LOVE SONG
Sweet in her green dell the flower of beauty slumbers,
Lulled by the faint breezes sighing through her hair;
Sleeps she and hears not the melancholy numbers
Breathed to my sad lute 'mid the lonely air.
Down from the high cliffs the rivulet is teeming
To wind round the willow banks that lure him from above;
O that in tears, from my rocky prison streaming,
I too could glide to the bower of my love!
Ah, where the woodbines with sleepy arms have wound her,
Opes she her eyelids at the dream of my lay,
Listening, like the dove, while the fountains echo round her,
To her lost mate's call in the forests far away.
Come then, my bird! For the peace thou ever bearest,
Still heaven's messenger of comfort to me,
Come, this fond bosom, O faithfulest and fairest
Bleeds with its death-wound its wound of love for thee!
George Darley
THE WHISTLIN' THIEF
When Pat came over the hill,
His colleen fair to see,
His whistle low, but shrill,
The signal was to be;
(Pat whistles.)
'Mary,' the mother said,
'Some one is whistling sure;'
Says Mary, '‘Tis only the wind
Is whistling through the door.'