Ireland unfreed Poems and verses written in the early months of 1921 by Sir William Watson |
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AFTER NEWS OF AN EXECUTION |
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AFTER NEWS OF AN EXECUTION
Was it all folly—yonder, hour by hour,To choose, not peace, but strife, and thereto dare
The lion couched in his unnative lair,
The world-feared lion, mighty to devour?
O that some folly as splendid were a flower
Not, on all shores but those, so wondrous rare!
Common as weed in Ireland everywhere
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To make a mere slight boy not only face
Death with no tremblings, with no coward alarms,
But like a lover woo it to his arms,
Clasp with a joyous and a rapt embrace
Death's beauty, Death's dear sweetness, Death's pure grace,
And count all else as nought beside Death's charms.
| Ireland unfreed | |