| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Lament | | By Edward Walsh (1805–1850) |
| | | WHEN the folk of my household | |
| Suppose I am sleeping, | |
| On the cold sod that ’s o’er you | |
| The lone watch I’m keeping. | |
| My fondest! my fairest! | 5 |
| We may now sleep together! | |
| I’ve the cold earth’s damp odour, | |
| And I’m worn from the weather. | |
| |
| Remember that lone night | |
| I last spent with you, Love, | 10 |
| Beneath the dark sloe-tree | |
| When the icy wind blew, Love. | |
| High praise to thy Saviour | |
| No sin-stain had found you, | |
| That your virginal glory | 15 |
| Shines brightly around you! | |
| |
| The priests and the friars | |
| Are ceaselessly chiding | |
| That I love a young maiden | |
| In life not abiding. | 20 |
| O! I’d shelter and shield you | |
| If wild storms were swelling— | |
| And O, my wreck’d hope, | |
| That the cold earth ’s your dwelling! | | | | |
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