 | The Poems of Thomas Davis |  |
44
DUTY AND LOVE
I
Oh! lady, think not that my heart has grown cold,If I woo not as once I could woo;
Though sorrow has bruised it, and long years have-rolled,
It still doats on beauty and you:
And were I to yield to its inmost desire,
I would labour by night and by day,
Till I won you to flee from the home of your sire,
To live with your love far away.
II
But it is that my country's in bondage, and IHave sworn to shatter her chains!
By my duty and oath I must do it or lie
A corse on her desolate plains;
Then, sure, dearest maiden, 'twere sinful to sue,
And crueller far to win,
But, should victory smile on my banner, to you
I shall fly without sorrow or sin.
| The Poems of Thomas Davis | |