 | [Poems by Piatt in] The Hesperian tree |  |
I
DUNMAESE
In that dusk Land of tragic memories,How often I, when journeying to and fro,
Have watched a ruined solitary keep,
Four-square along the horizon far off, glide
Gray on the grayness of its misty height,
Fitfully seen, then vanishing again,
And thrilled with breath of Erin's ancient woes.
For 't was of old a seat of Leinster's kings,—
Eva Macmorough, once the place was thine,
Strongbow's sweet bribe, Earl Strongbow's royal bride!
Whose blood-bought union breeds disunion still,
Thy marriage-ring thy hapless country's curse!
Seen from the Great Southern and Western Railway between Cork and Dublin, some time before reaching Maryborough. There is a large painting by Maclise in the National Gallery at Dublin, representing the marriage of Eva to Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, on the battlefield at the capture of Waterford. A wounded and fallen Irish bard is shown in the foreground, supporting himself on his harp, while, with head uplifted, he watches the ceremony with an expression of prophetic horror.
| [Poems by Piatt in] The Hesperian tree | |