University of Virginia Library


70

KILLINEY BAY

To Murrough O'Brien
Here's quietness for all who come,
Rest for the weary heart and head,
A fragrant chamber, a hid room
With downiest pillows, softest bed.
The lucent sky, amber and azure,
The sea, a glittering shield of light,
And glory poured withouten measure,
Flooding to starlight and the night.
Mountain on mountain: spear on spear:
Brown hills that fold the singing streams.
(How many a day, how many a year
I had the mountains but in dreams!)
A Spirit at dawns and evenfalls
Glides by, her finger on her lip!
Yet there is sound: the blackbird calls,
The poising sea-birds scream and dip.

71

The thin hill coppice, wild with starlings,
Runs like a babbling stream in noise,
Where bridegrooms chatter to their darlings
Of house-building and nuptial joys.
The sea breaks with a lapping soft,
Lulling to quiet deeper still.
O silence of the sky aloft
And silence of the heavenly hill!
Who would have quietness and rest,
Peace for the heavy heart and head,
Come and be gathered to a breast,
A quiet chamber, a soft bed!