay where nature placed it.


s: That floats as wild as mountain breezes,


s: But, when its points are gleaming round us,


s: She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps,


s: But coldly she turns from their gaze, and weeps,


s: She sings the wild song of her dear native plains,


s: Ah! little they think who delight in her strains,


s: How the heart of the Minstrel is breaking.


s: He had lived for his love, for his country he died,


s: They were all that to life had entwined him;


s: Nor soon shall the tears of his country be dried,


s: Oh! make her a grave where the sunbeams rest,


s: They'll shine o'er her sleep, like a smile from the West,


s: Nay, tell me not, dear, that the goblet drowns


s: Are all I've sunk in its bright wave yet.


s: That ever was shed from thy form or soul;


s: Still float on the surface, and hallow my bowl,


s: Then fancy not, dearest, that wine can steal


s: One blissful dream of the heart from me;


s: Like founts that awaken the pilgrim's zeal,


s: The bowl but brightens my love for thee.


s: They tell us that love in his fairy bower,


s: He sprinkled the one with a rainbow shower,


s: But bathed the other with mantling wine.


s: Distilled by the rainbow, decline and fade;


s: All blushed into beauty, like thee, sweet maid!


s: Like founts, that awaken the pilgrim's zeal,


s: Avenging and bright fall the swift sword of Erin


s: On him who the brave sons of Usna betrayed!


s: For every fond eye he hath wakened a tear in,


s: A drop from his heart-wounds shall weep o'er her blade.


s: By the red cloud that hung over Conor's dark dwelling,


s: When Ulad's three champions lay sleeping in gore--


s: By the billows of war, which so often, high swelling,


s: Have wafted these heroes to victory's shore--


s: We swear to revenge them!--no joy shall be tasted,


s: The harp shall be silent, the maiden unwed,


s: Our halls shall be mute and our fields shall lie wasted,


s: Till vengeance is wreaked on the murderer's head.


s: Yes, monarch! tho' sweet are our home recollections,


s: Tho' sweet are the tears that from tenderness fall;


s: Tho' sweet are our friendships, our hopes, our affections,


s: "Oh Nasi! view that cloud that I here see in the sky! I see over


s: Nay, if flowers _will_ lose their looks,


s: Should sip and kiss them while they may.


s: "Where angels of light o'er our orisons bend;


s: "Where sighs of devotion and breathings of flowers


s: "So like is thy form to the cherubs above,


s: "It well might deceive such hearts as ours."


s: Love stood near the Novice and listened,


s: His laughing blue eyes soon with piety glistened;


s: His rosy wing turned to heaven's own tint.


s: "Who would have thought," the urchin cries,


s: "That Love could so well, so gravely disguise


s: "His wandering wings and wounding eyes?"


s: Love now warms thee, waking and sleeping,


s: Young Novice, to him all thy orisons rise.


s: _He_ tinges the heavenly fount with his weeping,


s: _He_ brightens the censer's flame with his sighs.


s: Love is the Saint enshrined in thy breast,


s: And angels themselves would admit such a guest,


s: If he came to them clothed in Piety's vest.


s: This life is all checkered with pleasures and woes,


s: That chase one another like waves of the deep,--


s: Each brightly or darkly, as onward it flows,


s: Reflecting our eyes, as they sparkle or weep.


s: So closely our whims on our miseries tread,


s: That the laugh is awaked ere the tear can be dried;


s: And, as fast as the rain-drop of Pity is shed.


s: The goose-plumage of Folly can turn it aside.


s: But pledge me the cup--if existence would cloy,


s: With hearts ever happy, and heads ever wise,


s: Be ours the light Sorrow, half-sister to Joy,


s: And the light, brilliant Folly that flashes and dies.


s: When Hylas was sent with his urn to the fount,


s: Thro' fields full of light, and with heart full of play,


s: Light rambled the boy, over meadow and mount,


s: And neglected his task for the flowers on the way.


s: Thus many, like me, who in youth should have tasted


s: The fountain that runs by Philosophy's shrine,


s: Their time with the flowers on the margin have wasted,


s: And left their light urns all as empty as mine.


s: But pledge me the goblet;--while Idleness weaves


s: These flowerets together, should Wisdom but see


s: One bright drop or two that has fallen on the leaves


s: From her fountain divine, 'tis sufficient for me.


s: Oh the Shamrock, the green, immortal Shamrock!


s: At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly


s: To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye;


s: And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of air,


s: To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there,


s: And tell me our love is remembered, even in the sky.


s: Then I sing the wild song 'twas once such pleasure to hear


s: When our voices commingling breathed, like one, on the ear;


s: And, as Echo far off thro' the vale my sad orison rolls,


s: I think, oh my love! 'tis thy voice from the Kingdom of Souls,


s: Faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear.


s: Those few sunny spots, like the present,


s: Cries "Onward!" and spurs the gay hours--


s: So, fill up, let's shine at our parting,


s: When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!


s: Then awake!--the heavens look bright, my dear,


s: 'Tis never too late for delight, my dear,


s: Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear!


s: But the Sage, his star-watch keeping, love,


s: Is the eye from that casement peeping, love.


s: He might happen to take thee for one, my dear.


s: "_One_ sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,


s: "_One_ faithful harp shall praise thee!"


s: The Minstrel fell!--but the foeman's chain


s: "Thy songs were made for the pure and free,


s: Yet I trembled, and something hung o'er me,


s: I looked for the lamp which, she told me,


s: Should shine, when her Pilgrim returned;


s: Ah, would it were death, and death only!


s: And there hung the lute that could soften


s: While the hand, that had waked it so often,


s: When Breffni's good sword would have sought


s: Who dared but to wrong thee _in thought_!


s: And thro' ages of bondage and slaughter,


s: Oh! had we some bright little isle of our own,


s: In a blue summer ocean, far off and alone,


s: Where a leaf never dies in the still blooming bowers,


s: And the bee banquets on thro' a whole year of flowers;


s: Where simply to feel that we breathe, that we live,


s: Is worth the best joy that life elsewhere can give.


s: There, with souls ever ardent and pure as the clime,


s: We should love, as they loved in the first golden time;


s: The glow of the sunshine, the balm of the air,


s: Would steal to our hearts, and make all summer there.


s: Our life should resemble a long day of light,


s: And our death come on, holy and calm as the night.


s: Farewell!--but whenever you welcome the hour.


s: That awakens the night-song of mirth in your bower,


s: Then think of the friend who once welcomed it too,


s: And forgot his own griefs to be happy with you.


s: His griefs may return, not a hope may remain


s: Of the few that have brightened his pathway of pain.


s: But he ne'er will forget the short vision, that threw


s: Its enchantment around him, while lingering with you.


