“A strength was mine that knew no bound,
A witless strength that nothing planned:
When came the destined hour, I found
Some great deed in my hand.
“Forth from a cave I stept at Beigh:
O’er ivied cliffs the loose clouds rushed:—
With them I raced, and reached ere they
The loud seas sandhill-hushed.
“By Brandon’s cliff an eagle brown
O’erhung our wave-borne coracle:
I hurled at him my lance, and down
Like falling stars he fell.
“On that green shore of Ardrakese
An untamed horse I made my slave,
And forced him far o’er heaving seas,
And reinless rode the wave.
“Methinks my brow I might have laid
Against a bull’s, and there and then
Backward have pushed him up the glade,
And down the rocky glen!
“So ran my youth through dark and bright,
In deeds half jest. Their time is gone:
The glorious works of thoughtful might
For Oscar were, and Fionn.
“When met the hosts in mirth I fought:
My war-fields still with revel rang:
My sword with such a god was fraught
That, while it smote, it sang.
“My spear, unbidden, to my hand
Leaped, hawk-wise, for the battle’s sake:
Forth launched, it flashed along the land
With music in its wake.
“A shield I bore so charged and stored
With rage and yearnings for the fight,
When foes drew near it shook, and roared
Like breakers in the night:
“Then only when the iron feast
Of war its hungry heart had stilled,
It murmured, like a whispering priest
Or frothing pail new-filled.”