With the Wild Geese :: :: University of Virginia Library

With the Wild Geese

By Emily Lawless: With An Introduction by Stopford A. Brooke

Lawless, Emily (1845-1913)

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Dedication TO THE ATLANTIC

WITH THE WILD GEESE

AFTER AUGHRIM

CLARE COAST

THE CHOICE I

II.

TO A TUFT OF WHITE BOG-COTTON, GROWING IN THE TYROL

TWO SONGS, AN APPEAL AND A RETORT

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THE CHOICE
I

I who speak to you abide, with my choice on either side,
With my fortune all to win and all to wear.
Shall I take this proffered gain? Shall I keep the loss and pain,
With my own to live and bear?

For the choice is open now, I must either stand or bow,
Secure this beckoning sunshine, or else accept the rain.

Must be banished with my own, or my race and faith disown?
Share the loss, or snatch the gain?

Shall I pay the needed toll, just the purchase of a soul,
Heart and lips, faith and promises to sever?
Six centuries of strain, six centuries of pain,
Six centuries cry, “Never.”

Then let who will abide, for me the Fates decide,
One road, and only one, for me they show.
There is room enough out there, room to pray, and room to dare,
Room out yonder—and I go!