Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Ireland: Vol. V. 1876–79.

Introductory

Let Erin Remember the Days of Old

By Thomas Moore (1779–1852)

LET Erin remember the days of old,

Ere her faithless sons betrayed her;

When Malachi wore the collar of gold,

Which he won from her proud invader;

When her kings, with standard of green unfurled,

Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger;—

Ere the emerald gem of the western world

Was set in the crown of a stranger.

On Lough Neagh’s bank as the fisherman strays,

When the clear, cold eve ’s declining,

He sees the round towers of other days,

In the wave beneath him shining!

Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,

Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;

Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time

For the long-faded glories they cover!