Irish verse

Thomas Moore

Erin! the tear and the smile in thine eyes

Blend like the rainbow that hangs in thy skies!

Shining through sorrow's stream,

Saddening through pleasure's beam,

Thy sons, with doubtful gleam,

Weep while they rise!

 

Erin! Thy silent tear never shall cease,

Erin! thy languid smile ne'er shall increase,

Till, like the rainbow's light,

Thy various tints unite,

And form, in Heaven's sight,

One arch of peace!

Francis Stuart

Over you falls the sea light, festive yet pale

As though from the trees hung candles alight in a gale

To fill with shadow your days, as the distant beat

Of waves fill the lonely width of many a western street.

Bare and grey and hung with berries of mountain ash,

Drifting through ages with tilted fields awash,

Steeped with your few lost lights in the long Atlantic dark,

Sea-birds'shelter,our shelter and ark.

John Todhunter

Bring from the craggy haunts of birch and pine

Thou wild wind, bring,

Keen forest odours from that realm of thine,

Upon thy wing!

 

O wind, O mighty, melancholy wind,

Blow through me, blow!

Thou blowest forgotten things into my mind

From long ago.