s: And still on that evening, when pleasure fills up


s: To the highest top sparkle each heart and each cup,


s: Where'er my path lies, be it gloomy or bright,


s: My soul, happy friends, shall be with you that night;


s: Shall join in your revels, your sports, and your wiles,


s: And return to me, beaming all o'er with your smiles--


s: Too blest, if it tells me that, mid the gay cheer


s: Some kind voice had murmured, "I wish he were here!"


s: Let Fate do her worst, there are relics of joy,


s: Bright dreams of the past, which she cannot destroy;


s: Which come in the night-time of sorrow and care,


s: And bring back the features that joy used to wear.


s: Long, long be my heart with such memories filled!


s: Like the vase, in which roses have once been distilled--


s: You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,


s: But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.


s: When the stranger, William, had made her his bride,


s: And love was the light of their lowly cot.


s: Together they toiled through winds and rains,


s: Till William, at length, in sadness said,


s: "We must seek our fortune on other plains;"--


s: Nor much was the maiden's heart at ease,


s: They see a proud castle among the trees.


s: "To-night," said the youth, "we'll shelter there;


s: "The wind blows cold, the hour is late:"


s: So he blew the horn with a chieftain's air,


s: And the Porter bowed, as they past the gate.


s: "Now, welcome, Lady," exclaimed the youth,--


s: "This castle is thine, and these dark woods all!"


s: She believed him crazed, but his words were truth,


s: What William the stranger wooed and wed;


s: And the light of bliss, in these lordly groves,


s: Shines pure as it did in the lowly shed.


s: Let fate frown on, so we love and part not;


s: 'Tis life where _thou_ art, 'tis death where thou art not.


s: No eye to watch, and no tongue to wound us,


s: All earth forgot, and all heaven around us--


s: "The bird, having got its prize, settled not far off, with the


s: When half-awaking from fearful slumbers,


s: He thinks the full choir of heaven is near,--


s: Than came that voice, when, all forsaken.


s: Nor thought its cold pulse would ever waken


s: Sweet voice of comfort! 'twas like the stealing


s: Of summer wind thro' some wreathed shell--


s: Each secret winding, each inmost feeling


s: 'Twas whispered balm--'twas sunshine spoken!--


s: Or found, in even the faults they blamed,


s: Even now, tho' youth its bloom has shed,


s: The few, who loved thee once, have fled,


s: The smiling there, like light on graves,


s: While History's Muse the memorial was keeping


s: Of all that the dark hand of Destiny weaves,


s: Beside her the Genius of Erin stood weeping,


s: For hers was the story that blotted the leaves.


s: But oh! how the tear in her eyelids grew bright,


s: When, after whole pages of sorrow and shame,


s: That illumed the whole volume, her Wellington's name.


s: "Hail, Star of my Isle!" said the Spirit, all sparkling


s: With beams, such as break from her own dewy skies--


s: "Thro' ages of sorrow, deserted and darkling,


s: "I've watched for some glory like thine to arise.


s: "For, tho' heroes I've numbered, unblest was their lot,


s: "And unhallowed they sleep in the crossways of Fame;--


s: "On the wreath that encircles my Wellington's name.


s: "Yet still the last crown of thy toils is remaining,


s: "The grandest, the purest, even _thou_ hast yet known;


s: "Tho' proud was thy task, other nations unchaining,


s: "Far prouder to heal the deep wounds of thy own.


s: "At the foot of that throne, for whose weal thou hast stood,


s: "Go, plead for the land that first cradled thy fame,


s: "Let the rainbow of Hope be her Wellington's name!"


s: Come, rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer,


s: Tho' the herd have fled from thee, thy home is still here;


s: Here still is the smile, that no cloud can o'ercast,


s: And a heart and a hand all thy own to the last.


s: Oh! what was love made for, if 'tis not the same


s: Thro' joy and thro' torment, thro' glory and shame?


s: I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart,


s: I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art.


s: Thou hast called me thy Angel in moments of bliss,


s: And thy Angel I'll be, mid the horrors of this,--


s: Thro' the furnace, unshrinking, thy steps to pursue,


s: And shield thee, and save thee,--or perish there too!


s: 'Tis gone, and for ever, the light we saw breaking,


s: Like Heaven's first dawn o'er the sleep of the dead--


s: When Man, from the slumber of ages awaking,


s: Looked upward, and blest the pure ray, ere it fled.


s: 'Tis gone, and the gleams it has left of its burning


s: But deepen the long night of bondage and mourning,


s: That dark o'er the kingdoms of earth is returning,


s: And darkest of all, hapless Erin, o'er thee.


s: For high was thy hope, when those glories were darting


s: Around thee, thro' all the gross clouds of the world;


s: When Truth, from her fetters indignantly starting,


s: At once, like a Sun-burst, her banner unfurled.


s: Oh! never shall earth see a moment so splendid!


s: Then, then--had one Hymn of Deliverance blended


s: The tongues of all nations--how sweet had ascended


s: The first note of Liberty, Erin, from thee!


s: But, shame on those tyrants, who envied the blessing!


s: And shame on the light race, unworthy its good,


s: Who, at Death's reeking altar, like furies, caressing


s: The young hope of Freedom, baptized it in blood.


s: Then vanished for ever that fair, sunny vision,


s: Which, spite of the slavish, the cold heart's derision,


s: Shall long be remembered, pure, bright, and elysian,


s: As first it arose, my lost Erin, on thee.


s: I saw from the beach, when the morning was shining,


s: A bark o'er the waters move gloriously on;


s: I came when the sun o'er that beach was declining,


s: The bark was still there, but the waters were gone.


s: And such is the fate of our life's early promise,


s: So passing the spring-tide of joy we have known;


s: Each wave, that we danced on at morning, ebbs from us,


s: And leaves us, at eve, on the bleak shore alone.


s: Ne'er tell me of glories, serenely adorning


s: The close of our day, the calm eve of our night;--


s: Give me back, give me back the wild freshness of Morning,


s: Her clouds and her tears are worth Evening's best light.


s: Oh, who would not welcome that moment's returning,


s: When passion first waked a new life thro' his frame,


s: And his soul, like the wood, that grows precious in burning,


s: Gave out all its sweets to love's exquisite flame.


s: Dear Harp of my Country! in darkness I found thee,


s: The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long,


s: When proudly, my own Island Harp, I unbound thee,


s: And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song!


s: The warm lay of love and the light note of gladness


s: Have wakened thy fondest, thy liveliest thrill;


s: But, so oft hast thou echoed the deep sigh of sadness,


s: That even in thy mirth it will steal from thee still.


s: Dear Harp of my country! farewell to thy numbers,


s: This sweet wreath of song is the last we shall twine!


s: Go, sleep with the sunshine of Fame on thy slumbers,


s: Till touched by some hand less unworthy than mine;


s: If the pulse of the patriot, soldier, or lover,


s: Have throbbed at our lay, 'tis thy glory alone;


s: I was _but_ as the wind, passing heedlessly over,


s: And all the wild sweetness I waked was thy own.


