Dirge for Aoine and other poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Last night, last night, in the dark o' the moon
Into my dreams slid a fairy tune.
It slew the dreams that I dreamed of him
With its moonshine music, faint and dim.
What tune should the fairy pipers play
But “Over the Hills and Far Away.”

The music called to my idle feet,
And O! the music was wild and sweet:
I left my dreams and my lonely bed
And followed afar where the music led,
And never a tune did the pipers play
But “Over the Hills and Far Away.”

Over the hills and far away,
What love has tenderer words to say?
Love that lifteth or bows the head,
Love that liveth or love that's dead?
Hills that are far away are fair,
And I followed the ghost of my lover there.

We danced all night in a silent band,
I and my lover, hand in hand;

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We danced, nor knew till the dew was dry
That deep slept Donat and lone slept I.
We took no thought of the coming day
Over the hills and far away.

My eyes are blind with the growing light,
And O my grief, that the day was night!
For my heart is broke for my lover's eyes,
And all day long in my ears there cries
The tune of the fairy pipes that play
“Over the Hills and Far Away.”