Ballads of Irish chivalry :: :: University of Virginia Library

No sound of life was coming
From glen or tree or brake,
Save the bittern's hollow booming
Up from the reedy lake;
The golden light of sunset
Was swallowed in the deep,
And the night came down with sullen frown
On Kilcolman's massive keep.

II

And Houra's hills are soundless:
But hark, that trumpet blast!
It fills the forest boundless,
Rings round the summits vast:
'Tis answered by another
From the crest of Corrinmore,
And hark again the pipe's wild strain
By Bregoge's caverned shore.

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III

In the castle hearts are beating;
While through the mountain pass,
By lake and river meeting,
Came kern and galloglass,
Breathing vengeance deep and deadly
Under the forest tree,
To the wizard man who cast the ban
On the minstrels bold and free.

IV

They gave no word of warning,
Silent they came, and on,
Gate, wall, and rampart scorning:
But the wizard bard was gone!
Gone fast and far that even
All secret as the wind,
His treasures all in that castle tall,
And his infant son behind!

V

Now round that castle hoarest
Their pipes and horns were still,
While gazed they o'er the forest
Up glen and sloping hill;
Till from the mystic circle
On Corrin's crest of stone,
A sheet of fire like an Indian pyre
Up to the clouds was thrown.

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VI

Then, with a rival blazing,
They answered—to the sky:
It dazzled their own gazing,
So bright it rolled and high;
The castle of the Poet,—
The man of endless fame,—
Soon hid its head in a mantle red
Of fierce and rushing flame.

VII

Out burst the vassals, praying
For mercy as they sped—
“Where is your master staying?”
“Our master:—He has fled!”
But hark! that thrilling screaming
Over the crackling din,—
'Tis the Poet's child in its terror wild,
The blazing tower within!

VIII

There was a warlike giant
Amid the circling throng,
He looked with face defiant
On the flames so wild and strong;
Then rushed into the castle,
And up the rocky stair,
But alas, alas, he could not pass
To the burning infant there.

IX

The wall was tottering under,
And the flames were whirling round;
The wall went down in thunder
And dashed him to the ground;
Up in the burning chamber
For ever died that scream,
And the fire sprang out with a wilder shout,
And a fiercer ghastlier gleam.

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X

It glared o'er hill and hollow
Up many a rocky bar,
From ancient Kilnamullagh
To Darra's peak afar;
Then it heaved into the darkness
With a final roar amain,
And sank in gloom with a whirring boom,
And all was dark again.