s: But, like those Harps whose heavenly skill


s: And yet, since last thy chord resounded,


s: With hopes--that now art turned to shame.


s: Then, who can ask for notes of pleasure,


s: My drooping Harp, from chords like thine?


s: Or how shall I, who love, who bless thee,


s: Invoke thy breath for Freedom's strains,


s: When even the wreaths in which I dress thee,


s: Are sadly mixt--half flowers, half chains?


s: And show the world, in chains and sorrow,


s: Thou yet canst wake at pleasure's thrill--


s: In the morning of life, when its cares are unknown,


s: And its pleasures in all their new lustre begin,


s: When we live in a bright-beaming world of our own,


s: And the light that surrounds us is all from within;


s: Oh 'tis not, believe me, in that happy time


s: We can love, as in hours of less transport we may;--


s: Of our smiles, of our hopes, 'tis the gay sunny prime,


s: But affection is truest when these fade away.


s: When we see the first glory of youth pass us by,


s: Like a leaf on the stream that will never return;


s: When our cup, which had sparkled with pleasure so high,


s: First tastes of the _other_, the dark-flowing urn;


s: Then, then is the time when affection holds sway


s: With a depth and a tenderness joy never knew;


s: Love, nursed among pleasures, is faithless as they,


s: But the love born of Sorrow, like Sorrow, is true.


s: In climes full of sunshine, tho' splendid the flowers,


s: Their sighs have no freshness, their odor no worth;


s: 'Tis the cloud and the mist of our own Isle of showers,


s: That call the rich spirit of fragrancy forth.


s: So it is not mid splendor, prosperity, mirth,


s: That the depth of Love's generous spirit appears;


s: To the sunshine of smiles it may first owe its birth,


s: But the soul of its sweetness is drawn out by tears.


s: With smiles that might as well be tears,


s: Where all looks flowery, wild, and sweet,


s: When cold in the earth lies the friend thou hast loved,


s: Be his faults and his follies forgot by thee then;


s: Or, if from their slumber the veil be removed,


s: Weep o'er them in silence, and close it again.


s: And oh! if 'tis pain to remember how far


s: From the pathways of light he was tempted to roam,


s: Be it bliss to remember that thou wert the star


s: That arose on his darkness and guided him home.


s: From thee and thy innocent beauty first came


s: The revealings, that taught him true love to adore,


s: To feel the bright presence, and turn him with shame


s: From the idols he blindly had knelt to before.


s: O'er the waves of a life, long benighted and wild,


s: Thou camest, like a soft golden calm o'er the sea;


s: And if happiness purely and glowingly smiled


s: On his evening horizon, the light was from thee.


s: And tho', sometimes, the shades of past folly might rise,


s: And tho' falsehood again would allure him to stray,


s: He but turned to the glory that dwelt in those eyes,


s: And the folly, the falsehood, soon vanished away.


s: As the Priests of the Sun, when their altar grew dim,


s: At the day-beam alone could its lustre repair,


s: So, if virtue a moment grew languid in him,


s: He but flew to that smile and rekindled it there.


s: Remember thee? yes, while there's life in this heart,


s: It shall never forget thee, all lorn as thou art;


s: More dear in thy sorrow, thy gloom, and thy showers,


s: Than the rest of the world in their sunniest hours.


s: Wert thou all that I wish thee, great, glorious, and free,


s: First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea,


s: I might hail thee with prouder, with happier brow,


s: But oh! could I love thee more deeply than now?


s: No, thy chains as they rankle, thy blood as it runs,


s: But make thee more painfully dear to thy sons--


s: Whose hearts, like the young of the desert-bird's nest,


s: Drink love in each life-drop that flows from thy breast.


s: For time will come with all its blights,


s: And love, that leaves, where'er it lights,


s: While youth, that now like snow appears,


s: When once 'tis touched by sorrow's tears


s: If thou'lt be mine, the treasures of air,


s: Of earth, and sea, shall lie at thy feet;


s: Or in Hope's sweet music sounds _most_ sweet,


s: Shall be ours--if thou wilt be mine, love!


s: Bright flowers shall bloom wherever we rove,


s: A voice divine shall talk in each stream;


s: The stars shall look like worlds of love,


s: And this earth be all one beautiful dream


s: In our eyes--if thou wilt be mine, love!


s: And thoughts, whose source is hidden and high,


s: Like streams, that come from heavenward hills,


s: Shall keep our hearts, like meads, that lie


s: Can breathe o'er them, who feel his spells;


s: That heaven, which forms his home above,


s: He can make on earth, wherever he dwells,


s: As thou'lt own.--if thou wilt be mine, love!


s: 'Tis hard to choose, 'tis hard to choose.


s: Our choice may fall, our choice may fall,


s: They seem but given, they seem but given,


s: Love seems portrayed, Love seems portrayed,


s: Forget not the field where they perished,


s: All gone--and the bright hope we cherished


s: Gone with them, and quenched in their grave!


s: In the face of high heaven to fight over


s: But 'tis past--and, tho' blazoned in story


s: Which treads o'er the hearts of the free.


s: Than the trophies of all, who have risen


s: They may rail at this life--from the hour I began it,


s: I found it a life full of kindness and bliss;


s: And, until they can show me some happier planet,


s: More social and bright, I'll content me with this.


s: As long as the world has such lips and such eyes,


s: As before me this moment enraptured I see,


s: They may say what they will of their orbs in the skies,


s: But this earth is the planet for you, love, and me.


s: In Mercury's star, where each moment can bring them


s: New sunshine and wit from the fountain on high,


s: Tho' the nymphs may have livelier poets to sing them,


s: They've none, even there, more enamored than I.


s: And as long as this harp can be wakened to love,


s: And that eye its divine inspiration shall be,


s: They may talk as they will of their Edens above,


s: In that star of the west, by whose shadowy splendor,


s: At twilight so often we've roamed thro' the dew,


s: There are maidens, perhaps, who have bosoms as tender,


s: And look, in their twilights, as lovely as you.


s: But tho' they were even more bright than the queen


s: Of that isle they inhabit in heaven's blue sea,


s: As I never those fair young celestials have seen,


s: Why--this earth is the planet for you, love, and me.


s: As for those chilly orbs on the verge of creation,


s: Where sunshine and smiles must be equally rare,


s: Did they want a supply of cold hearts for that station,


s: Heaven knows we have plenty on earth we could spare,


s: Oh! think what a world we should have of it here,


s: If the haters of peace, of affection and glee,


s: Were to fly up to Saturn's comfortless sphere,


s: And leave earth to such spirits as you, love, and me.


