Bony my arms and bare
Could you but see them ’neath the mantle’s flap.
Wizened and worn, that once were round and fair,
When kings lay in my lap.
’Tis, “O my God” with me,
Many prayers said, yet more prayers left undone;
If I could spread my garment in the sun
I’d say them, every one.
The sea-wave talks,
Athwart the frozen earth grim winter stalks;
Young Fermod, son of Mugh, ne’er said me nay,
Yet he comes not to-day.
How still they row,
Oar dipped by oar the wavering reeds among,
To Alma’s shore they press, a ghostly throng,
Deeply they sleep and long.
No lightsome laugh
Disturbs my fireside’s stillness; shadows fall,
And quiet forms are gathering round my hearth,
Yet lies the hand of silence on them all.
I do not deem it ill
That a nun’s veil should rest upon my head;
But finer far my feast-robe’s various hue
To me, when all is said.
My very cloak grows old;
Grey its tint, its woof is frayed and thin;
I seem to feel grey hairs within its fold,
Or are they on my skin?
O happy Isle of Ocean,
Thy flood-tide leaps to meet eddying wave
Lifting it up and onward. Till the grave
The sea-wave comes not after ebb for me.
I find them not
Those sunny sands I knew so well of yore;
Only the surf’s sad roar sounds up to me,
My tide will turn no more.