| |
NE thence the Irishe Rivers absent were: | |
| Sith no lesse famous then the rest they bee, | |
| And ioyne in neighbourhood of kingdome nere, | |
| Why should they not likewise in love agree, | |
| And ioy likewise this solemne day to see? | 5 |
| They saw it all, and present were in place; | |
| Though I them all, according their degree, | |
| Cannot recount, nor tell their hidden race, | |
| Nor read the salvage countries thorough which they pace. | |
| |
| There was the Liffy rolling downe the lea; | 10 |
| The sandy Slane; the stony Anbrian; | |
| The spacious Shenan spreading like a sea; | |
| The pleasant Boyne; the fishy fruitfull Ban; | |
| Swift Awniduff, which of the English man | |
| Is cal’de Blacke-water; and the Liffar deep; | 15 |
| Sad Trowis, that once his people over-ran; | |
| Strong Allo tombling from Slewlogher steep; | |
| And Mulla mine, whose waves I whilom taught to weep. | |
| |
| And there the three renowned Brethren were, | |
| Which that great gyant Blomius begot | 20 |
| Of the faire nimph Rheüsa wandring there: | |
| One day, as she to shunne the season whot | |
| Under Slewboome in shady grove was got, | |
| This gyant found her, and by force deflower’d; | |
| Whereof conceiving, she in time forth brought | 25 |
| These three faire sons, which being thenceforth powrd | |
| In three great rivers ran, and many countreis scowrd. | |
| |
| The first the gentle Shure that, making way | |
| By sweet Clonmell, adornes rich Waterford; | |
| The next, the stubborne Newre whose waters gray | 30 |
| By faire Kilkenny and Rosseponte boord; | |
| The third, the goodly Barow which doth hoord | |
| Great heaps of salmons in his deepe bosóme: | |
| All which, long sundred, doe at last accord | |
| To ioyne in one, ere to the sea they come; | 35 |
| So, flowing all from one, all one at last become. | |
| |
| There also was the wide embayed Mayre; | |
| The pleasaunt Bandon crownd with many a wood; | |
| The spreading Lee that, like an island fayre, | |
| Encloseth Corke with his divided flood; | 40 |
| And balefull Oure late staind with English blood: | |
| With many more whose names no tongue can tell. | |
| All which that day in order seemly good | |
| Did on the Thames attend, and waited well | |
| To doe their dueful service, as to them befell. | 45 |
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