s: When armed for Right, they stood sublime,


s: The winds blew fresh, the bark returned;


s: If counting them o'er could add to their blisses,


s: But moments of joy are, like Lesbia's kisses,


s: Young Joy ne'er thought of counting hours,


s: But Joy loved better to gaze on the sun,


s: Than to watch with old Care how the shadows stole on,


s: Whose smiling wrecked thy hopes and thee."


s: Sail on, sail on,--thro' endless space--


s: Thro' calm--thro' tempest--stop no more:


s: Profaned a world, that else were sweet,--


s: Then rest thee, bark, but not till then.


s: Yes, sad one of Sion, if closely resembling,


s: In shame and in sorrow, thy withered-up heart--


s: If drinking deep, deep, of the same "cup of trembling"


s: Could make us thy children, our parent thou art,


s: Like thee doth our nation lie conquered and broken,


s: And fallen from her head is the once royal crown;


s: In her streets, in her halls, Desolation hath spoken,


s: And "while it is day yet, her sun hath gone down."


s: Like thine doth her exile, mid dreams of returning,


s: Die far from the home it were life to behold;


s: Like thine do her sons, in the day of their mourning,


s: Remember the bright things that blest them of old.


s: Ah, well may we call her, like thee "the Forsaken,"


s: Her boldest are vanquished, her proudest are slaves;


s: And the harps of her minstrels, when gayest they waken,


s: Have tones mid their mirth like the wind over graves!


s: Yet hadst thou thy vengeance--yet came there the morrow,


s: That shines out, at last, on the longest dark night,


s: When the sceptre, that smote thee with slavery and sorrow,


s: Was shivered at once, like a reed, in thy sight.


s: When that cup, which for others the proud Golden City


s: Had brimmed full of bitterness, drenched her own lips;


s: And the world she had trampled on heard, without pity,


s: The howl in her halls, and the cry from her ships.


s: When the curse Heaven keeps for the haughty came over


s: Her merchants rapacious, her rulers unjust,


s: And, a ruin, at last, for the earthworm to cover,


s: The Lady of Kingdoms lay low in the dust.


s: These verses were written after the perusal of a treatise by Mr.


s: 1 "Her sun is gone down while it was yet day."--_Jer_. xv. 9.


s: "Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken."--_Isaiah_, lxii. 4.


s: "How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!"--


s: "Thy pomp is brought down to the grave . . . and the worms cover


s: "Thou shalt no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms."--_Isaiah_,


s: Drink of this cup;--you'll find there's a spell in


s: Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality;


s: Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen!


s: Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality.


s: Would you forget the dark world we are in,


s: Just taste of the bubble that gleams on the top of it;


s: But would you rise above earth, till akin


s: To Immortals themselves, you must drain every drop of it;


s: Send round the cup--for oh there's a spell in


s: Never was philter formed with such power


s: To charm and bewilder as this we are quaffing;


s: Its magic began when, in Autumn's rich hour,


s: A harvest of gold in the fields it stood laughing.


s: There having, by Nature's enchantment, been filled


s: With the balm and the bloom of her kindliest weather,


s: This wonderful juice from its core was distilled


s: To enliven such hearts as are here brought together.


s: Then drink of the cup--you'll find there's a spell in


s: Its every drop 'gainst the ills of mortality;


s: Talk of the cordial that sparkled for Helen!


s: Her cup was a fiction, but this is reality.


s: And tho' perhaps--but breathe it to no one--


s: Like liquor the witch brews at midnight so awful,


s: This philter in secret was first taught to flow on,


s: Yet 'tisn't less potent for being unlawful.


s: And, even tho' it taste of the smoke of that flame,


s: Which in silence extracted its virtue forbidden--


s: Fill up--there's a fire in some hearts I could name,


s: Which may work too its charm, tho' as lawless and hidden.


s: So drink of the cup--for oh there's a spell in


s: Down in the valley come meet me to-night,


s: As ever 'twas told, by the new-moon's light,


s: Such secrets between you and me and the sky


s: You'll hardly, my dear, any difference find


s: Down at your feet, in the pale moonlight,


s: He'll kneel, with a warmth of devotion--


s: An ardor, of which such an innocent sprite


s: What other thoughts and events may arise,


s: As in destiny's book I've not seen them,


s: Must only be left to the stars and your eyes


s: Oh, ye Dead! oh, ye Dead! whom we know by the light you give


s: From your cold gleaming eyes, tho' you move like men who live,


s: Where the worm and the sea-bird only know your bed,


s: And the hearts that wailed you, like your own, lie dead?


s: It is true, it is true, we are shadows cold and wan;


s: And the fair and the brave whom we loved on earth are gone;


s: Of the fields and the flowers in our youth we wander'd o'er,


s: We would taste it awhile, and think we live once more!


s: Paul Zealand mentions that there is a mountain in some part of


s: Of all the fair months, that round the sun


s: In light-linked dance their circles run,


s: For still, when thy earliest beams arise,


s: That youth, who beneath the blue lake lies,


s: Of all the bright haunts, where daylight leaves


s: Who still, with the first young glance of spring,


s: From under that glorious lake dost bring


s: While, white as the sail some bark unfurls,


s: When newly launched, thy long mane curls,


s: And spirits, from all the lake's deep bowers,


s: Glide o'er the blue wave scattering flowers,


s: Of all the sweet deaths that maidens die,


s: Which, under the next May evening's light,


s: When thou and thy steed are lost to sight,


s: When, roused by lute or horn, she wakes,


s: The sigh that's breath'd for one to hear,


s: And there we shall have our feast of tears,


s: There, while the myrtle's withering boughs


s: To friends long lost, the changed, the dead.


s: The dawning of morn, the daylight's sinking,


s: The night's long hours still find me thinking


s: When friends are met, and goblets crowned,


s: And smiles are near, that once enchanted,


s: My soul, like some dark spot, is haunted


s: Whatever in fame's high path could waken


s: Like shores, by which some headlong bark


s: And pain itself seems sweet when springing


s: Like spells, that naught on earth can break,


s: Till lips, that know the charm, have spoken,


s: Shall the Harp then be silent, when he who first gave


s: To our country a name, is withdrawn from all eyes?


s: Shall a Minstrel of Erin stand mute by the grave,


s: Where the first--where the last of her Patriots lies?


s: No--faint tho' the death-song may fall from his lips,


s: Tho' his Harp, like his soul, may with shadows be crost,


s: Yet, yet shall it sound, mid a nation's eclipse,


s: And proclaim to the world what a star hath been lost;--


s: What a union of all the affections and powers


s: By which life is exalted, embellished, refined,


s: Was embraced in that spirit--whose centre was ours,


s: While its mighty circumference circled mankind.


