Ballads of Irish chivalry By Robert Dwyer Joyce: Edited, with Annotations, by his brother P. W. Joyce |
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 | Ballads of Irish chivalry |  |
III.
By Carrick town a castle braveTowers high above its river wave,
Well belted round by wall and fosse
That foot of foe ne'er strode across.
Look on me now—a man am I
Of mournful thoughts and bearing sad;
Yet once my hopes flowed fair and high,
And once a merry heart I had;
For I was squire to Ormond then,
First in his train each jovial morn
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Or chased the stag by rock and glen
With music sweet of hound and horn.
Young Ormond was a goodly lord
As ever sat at head of board.
If Europe's kings, some festal day,
Sat round the board in revel gay,
And he were there, and I in hall,
The seneschal to place them all,
I'd place him without pause or fault
Among their best above the salt.
You need not smile, Sir Hugh le Poer,
Nor you, young Donal of Killare;
I'd prove my words, ay, o'er and o'er,
With skian in hand and bosom bare,
Or sword to sword and jack to jack,
For sake of Thomas Oge the Black!
| Ballads of Irish chivalry | |