ROISIN DUBH;
OR, THE BLEEDING HEART.
I.
O who art thou with that queenly brow
And uncrown'd head?
And why is the vest that binds thy breast,
O'er the heart, blood-red?
Like a rose-bud in June was that spot at noon,
A rose-bud weak;
But it deepens and grows like a July rose:
Death-pale thy cheek!
II.
‘The babes I fed at my foot lay dead;
I saw them die:
In Ramah a blast went wailing past;
It was Rachel's cry.
But I stand sublime on the shores of Time
And I pour mine ode
As Miriam sang to the cymbals' clang
On the wind to God.
III.
O sweet, men say, is the song by day,
And the feast by night;
But on poisons I thrive, and in death survive
Through ghostly might.’