s: Oh, who that loves Erin, or who that can see,


s: Thro' the waste of her annals, that epoch sublime--


s: Like a pyramid raised in the desert--where he


s: And his glory stand out to the eyes of all time;


s: That _one_ lucid interval, snatched from the gloom


s: And the madness of ages, when filled with his soul,


s: A Nation o'erleaped the dark bounds of her doom,


s: And for _one_ sacred instant, touched Liberty's goal?


s: Who, that ever hath heard him--hath drank at the source


s: Of that wonderful eloquence, all Erin's own,


s: In whose high-thoughted daring, the fire, and the force,


s: And the yet untamed spring of her spirit are shown?


s: Wandered free and triumphant, with thoughts that shone thro',


s: As clear as the brook's "stone of lustre," and gave,


s: With the flash of the gem, its solidity too.


s: Who, that ever approached him, when free from the crowd,


s: In a home full of love, he delighted to tread


s: 'Mong the trees which a nation had given, and which bowed,


s: As if each brought a new civic crown for his head--


s: Is there one, who hath thus, thro' his orbit of life


s: But at distance observed him--thro' glory, thro' blame,


s: In the calm of retreat, in the grandeur of strife,


s: Whether shining or clouded, still high and the same,--


s: Oh no, not a heart, that e'er knew him, but mourns


s: Deep, deep o'er the grave, where such glory is shrined--


s: O'er a monument Fame will preserve, 'mong the urns


s: Of the wisest, the bravest, the best of mankind!


s: Thou dost not look, as then, _too_ blest,


s: 'Tis heaven's own glance when it appears.


s: Like feeling hearts, whose joys are few,


s: 'Twas one of those dreams, that by music are brought,


s: Like a bright summer haze, o'er the poet's warm thought--


s: When, lost in the future, his soul wanders on,


s: And all of this life, but its sweetness, is gone.


s: The wild notes he heard o'er the water were those


s: He had taught to sing Erin's dark bondage and woes,


s: And the breath of the bugle now wafted them o'er


s: From Dinis' green isle, to Glenà's wooded shore.


s: He listened--while, high o'er the eagle's rude nest,


s: The lingering sounds on their way loved to rest;


s: And the echoes sung back from their full mountain choir,


s: As if loath to let song so enchanting expire.


s: It seemed as if every sweet note, that died here,


s: Was again brought to life in some airier sphere,


s: Some heaven in those hills, where the soul of the strain


s: They had ceased upon earth was awaking again!


s: Oh forgive, if, while listening to music, whose breath


s: Seemed to circle his name with a charm against death,


s: He should feel a proud Spirit within him proclaim,


s: "Even so shalt thou live in the echoes of Fame:


s: "Even so, tho' thy memory should now die away,


s: 'Twill be caught up again in some happier day,


s: And the hearts and the voices of Erin prolong,


s: Through the answering Future, thy name and thy song."


s: Written during a visit to Lord Kenmare, at Killarney.


s: In describing the Skeligs (islands of the Barony of Forth), Dr.


s: "Nennius, a British writer of the ninth century, mentions the


s: And doth not a meeting like this make amends,


s: For all the long years I've been wandering away--


s: To see thus around me my youth's early friends,


s: As smiling and kind as in that happy day?


s: Tho' haply o'er some of your brows, as o'er mine,


s: The snow-fall of time may be stealing--what then?


s: Like Alps in the sunset, thus lighted by wine,


s: We'll wear the gay tinge of youth's roses again.


s: What softened remembrances come o'er the heart,


s: In gazing on those we've been lost to so long!


s: The sorrows, the joys, of which once they were part,


s: Still round them, like visions of yesterday, throng,


s: As letters some hand hath invisibly traced,


s: When held to the flame will steal out on the sight,


s: So many a feeling, that long seemed effaced,


s: The warmth of a moment like this brings to light.


s: And thus, as in memory's bark we shall glide,


s: To visit the scenes of our boyhood anew,


s: Tho' oft we may see, looking down on the tide,


s: The wreck of full many a hope shining thro';


s: Yet still, as in fancy we point to the flowers,


s: That once made a garden of all the gay shore,


s: Deceived for a moment, we'll think them still ours,


s: And breathe the fresh air of life's morning once more.


s: So brief our existence, a glimpse, at the most,


s: Is all we can have of the few we hold dear;


s: For want of some heart, that could echo it, near.


s: Ah, well may we hope, when this short life is gone,


s: To meet in some world of more permanent bliss,


s: For a smile, or a grasp of the hand, hastening on,


s: But, come, the more rare such delights to the heart,


s: The more we should welcome and bless them the more;


s: They're ours, when we meet,--they are lost when we part,


s: Like birds that bring summer, and fly when 'tis o'er.


s: Thus circling the cup, hand in hand, ere we drink,


s: Let Sympathy pledge us, thro' pleasure, thro' pain,


s: That, fast as a feeling but touches one link,


s: Her magic shall send it direct thro' the chain.


s: A youth, whose moments had calmly flown,


s: Till spells came o'er him, and, day and night,


s: He was haunted and watched by a Mountain Sprite.


s: A foot-print sparkled before his sight--


s: 'Twas the fairy foot of the Mountain Sprite!


s: There peeped down o'er him two eyes of light,


s: And he saw in that mirror the Mountain Sprite.


s: He turned, but, lo, like a startled bird,


s: That spirit fled!--and the youth but heard


s: Of some bird of song, from the Mountain Sprite.


s: One night, still haunted by that bright look,


s: Drew the once-seen form of the Mountain Sprite.


s: "Now turn and see,"--here the youth's delight


s: Sealed the rosy lips of the Mountain Sprite.


s: Then rapt he murmured, "there's none like thee,


s: "And oft, oh oft, may thy foot thus light


s: "In this lonely bower, sweet Mountain Sprite!"


s: "Lie hid," she cried, "ye venomed darts,


s: And sends them, winged with worse than death,


s: "When will this end, ye Powers of Good?"


s: They know not my heart, who believe there can be


s: One stain of this earth in its feelings for thee;


s: Who think, while I see thee in beauty's young hour,


s: As pure as the morning's first dew on the flower,


s: I could harm what I love,--as the sun's wanton ray


s: But smiles on the dew-drop to waste it away.


s: No--beaming with light as those young features are,


s: There's a light round thy heart which is lovelier far:


s: It is not that cheek--'tis the soul dawning clear


s: Thro' its innocent blush makes thy beauty so dear:


s: As the sky we look up to, tho' glorious and fair,


s: Is looked up to the more, because Heaven lies there!


s: Where, come what might of gloom and pain,


s: And turn each thought, o'ercharged with gloom,


s: Like willows, downward towards the tomb.


s: Would win repose, first quench the light,


s: So must the hopes, that keep this breast


s: Like freezing founts, where all that's thrown


s: These verses are meant to allude to that ancient haunt of


s: The same rich light hung o'er her cheek,


s: And spoke, as flowers would sing and speak,


s: If Love could lend their leaves a tongue.


