 | Fand and Other Poems |  |
Here paused a moment Emer in her speech;
From the deep fountains of her memory
Bringing up mingled waters bitter-sweet
Of joy and sorrow; and her voice sank low,
Caught by the ancient sob: her listener then
Softly, “so hadst thou thy Cohoolin won!”
“Yea, I had won,” she answered, “yet not won;
Things strange to be recounted yet remain:
Quickly they passed, like lightning, dazzling-swift,
Then the loud thunder and long storm behind.
Parting from that embrace we heard a sob.
I looked, and there stood the defeated one,
Pale, broken, blank, despairing;—the bright eyes
Like unto withered flowers: I pitied her,
As, with hands clasped in front of her, she stood.
Yet hardly, ev'n for pity was there time,
When, with loud cries, there burst into the bower
A score of Ulster women; friends of mine
They were, yet now they served me not, I deem:
Purposing help they followed in my track,
And now, beholding Fand, tow'rds her they ran
With vengeful screams.
From the deep fountains of her memory
Bringing up mingled waters bitter-sweet
Of joy and sorrow; and her voice sank low,
Caught by the ancient sob: her listener then
Softly, “so hadst thou thy Cohoolin won!”
“Yea, I had won,” she answered, “yet not won;
Things strange to be recounted yet remain:
Quickly they passed, like lightning, dazzling-swift,
Then the loud thunder and long storm behind.
Parting from that embrace we heard a sob.
24
Pale, broken, blank, despairing;—the bright eyes
Like unto withered flowers: I pitied her,
As, with hands clasped in front of her, she stood.
Yet hardly, ev'n for pity was there time,
When, with loud cries, there burst into the bower
A score of Ulster women; friends of mine
They were, yet now they served me not, I deem:
Purposing help they followed in my track,
And now, beholding Fand, tow'rds her they ran
With vengeful screams.
| Fand and Other Poems | |