Songs and Poems by George Sigerson :: :: University of Virginia Library

There are three Lochs, 'mid norland heights,
Girt round with green and gold;
Three mirrors where the moon, of nights
May ancient scenes behold:
Aissha, Una, lucid Loch Mor,
Their trembling tones float round the shore
Still lowly murmuring, o'er and o'er,
Their tale of Times of Old.

The blanched brows of the Mists appear,
They glide as Warders nigh,
Their wan, cold, silent forms draw near
To close out earth and sky;
They stretch across their long gray wands
To still the whispering with the strands,—
The Three Lochs shiver against the sands,
But still we hear them sigh.

There flit strange gleams through norland heights
When winter woods grow cold,
They shine in shielings oft, of nights,
Star-beams from times of old;
Illumed by this slow-dimming star,
I once the casket could unbar,
And read the legend-scroll, where are
Their grief and secret told,

There were Three Maidens, beautiful,
Beyond the dreams of man,
Three sisters, whose great Sire bore rule
The Sea-God, Manannan.
His palace, in a crystal cave,
The deep green quiet waters lave,
While o'er it, oft, the Northern Wave
In roaring rapids ran.

Three dowers he gave his daughters three,
With each a fortress fair,
And came, at times, across the Sea
With all his glory there;
And O to watch the wonders made,
When through the flashing forest glade
Advanced the Fairy Cavalcade
With fluttering flags in air!

To Una, first, he gave her dower,
That heart of tender ruth!
So she might reign o'er every flower
And tribute take, in sooth,
He gave a Bee-home bright, whose bees,
Star-sparkles, sped o'er all the seas,
And brought her on the honeyed breeze,
Sweets from the Isles of Youth.

To queenly Mor, whose lucid eyes
Gazed, brightest of things bright,
That caught the hue of April skies
At passing of the night!
He gave an Ocean-gem which showed
Full radiance, from a heart that glowed
As though all lights that live abode
Within its snow-pure Light!

Where Aissha came the birds began,—
The birds of Brasail sang,
The Music-maid of Manannan,
For whom each heart-chord rang!
With her he left, to save from spells,
The guarded, golden Branch of Bells,—
Where'er its voice of magic swells
All discords cease their clang.

Men came from far and over seas,
And fain through life had stayed,
To share the sweets of gold-tongued bees
And serve a Marvel-Maid.
To feel through hearts the flush of Light
To hear the charm of Bells aright,
To see, for once—Life's wondrous sight—
The Fairy Cavalcade!

There came, at last, a wind that whirled,—
A Cloud that Wizards launch,
And thus They entered that fair world,
And did its beauty blanch.
Their bolts at Mor's great light fell dead,
In vain their shafts at Una sped,
Till through a greater spell of dread,
They broke the Golden Branch!

Then Una's bees went forth no more,
Mor's light grew sudden black,
Then storms would roughly rise and roar
With ruin in their track.
Then bade the Foes these Maidens Three
Their ban to bear, their doom to dree,
In three sad Lochs their lives should be
Till ancient Times come back.

Yet, saith the Scroll of norland height,
This shall not always hold,
If any seventh year, at night,
Comes forth a champion bold,
The waves recede,—then should his hand
Cast Fire upon th' Enchanted Land,
The Queen-Maids shall delivered stand
Triumphant as of old.