s: As if _her_ light and heaven's were one,


s: Filled with this fear, I flew and caught


s: To brighten the gay, and kindle the loving;


s: By harmony's laws alone are kept moving.


s: Beauty may boast of her eyes and her cheeks,


s: But Love from the lips his true archery wings;


s: And she, who but feathers the dart when she speaks,


s: At once sends it home to the heart when she sings.


s: Lay sleeping as calm as slumber could make him,


s: "Sweet voice but his own is worthy to wake him."


s: Dreaming of music he slumbered the while


s: Till faint from his lip a soft melody broke,


s: And Venus, enchanted, looked on with a smile,


s: While Love to his own sweet singing awoke.


s: Tho' humble the banquet to which I invite thee,


s: Thou'lt find there the best a poor bard can command:


s: Eyes, beaming with welcome, shall throng round, to light thee,


s: And Love serve the feast with his own willing hand.


s: And tho' Fortune may seem to have turned from the dwelling


s: Thou wilt find there a gift, all her treasures excelling,


s: Which, proudly he feels, hath ennobled his way.


s: 'Tis that freedom of mind, which no vulgar dominion


s: Can turn from the path a pure conscience approves;


s: Which, with hope in the heart, and no chain on the pinion,


s: Holds upwards its course to the light which it loves.


s: 'Tis this makes the pride of his humble retreat,


s: And, with this, tho' of all other treasures bereaved,


s: The breeze of his garden to him is more sweet


s: Than the costliest incense that Pomp e'er received.


s: Then, come,--if a board so untempting hath power


s: To win thee from grandeur, its best shall be thine;


s: And there's one, long the light of the bard's happy bower,


s: Who, smiling, will blend her bright welcome with mine.


s: Couldst thou but call those spirits round.


s: Then leave them in their dreamless sleep,


s: And we'll take another quaff, ere we go, boy, go;


s: When we think of the friends we leave lone;


s: With its tears we'll chase away our own, boy, our own;


s: With its tears we'll chase away our own.


s: But--no matter--grasp thy sword and away, boy, away;


s: Then, for Erin and her cause, boy, hurra! hurra! hurra!


s: What life like that of the bard can be--


s: As the mountain lark that o'er him sings,


s: Within him, where'er he comes or goes,--


s: The world's to him like some playground,


s: Where fairies dance their moonlight round;--


s: If dimmed the turf where late they trod,


s: Oh, what would have been young Beauty's doom,


s: They tell us, in the moon's bright round,


s: Things lost in this dark world are found;


s: Would ye have smiles that ne'er grow dim?


s: Then, welcome the bard where'er he comes,--


s: You've only to light up kind young eyes,


s: And down he'll drop from Fancy's heaven,


s: The few bright things they thought would stay


s: Round those the fond heart calls its own.


s: The long-known voice--where are they now?


s: Those eyes themselves from out the grave,


s: I've a secret to tell thee, but hush! not here,--


s: Oh! not where the world its vigil keeps:


s: Some shore where the Spirit of Silence sleeps;


s: Where, if but a note her night-bird sighs,


s: The rose saith, chidingly, "Hush, sweet, hush!"


s: There, amid the deep silence of that hour,


s: The flowers that on the Nile-stream blush,


s: Set sail, in their good ships, gallantly,


s: "Oh, where's the Isle we've seen in dreams,


s: Thus sung they as, by the morning's beams,


s: While, bending to heaven, the warriors hail


s: The Island of Destiny, one of the ancient names of Ireland.


s: Strike the gay harp! see the moon is on high,


s: And, as true to her beam as the tides of the ocean,


s: Young hearts, when they feel the soft light of her eye,


s: Obey the mute call and heave into motion.


s: Then, sound notes--the gayest, the lightest,


s: That ever took wing, when heaven looked brightest!


s: Oh! could such heart-stirring music be heard


s: In that City of Statues described by romancers,


s: So wakening its spell, even stone would be stirred,


s: And statues themselves all start into dancers!


s: Why then delay, with such sounds in our ears,


s: And the flower of Beauty's own garden before us,--


s: While stars overhead leave the song of their spheres,


s: And listening to ours, hang wondering o'er us?


s: Again, that strain!--to hear it thus sounding


s: Might set even Death's cold pulses bounding--


s: Oh, what delight when the youthful and gay,


s: Each with eye like a sunbeam and foot like a feather,


s: Thus dance, like the Hours to the music of May,


s: And mingle sweet song and sunshine together!


s: There are sounds of mirth in the night-air ringing,


s: Ah! once how light, in Life's young season,


s: And, see--the lamps still livelier glitter,


s: Shall a bard, whom not the world in arms


s: Thus sung the sage, while, slyly stealing,


s: The nymphs their fetters around him cast,


s: And,--their laughing eyes, the while, concealing,--


s: For the Poet's heart, still prone to loving,


s: Which the gentlest touch at once set moving,


s: But all earth's power couldn't cast from its base.


s: Full many a path I've tried, since then,


s: Lay his sword by his side,--it hath served him too well


s: To the last moment true, from his hand ere it fell,


s: Its point was still turned to a flying foe.


s: Fellow-laborers in life, let them slumber in death,


s: Side by side, as becomes the reposing brave,--


s: That sword which he loved still unbroke in its sheath,


s: Yet pause--for, in fancy, a still voice I hear,


s: As if breathed from his brave heart's remains;--


s: Faint echo of that which, in Slavery's ear,


s: Once sounded the war-word, "Burst your chains!"


s: And it cries from the grave where the hero lies deep,


s: "Tho' the day of your Chieftain for ever hath set,


s: "Oh leave not his sword thus inglorious to sleep,--


s: "Should some alien, unworthy such weapon to wield,


s: "Dare to touch thee, my own gallant sword,


s: "Then rest in thy sheath, like a talisman sealed,


s: Or return to the grave of thy chainless lord.


s: But, if grasped by a hand that hath learned the proud use


s: Of a falchion, like thee, on the battle-plain,--


s: Then, at Liberty's summons, like lightning let loose,


s: It was the custom of the ancient Irish, in the manner of the


s: Like those gay flies that wing thro' air,


s: Our hearts should all like fire-flies be,


s: The wine-cup is circling in Almhin's hall,


s: And its Chief, mid his heroes reclining,


s: Looks up with a sigh, to the trophied wall,


s: "Arm ye quick, the Dane, the Dane is nigh!"


s: And "To battle, to battle!" is the Finian's cry.


s: The minstrels have seized their harps of gold,


s: 'Tis like the voice of the Brave, of old,


s: Breaking forth from the place of slumbers!


s: And the Sun-burst o'er them floated wide;


s: "On for liberty, for liberty!" the Finians cried.


s: Like clouds of the night the Northmen came,


s: While onward moved, in the light of its fame,


s: Was "victory! victory!"--the Finian's cry.


