Page images
PDF
EPUB

"But Heav'n, at last, my soul's eclipse Did with a vision bright inspire:

I woke, and felt upon my lips
A prophetess's fire.

Thrice in the east a war-drum beat,
I heard the Saxon's trumpet sound,
And rang'd as to the judgment seat
My guilty, trembling brothers round.
Clad in the helm and shield they came;
For now De Bourgo's sword and flame
Had ravag'd Ulster's boundaries,
And lighted up the midnight skies.
The standard of O'Connor's sway,
Was in the turret where I lay :
That standard, with so dire a look,
As ghastly shone the moon and pale,
I gave, that every bosom shook
Beneath its iron mail.

"And go! I cried, the combat seek,
Ye hearts that unappalled bore
The anguish of a sister's shriek,
Go!-and return no more!

For sooner guilt the ordeal brand
Shall grasp unhurt, than ye shall hold
The banner with victorious hand,
Beneath a sister's curse unrolled.
Oh stranger! by my country's loss!
And by my love! and by the cross!
I swear I never could have spoke
The curse that sever'd nature's yoke;

But that a spirit o'er me stood,

And fir'd me with the wrathful mood;
And frenzy to my heart was giv❜n,

To speak the malison of heav'n.

"They would have cross'd themselves all mute, They would have pray'd to burst the spell;

But at the stamping of my foot

Each hand down pow'rless fell,

And go to Athunree !* I cried,
High lift the banner of your pride!
But know that where its sheet unrolls
The weight of blood is on your souls!
Go where the havoc of your kerne
Shall float as high as mountain fern!
Men shall no more your mansion know!
The nettles on your hearth shall grow!
Dead as the green oblivious flood,

That mantles by your walls, shall be
The glory of O'Connor's blood!

Away! away to Athunree!

Where downward when the sun shall fall

The raven's wing shall be your pall;

And not a vassal shall unlace

The vizor from your dying face!

"A bolt that overhung our dome
Suspended till my curse was giv'n,
Soon as it pass'd these lips of foam
Peal'd in the blood-red heav'n.

*The battle fought in 1314, which decided the fate of Ireland.

Dire was the look that o'er their backs.
The angry parting brothers threw ;
But now, behold! like cataracts,
Come down the hills in view
O'Connor's plumed partizans,
Thrice ten Innisfallian clans
Were marching to their doom:
A sudden storm their plumage toss'd,
A flash of lightning o'er them cross'd,
And all again was gloom;

But once again in heav'n the bands
Of thunder spirits clapt their hands.

"Stranger! I fled the home of grief,
At Connocht Moran's tomb to fall;
I found the helmet of my chief,
His bow still hanging on our wall;
And took it down, and vow'd to rove
This desert place a huntress bold;
Nor would I change my buried love
For any heart of living mould.
No! for I am a hero's child,

I'll hunt my quarry in the wild;
And still my home this mansion make,
Of all unheeded and unheeding,
And cherish, for my warrior's sake,
The flower of love lies bleeding."

THE

SOLDIER'S DREAM.

OUR bugles sang truce-for the night cloud had low'r'd, And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky; And thousands had sunk on the ground overpow'r'd, The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.

When reposing that night on my pallet of straw,
By the wolf-scaring faggot that guarded the slain;
At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw,
And thrice ere the morning I dream't it again.

Methought from the battle-field's dreadful array,
Far, far I had roam'd on a desolate track;
"Twas autumn-and sunshine arose on the way
To the home of my fathers, that welcom❜d me back.

I flew to the pleasant fields travers'd so oft

In life's morning march, when my bosom was young; I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft,

And knew the sweet strain that the corn-reapers

sung.

Then pledg'd we the wine-cup, and fondly I swore

From my home and my weeping friends never to part; My little one's kiss'd me a thousand times o'er, And my wife sobb'd aloud in her fulness of heart.

Stay, stay with us-rest, thou art weary and worn :-
And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay;
But sorrow returned with the dawning of morn,
And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.

« PreviousContinue »