After Death.
FANNY PARNELL
Shall mine eyes behold thy glory, O 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, as a 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?
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 shouting of thy exiled sons returning!
I should hear, tho’ dead and mouldered, and the grave-damps 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.
I should turn and rend the cere-clothes round me, giant sinews I should borrow—
Crying, “O my brothers, I have also loved her in her loneliness and sorrow.
“Let me join with you the jubilant procession: let me chant with you her story;
Then contented I shall go back to the shamrocks, now mine eyes have seen her glory!”
The Dead at Clonmacnois.
(From the Irish of Enoch o’ Gillan.)
T. W. ROLLESTON
In a quiet watered land, a land of roses,
Stands Saint Kieran’s City fair;
And the warriors of Erin in their famous generations
Slumber there.
There beneath the dewy hillside sleep the noblest of the
Clan of Conn,
Each below his stone with name in branching Ogham
And the sacred knot thereon.
There they laid to rest the seven Kings of Tara,
There the sons of Cairbrè sleep—
Battle banners of the Gael, that in Kieran’s plain of crosses
Now their final posting keep.
And in Clonmacnois they laid the men of Teffia,
And right many a lord of Breagh;
Deep the sod above Clan Creidè and Clan Conaill,
Kind in hall and fierce in fray.
Many and many a son of Conn the Hundred-Fighter
In the red earth lies at rest;
Many a blue eye of Clan Colman the turf covers,
Many a swan-white breast.