s: anachronism common to most of the Finian and Ossianic legends.


s: The name given to the banner of the Irish.


s: The dream of those days when first I sung thee is o'er,


s: Thy triumph hath stained the charm thy sorrows then wore;


s: And even of the light which Hope once shed o'er thy chains,


s: Alas, not a gleam to grace thy freedom remains.


s: Say, is it that slavery sunk so deep in thy heart,


s: That still the dark brand is there, though chainless thou art;


s: And Freedom's sweet fruit, for which thy spirit long burned,


s: Now, reaching at last thy lip, to ashes hath turned?


s: Up Liberty's steep by Truth and Eloquence led,


s: With eyes on her temple fixt, how proud was thy tread!


s: Ah, better thou ne'er hadst lived that summit to gain


s: Or died in the porch than thus dishonor the fane.


s: Thou'lt again break forth, all beaming,--


s: Her minstrel's voice responds no more;--


s: When the sweet breeze that waked its swell


s: One thought to him whose earliest strain


s: "A Temple to Friendship;" said Laura, enchanted,


s: "I'll build in this garden,--the thought is divine!"


s: Her temple was built and she now only wanted


s: An image of Friendship to place on the shrine.


s: She flew to a sculptor, who set down before her


s: A Friendship, the fairest his art could invent;


s: But so cold and so dull, that the youthful adorer


s: Saw plainly this was not the idol she meant.


s: "Oh! never," she cried, "could I think of enshrining


s: "An image whose looks are so joyless and dim;--


s: "But yon little god, upon roses reclining,


s: "We'll make, if you please, Sir, a Friendship of him."


s: So the bargain was struck; with the little god laden


s: She joyfully flew to her shrine in the grove:


s: "Farewell," said the sculptor, "you're not the first maiden


s: "Who came but for Friendship and took away Love."


s: So warmly we met and so fondly we parted,


s: That which was the sweeter even I could not tell,--


s: That first look of welcome her sunny eyes darted,


s: Or that tear of passion, which blest our farewell.


s: To meet was a heaven and to part thus another,--


s: Our joy and our sorrow seemed rivals in bliss;


s: Oh! Cupid's two eyes are not liker each other


s: In smiles and in tears than that moment to this.


s: The first was like day-break, new, sudden, delicious,--


s: The dawn of a pleasure scarce kindled up yet;


s: The last like the farewell of daylight, more precious,


s: More glowing and deep, as 'tis nearer its set.


s: Our meeting, tho' happy, was tinged by a sorrow


s: To think that such happiness could not remain;


s: While our parting, tho' sad, gave a hope that to-morrow


s: Would bring back the blest hour of meeting again.


s: Those evening bells! those evening bells!


s: While other bards shall walk these dells,


s: And sing your praise, sweet evening bells!


s: Should those fond hopes e'er forsake thee,


s: Should the gay friends, for whom thou wouldst banish


s: Him who once thought thy young heart his own,


s: And leave thy winter unheeded and lone;--


s: Oh! 'tis then that he thou hast slighted


s: Would come to cheer thee, when all seem'd o'er;


s: Like that dear bird we both can remember,


s: Oh! which was the pleasanter no one need doubt,


s: Which was the pleasanter no one need doubt.


s: Beauty, who likes to be thought very sage.


s: Turned for a moment to Reason's dull page,


s: The sight of his cap brought her back to herself;


s: With no one to mind him, poor sensible elf!


s: No,--no one to mind him, poor sensible elf!


s: Then Reason grew jealous of Folly's gay cap;


s: Had he that on, he her heart might entrap--


s: (Folly was always good-natured, 'tis said,)


s: As Reason with my cap and bells on his head!"


s: "Reason with my cap and bells on his head!"


s: But Reason the head-dress so awkwardly wore,


s: That Beauty now liked him still less than before;


s: And twisted the leaves in a cap of such _ton_,


s: She liked him still better in that than his own,


s: Yes,--liked him still better in that than his own.


s: Thy words, what e'er their flattering spell,


s: Dost thou remember that place so lonely,


s: Where first I told thee all my secret sighs?


s: When, as the moonbeam that trembled o'er thee


s: Illumed thy blushes, I knelt before thee,


s: And read my hope's sweet triumph in those eyes?


s: Then, then, while closely heart was drawn to heart,


s: Love bound us--never, never more to part!


s: And when I called thee by names the dearest


s: That love could fancy, the fondest, nearest,--


s: "My life, my only life!" among the rest;


s: In those sweet accents that still enthral me,


s: Thou saidst, "Ah!" wherefore thy life thus call me?


s: "Thy soul, thy soul's the name I love best;


s: "For life soon passes,--but how blest to be


s: "That Soul which never, never parts from thee!"


s: And o'er the sands, in thoughtful dream,


s: Oft traced his name, which still the stream


s: 'Tis Wealth that comes, and gay and bright,


s: Hope's morning dreams of bliss were o'er--


s: O'er all the fields of youth's sweet prime,


s: Breathe on, breathe on, thou languid strain,


s: And, though I then might love thee _more_,


s: Peace be around thee, wherever thou rov'st;


s: And all that thou wishest and all that thou lov'st


s: The smiles, that follow shine more brightly.


s: They shall not crush one flower beneath.


s: Be all that e'er shall meet thy glances!


s: But still there came some cloud between,


s: With heaven's bright sparklers overhead,


s: Are hours like these we snatch from Fate--


s: Oh, think that one bright hour is given,


s: One minute swell, are touched with light,


s: From hearts whose prayers watched o'er us.


s: Who could have thought the smile he wore


s: When Love was a child, and went idling round,


s: One morn in the valley a bower he found,


s: O'erhead, from the trees, hung a garland fair,


s: 'Twas Pleasure had hung up the flowerets there;


s: But Love didn't know--and, at _his_ weak years,


s: That Sorrow had made of her own salt tears


s: He caught at the wreath--but with too much haste,


s: This garland he now wears night and day;


s: With Pleasure's own light, each leaf, they say,


s: There's nothing on earth, in sea, or air,


s: When I loved, each hour--I scarce knew whom--


s: Ay--those were days when life had wings,


s: That, like the lark which sunward springs,


s: I've enough of light and wing still left


s: Bright be thy dreams--may all thy weeping


s: Turn into smiles while thou art sleeping.


s: The friends, who in thy springtime knew thee,


s: There may the child, whose love lay deepest,


s: Dearest of all, come while thou sleepest;


s: Had Heaven but tongues to speak, as well


s: Oh, think what tales 'twould have to tell


s: Oh, days of youth and joy, long clouded,


s: When in the grave your light lay shrouded,


s: Vainly doth hope her strain now sing me,


s: Sunshine of youth! that once fell o'er me,


s: _'Tis_ not that then no pain could sting me;


s: When first that smile, like sunshine, blest my sight,


s: Long years of love, of calm and pure delight,


s: Ne'er did the peasant dream of summer skies,


s: With fonder hope than I of those sweet eyes,


s: And of the joy their light was bringing.


