Ballads of Irish chivalry By Robert Dwyer Joyce: Edited, with Annotations, by his brother P. W. Joyce |
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THE WANDERER. |
 | Ballads of Irish chivalry |  |
165
THE WANDERER.
I
O, green are the woods that circle my Helen's wild home,And sweetest her smiles from Houra to Cleena's bright foam,
And brightest her eyes 'mong the blue eyes of splendour that beam
Mid the hills of the South, by wildwood and fountain and stream.
II
By Shannon's green shore my wandering footsteps I stayedOn a wave-beaten steep to dream of my yellow-haired maid:
When I saw the fleet wing of the white gull gleaming below,
I thought of her archèd brow and her fair neck of snow.
III
And once by the marge of Cleena's bright waters I lay,In a sweet dream of love and joy at the opening of day;
The beams of the morn smiled over the blue billows there,
Like the smiles of my love, like the wreaths of her long golden hair.
IV
And thus as I stray by river and wildwood and sea,All Nature still paints but one lovely image for me;
And I wish for the day when I'll stand by Ounanaar's tide
In the greenwood again, with my bright-eyed love for my bride.
| Ballads of Irish chivalry | |