Chaunt of The Cholera Songs for Ireland. By the Authors of "The O'Hara Tales," "The Smuggler," &c. [i.e. John Banim] |
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 | Chaunt of The Cholera |  |
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THE IRISH MOTHER TO HER CHILD.
I
Now welcome, welcome, baby-boy, unto a mother's fears,The pleasure of her sufferings, the rainbow of her tears,
The object of your father's hope, in all he hopes to do,
A future man of his own land, to live him o'er anew!
II
How fondly on thy little brow a mother's eye would trace,And in thy little limbs, and in each feature of thy face,
His beauty, worth, and manliness, and every thing that's his,
Except, my boy, the answering mark of where the fetter is!
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III
Oh! many a weary hundred years his sires that fetter wore,And he has worn it since the day that him his mother bore;
And now, my son, it waits on you, the moment you are born,
The old hereditary badge of suffering and scorn!
IV
Alas, my boy so beautiful!—alas, my love so brave!And must your gallant Irish limbs still drag it to the grave!
And you, my son, yet have a son, fore-doom'd a slave to be,
Whose mother still must weep o'er him the tears I weep o'er thee!
1828.
| Chaunt of The Cholera | |