Ballads of Irish chivalry By Robert Dwyer Joyce: Edited, with Annotations, by his brother P. W. Joyce |
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THE LINNET. |
 | Ballads of Irish chivalry |  |
197
THE LINNET.
I
I've found a comrade free and gay,A linnet of the wildwood tree;
We hold sweet converse day by day,
My heart, my rambling soul, and he.
He sits upon the blossomed spray
Within the hollow haunted dell,
And every song-note seems to say
That wild bird knows and loves me well.
Sweet linnet, still sing merrily,
Beside the glittering streamlet's shore,
For love-bright dreams thou bring'st to me
Of Rosaleen for evermore.
II
As I lie in my waking dreams,And dreamy thoughts successive rise,
Down from the blooming bough he seems
To look on me with human eyes;
And then he sings,—ah, such a song
Will ne'er be heard while seasons roll,
Save Rosaleen's voice, that all day long
In memory charms my heart and soul.
Sweet linnet, still sing merrily
Beside the haunted streamlet's shore,
For many a dream thou bring'st to me
Of Rosaleen for evermore.
III
If souls e'er visit earth again,With one my little friend's possessed;
Each dulcet wild Elysian strain
Springs so divinely from his breast.
198
Some minstrel's sprite it sure must be,—
Anacreon's soul, or hers who took
The love-leap by the Grecian sea.
Sweet linnet, still sing merrily
Beside the murmuring streamlet's shore,
For happy dreams thou bring'st to me
Of Rosaleen for evermore.
| Ballads of Irish chivalry | |