Poems eBook

Denis Florence MacCarthy
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 281 pages of information about Poems.

Poems eBook

Denis Florence MacCarthy
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 281 pages of information about Poems.

All maidens will abhor us, and it’s very painful for us
To tell how faithless Maurice forgot his plighted vow: 
He thinks not of the breaking of the heart he late was seeking,
He but listens to her speaking, and but gazes on her brow;
And his heart has all consented, and his lips are ready now
        With the awful and irrevocable vow.

While the word is there abiding, lo! the crowd is now dividing,
And, with sweet and gentle gliding, in before him came a fawn;
It was the same that fled him, and that seemed so much to dread him,
When it down in triumph led him to Glengariff’s grassy lawn,
When, from rock to rock descending, to sweet Alice he was drawn,
        As through Ceim-an-eich he hunted from the dawn.

The magic chain is broken—­no fairy vow is spoken—­
From his trance he hath awoken, and once again is free;
And gone is Una’s palace, and vain the wild steed’s malice,
And again to gentle Alice down he wends through Ceim-an-eich: 
The moon is calmly shining over mountain, stream, and tree,
        And the yellow sea-plants glisten through the sea.

The sun his gold is flinging, the happy birds are singing,
And bells are gaily ringing along Glengariff’s sea;
And crowds in many a galley to the happy marriage rally
Of the maiden of the valley and the youth of Ceim-an-eich;
Old eyes with joy are weeping, as all ask on bended knee
        A blessing, gentle Alice, upon thee!

99.  The pass of Keim-an-eigh (the path of the deer) lies to the south-west of Inchageela, in the direction of Bantry Bay.

100.  The lusmore (or fairy cap), literally the great herb, ’Digitalis purpurea.’

101.  The Phooka is described as belonging to the malignant class of fairy beings, and he is as wild and capricious in his character as he is changeable in his form.  At one time an eagle or an ‘ignis fatuus,’ at another a horse or a bull, while occasionally he figures as a compound of the calf and goat.  When he assumes the form of a horse, his great object, according to a recent writer, seems to be to obtain a rider, and then he is in his most malignant glory.—­See Croker’s “Fairy Legends.”

102.  Mialloch, “the murmuring river” at Glengariff.—­Smith’s “Cork.”

103.  Glashenglora, a mountain torrent, which finds its way into the Atlantic Ocean through Glengariff, in the west of the county of Cork.  The name, literally translated, signifies “the noisy green water.”—­Barry’s “Songs of Ireland,” p. 173.

104.  There is a great square rock, literally resembling the description in the text, which stands near the Glengariff entrance to the pass of Ceim-an-eich.

National Poems and Songs.

ADVANCE!

God bade the sun with golden step sublime,
                            Advance! 
He whispered in the listening ear of Time,
                            Advance! 
He bade the guiding spirits of the stars,
With lightning speed, in silver shining cars,
Along the bright floor of his azure hall,
                            Advance! 
Sun, stars, and time obey the voice, and all
                            Advance!

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Poems from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.