From the Land of Dreams :: :: University of Virginia Library

Oh! the flowers, the Irish flowers of my visionary home,
In the fields where I wandered, where I wandered as a boy!
In the meads where they were growing I could see the Shannon flowing,
And growing still I see them, and my heart grows young in joy,

In the sunny fields of memory ever in splendour blowing,
Where Time's grey wings no shadow cast, the young hours to annoy.

II

Oh! the primroses with faces that looked from lonely places
Wistfully on me, pearly with morning's early dew!
When I dreamed, as children dream, by that legendary stream
Where, agleam in shining mail, the slender dragonflies, I knew,
Served our freaksome Irish fairies for steeds, as through the reeds
They flitted on their blazoned wings, in mail of green and blue.

III

Oh! the cowslips in the grass, where the sunshine seemed to pass
Like Spring's young life through all things, in the golden afternoon!
Their scent, like Spring's first honey, made all the fields more sunny,
And fairy money was their gold, that left me poor too soon

Of my wealth gained in the meadows of the Spring, when I was king,
With a cowslip crown upon me in the golden afternoon.

IV

Oh! the daisies, when they came with their stars of silver flame,
The baby buds, in green with crimson caps, by fairies drest!
Their breath of childhood lingers in my heart, as on my fingers
Their smell when first I picked them in the pastures of the West;
And when memory moves my longing for flowers of childhood's hours,
The Spring comes rushing in my blood—they blossom in my breast.