s: Where now are all those fondly-promised hours?


s: Ah! woman's faith is like her brightness--


s: Fading as fast as rainbows or day-flowers,


s: Or aught that's known for grace and lightness.


s: Short as the Persian's prayer, at close of day,


s: Quick let him worship Beauty's precious ray--


s: Even while he kneels, that ray is fleeting!


s: When thou shalt wander by that sweet light


s: Those hours of transport, even _thou_ may'st sigh.


s: Such days, such nights, as blest thee then.


s: Passing by, but ne'er could catch him;--


s: Some laughed, some blushed, and some trembled.


s: Some loose flowers, "of Love's own making;


s: "Here are gold ones--you may trust 'em"--


s: When the nymphs all cried, "We're cheated!


s: "See these flowers--they're drooping sadly;


s: "Even this tie, with Love's name round it--


s: Would have laughed, but for good breeding;


s: Cries like that these dames gave loose to--


s: Though Love's the theme, and Wisdom blames


s: Yet Truth sometimes, like eastern dames,


s: These light-caught Loves, ere you could ask


s: Meanwhile, young Sue, whose cage was wrought


s: Go, now, and dream o'er that joy in thy slumber--


s: Moments so sweet again ne'er shalt thou number.


s: Of Pain's bitter draught the flavor ne'er flies,


s: While Pleasure's scarce touches the lip ere it dies.


s: That moon, which hung o'er your parting, so splendid,


s: Often will shine again, bright as she then did--


s: But, never more will the beam she saw burn


s: In those happy eyes, at your meeting, return.


s: Heaven's pale night-star gathering we see,


s: Will scarce from that pure orb have past ere thy lover


s: Swift o'er the wide wave shall wander from thee.


s: Long, like that dim cloud, I've hung around thee,


s: Darkening thy prospects, saddening thy brow;


s: With gay heart, Theresa, and bright cheek I found thee;


s: Oh, think how changed, love, how changed art thou now!


s: From fearful slumber, thou break'st the spell;


s: 'Tis over--the moon, too, her bondage is breaking--


s: Past are the dark clouds; Theresa, farewell!


s: And round me sleeps the moonlight scene,


s: "Come, come, my love!" each note then seems to say,


s: "Oh, come, my love! the night wears fast away!"


s: And strike the chords with loudest swell;


s: "I come, my love!" each note then seems to say,


s: "I come, my love!--thine, thine till break of day."


s: He to flowers, I to lips, full of sweets to the brim--


s: What a meeting, what a meeting for me and for him!


s: In search of new sweetness thro' thousands he'll run,


s: While I find the sweetness of thousands in one.


s: And we pledge round to hearts that are true, boy, true,


s: Then the sky of this life opens o'er us,


s: We are better, far better off thus, boy, thus;


s: For _him_ but _two_ bright eyes were shining--


s: When on _one_ side the grape-juice is dancing,


s: While on t'other a blue eye beams, boy, beams,


s: 'Tis enough, 'twixt the wine and the glancing,


s: To disturb even a saint from his dreams.


s: I care not how fast it goes on, boy, on,


s: So the grape on its bank is still growing,


s: From the bumper that but crowns his glass,


s: While Truth, more precious, dwells in wine.


s: All the sweet windings of Apollo's shell;


s: Whether its music rolled like torrents near.


s: Or died, like distant streamlets, on the ear.


s: Sleep, sleep, mute bard; alike unheeded now


s: The storm and zephyr sweep thy lifeless brow;--


s: That storm, whose rush is like thy martial lay;


s: That breeze which, like thy love-song, dies away!


s: Would I change the least, the slightest.


s: No--leave my heart to rest, if rest it may,


s: When youth, and love, and hope, have past away.


s: Couldst thou, when summer hours are fled,


s: To some poor leaf that's fallen and dead,


s: Bring back the hue it wore, the scent it shed?


s: No--leave this heart to rest, if rest it may,


s: Oh, had I met thee then, when life was bright,


s: Thy smile might still have fed its tranquil light;


s: When wrecked and lost his bark before him lies!


s: Since youth, and love, and hope have past away.


s: "Where are the visions that round me once hovered,


s: "Forms that shed grace from their shadows alone;


s: "Looks fresh as light from a star just discovered,


s: "And voices that Music might take for her own?"


s: Time, while I spoke, with his wings resting o'er me,


s: Heard me say, "Where are those visions, oh where?"


s: And pointing his wand to the sunset before me,


s: Said, with a voice like the hollow wind, "There."


s: Fondly I looked, when the wizard had spoken,


s: And there, mid the dim-shining ruins of day,


s: Saw, by their light, like a talisman broken,


s: The last golden fragments of hope melt away.


s: While hunters shout and the, woods repeat,


s: Hark! the cry, "He's found, he's found,"


s: While hill and valley our shouts resound.


s: Oh, guard our affection, nor e'er let it feel


s: The blight that this world o'er the warmest will steal:


s: While the faith of all round us is fading or past,


s: Let ours, ever green, keep its bloom to the last.


s: Far safer for Love 'tis to wake and to weep,


s: As he used in his prime, than go smiling to sleep;


s: For death on his slumber, cold death follows fast,


s: White the love that is wakeful lives on to the last.


s: And tho', as Time gathers his clouds o'er our head,


s: A shade somewhat darker o'er life they may spread,


s: Transparent, at least, be the shadow they cast,


s: So that Love's softened light may shine thro' to the last.


s: "Slumber, oh slumber; if sleeping thou mak'st


s: "My heart beat so wildly, I'm lost if thou wak'st."


s: "Breathe not, oh breathe not, ye winds, o'er her cheeks;


s: "If mute thus she charm me, I'm lost when she speaks."


s: Like day-flies skimming o'er the stream,


s: How brilliant, thoughtless, side by side,


s: Thou and I could make our minutes glide!


s: Thy heart is changed, thy vow is broken,


s: Thou lovest no more--thou lovest no more.


s: The smile is gone, which once they wore;


s: 'Tis all too plain, thou lovest no more.


s: Oh, thou as soon the dead couldst waken,


s: When abroad in the world thou appearest.


s: To my heart while of all thou'rt the dearest.


s: To my eyes thou'rt of all the most fair.


s: No--no, 'mong them all, there is nothing like thee,


s: Oft, of old, without farewell or warning,


s: Beauty's self used to steal from the skies;


s: Fling a mist round her head, some fine morning,


s: Yes, yes, 'mong them all, there is nothing like thee,


s: Hope comes again, to this heart long a stranger,


s: Once more she sings me her flattering strain;