| |
| SHALL mine eyes behold thy glory, oh, my country? | |
| Shall mine eyes behold thy glory? | |
| Or shall the darkness close around them ere the sun-blaze | |
| Break at last upon thy story? | |
| |
| When the nations ope for thee their queenly circle, | 5 |
| As sweet new sister hail thee, | |
| Shall these lips be sealed in callous death and silence, | |
| That have known but to bewail thee? | |
| |
| Shall the ear be deaf that only loved thy praises, | |
| When all men their tribute bring thee? | 10 |
| Shall the mouth be clay that sang thee in thy squalor, | |
| When all poets’ mouths shall sing thee? | |
| |
| Ah! the harpings and the salvos and the shoutings | |
| Of thy exiled sons returning, | |
| I should hear, tho’ dead and mouldered, and the grave-damps | 15 |
| Should not chill my bosom’s burning. | |
| |
| Ah! the tramp of feet victorious! I should hear them | |
| ’Mid the shamrocks and the mosses, | |
| And my heart should toss within the shroud and quiver | |
| As a captive dreamer tosses. | 20 |
| |
| I should turn and rend the cere-cloths round me— | |
| Giant sinews I should borrow— | |
| Crying, “Oh, my brothers, I have also loved her | |
| In her loneliness and sorrow! | |
| |
| “Let me join with you the jubilant procession, | 25 |
| Let me chant with you her story; | |
| Then, contented, I shall go back to the shamrocks, | |
| Now mine eyes have seen her glory!” | |
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