Irish Songs and Poems By William Allingham: Second Edition: With Nine Airs for Voice and Pianoforte, and a Permanent Photograph of the Waterfall of Asaroe |
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AN IRISHMAN TO THE NIGHTINGALES. |
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 | Irish Songs and Poems |  |
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AN IRISHMAN TO THE NIGHTINGALES.
I.
You sweet fastidious Nightingales!The Myrtle blooms in Irish vales,
By Avondhu and rich Lough Lene,
Through many a grove and bowerlet green,
Fair mirror'd round the loitering skiff.
The purple peak, the tinted cliff,
The glen where mountain-torrents rave
And foliage blinds their leaping wave,
Broad emerald meadows fill'd with flow'rs,
Embosom'd ocean-bays are ours
With all their isles; and mystic tow'rs
Lonely and gray, deserted long,—
Less sad if they might hear that perfect song.
II.
What scared ye? (ours, I think, of old)The sombre Fowl hatch'd in the cold?
King Henry's Normans, mail'd and stern,
Smiters of galloglas and kern?
Or, most and worst, fraternal feud,
Which sad Iernè long hath rued?
Forsook ye, when the Geraldine,
Great chieftain of a glorious line,
Was hunted on his hills and slain,
And one to France and one to Spain,
The remnant of the race withdrew?
Was it from anarchy ye flew,
And fierce oppression's bigot crew,
Wild complaint, and menace hoarse,
Misled, misleading voices, loud and coarse?
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III.
Come back, O Birds,—or come at last!For Ireland's furious days are past;
And, purged of enmity and wrong,
Her eye, her step, grow calm and strong.
Why should we miss that pure delight?
Brief is the journey, swift the flight;
And Hesper finds no fairer maids
In Spanish bow'rs or English glades,
No loves more true on any shore,
No lovers loving music more.
Melodious Erin, warm of heart,
Entreats you;—stay not then apart,
But let the Merles and Throstles know
(And ere another May-time go)
Their place is in the second row.
Come to the west, dear Nightingales!
The Rose and Myrtle bloom in Irish vales.
| Irish Songs and Poems | |