University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Three Irish Bardic Tales

Being Metrical Versions of the Three Tales known as The Three Sorrows of Story-telling. By John Todhunter

expand section 

FIANOULA'S PRATER.

A boon, a boon, O mother,
For the sorrowful Children of Lir!
Sad is the voice of children
In the terrors of the night.

12

18

Fear in the witch's heart was gendering with her hate,
Seeing her evil thought grown to an evil deed;
And on her tongue was laid a spell more strong than hers,
In fear, not ruth, she spake this lightening of their doom: