University of Virginia Library


207

TO THE CASTLE OF DONEGAL.

Castle of Donegal! both green and grey,
Like an old poet; where thine outworks lay
A sessions-house, and barrack for police
Lie in thy shadow. If from ivied peace
We could recall thee, and revive to-day
The men whom thy crazed walls, their children, cease
Almost to recollect; how we and they
Would wonder! How their wonder would increase
When by their antique customs they were driven
(As soon would happen to those chiefs of yore)
To feel our unromantic forms of power,
Police and Statute-Law. Therefore, still riven
And roofless be thou; strength is law no more;
The times that suited thee are gone—thank Heaven!
 

Resembles Fuller:—“The Pyramids, doting with age, have forgot the names of their founders.”