A book of women's verse

by Unknown

Ah! the harpings and the salvoes and the shouting of thy exiled sons returning!

I should hear though 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 would 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!’

MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE

1861-1907