| |
| THERE came to the beach a poor Exile of Erin, | |
| The dew on his thin robe was heavy and chill; | |
| For his country he sighed, when at twilight repairing | |
| To wander alone by the wind-beaten hill. | |
| But the day-star attracted his eye’s sad devotion, | 5 |
| For it rose o’er his own native isle of the ocean, | |
| Where once, in the fire of his youthful emotion, | |
| He sang the bold anthem of Erin go bragh. | |
| |
| “Sad is my fate!” said the heart-broken stranger, | |
| “The wild deer and wolf to a covert can flee; | 10 |
| But I have no refuge from famine and danger, | |
| A home and a country remain not to me. | |
| Never again in the green sunny bowers | |
| Where my forefathers lived shall I spend the sweet hours, | |
| Or cover my harp with the wild woven flowers, | 15 |
| And strike to the numbers of Erin go bragh! | |
| |
| “Erin my country! though sad and forsaken, | |
| In dreams I revisit thy sea-beaten shore; | |
| But alas! in a far foreign land I awaken, | |
| And sigh for the friends who can meet me no more! | 20 |
| O cruel fate! wilt thou never replace me | |
| In a mansion of peace, where no perils can chase me? | |
| Never again shall my brothers embrace me? | |
| They died to defend me, or live to deplore! | |
| |
| “Where is my cabin-door fast by the wildwood? | 25 |
| Sisters and sire! did ye weep for its fall? | |
| Where is the mother that looked on my childhood? | |
| And where is the bosom friend dearer than all? | |
| O my sad heart! long abandoned by pleasure, | |
| Why did it doat on a fast-fading treasure! | 30 |
| Tears, like the rain-drops, may fall without measure; | |
| But rapture and beauty they cannot recall. | |
| |
| “Yet all its sad recollection suppressing, | |
| One dying wish my lone bosom can draw, | |
| Erin! an exile bequeaths thee his blessing! | 35 |
| Land of my forefathers! Erin go bragh! | |
| Buried and cold, when my heart stills her motion, | |
| Green be thy fields, sweetest isle of the ocean! | |
| And thy harp-striking bards sing aloud with devotion,— | |
| Erin mavournin!—Erin go bragh!” 1 | 40 |
