Poems of James Clarence Mangan (Many hitherto uncollected): Centenary edition: Edited, with preface and notes by D. J. O'Donoghue: Introduction by John Mitchel |
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| II. |
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HEAVEN FIRST OF ALL WITHIN OURSELVES. |
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| VII. |
 | Poems of James Clarence Mangan |  |
218
HEAVEN FIRST OF ALL WITHIN OURSELVES.
I stood where the home of my boyhood had been,
In the Bellflower Vale, by the Lake of Bir-ból;
And I pensively gazed on the wreck of a scene
Which the dreams of the Past made so dear to my soul.
In the Bellflower Vale, by the Lake of Bir-ból;
And I pensively gazed on the wreck of a scene
Which the dreams of the Past made so dear to my soul.
For its light had grown dim while I wandered afar,
And its glories had vanished, like leaves on the gale,
And the frenzy of Man and the tempests of War
Had laid prostrate the pride of my Bellflower Vale.
And its glories had vanished, like leaves on the gale,
And the frenzy of Man and the tempests of War
Had laid prostrate the pride of my Bellflower Vale.
I thought how long years of disaster and woe
Scarce woke in my bosom one sigh for the Past,
How my hopes, like the home of my childhood, lay low,
While the spirit within remained calm to the last.
Scarce woke in my bosom one sigh for the Past,
How my hopes, like the home of my childhood, lay low,
While the spirit within remained calm to the last.
Then I looked on the lake that lay deep in the dell
As pellucidly fair as in summers gone by,
And amid the sad ruins of cottage and cell
Still mirrored the beautiful face of the sky.
As pellucidly fair as in summers gone by,
And amid the sad ruins of cottage and cell
Still mirrored the beautiful face of the sky.
And I said, So may Ruin o'ertake all we love,
And our minds like Bir-ból, abide bright evermore;
So the heart that in grief looks to Allah above,
Still reflects the same heaven from its depths as before!
And our minds like Bir-ból, abide bright evermore;
So the heart that in grief looks to Allah above,
Still reflects the same heaven from its depths as before!
| Poems of James Clarence Mangan | |