Lays from the West Part 4

Know ye no _requiem_? Ah! streamlets borrow Your tones from tearful voices! Mountains blue, O'er your high heads let heavy clouds of sorrow Tell that ye mourn the death of Patriot true.

Erin! green Erin! let your great heart feel it!

Bid all your sons and daughters, fair and brave, By dropping tears and mourning faces tell it, As they place laurels on a new-made grave!

Lowly he lies to day? Death's deep, calm slumber Has claimed another of our cherished ones; As he, the talented, ranks with the number Of Erin's lost, best-loved--her gifted sons!

"Barney Maglone" is dead! Let the winds sighing On their fleet wings, bear far the wail of woe To every land. Let them in wild, sad crying Tell out to all the sorrow that we know.

_Our_ Poet, and not all Westminster's glory Could ever give him half so loved a grave As this green mound, with simple cross, whose story Shall live 'mong annals of our gifted brave!

Methinks that far among old Ireland's mountains I hear the breezes sing a sad dirge, low, Wild, and yet soft, with tears from many fountains And murmuring riven wailing in their flow.

The grand old woods, with leafy branches waving, Mingle their many harps in one refrain, Blent with the waves, whose foam our coast is laving, Rolling afar, weeping aloud the strain--

Waters and wondrous deep, Mountains and valleys; Woodlands and heathery steep, Lone greenwood alleys,

Sound the long wail of woe, Tell the news, sad and low, Let all the wide world know Of the loved, lost one!

Waves of deep, boundless sea, Boiling for ever free, Tell through the time to be Of the bright, lost one!

Erin, whose bosom green, His own, his loved shrine has been, Feel the woe thou hast seen For the true, lost one!

His land, in weal or woe, In dark gloom or sunny glow, Do all Ireland's great ones know Such zeal as this lost one?

Bright dreams! ah, how fleeting Was his life's fair story!

Swift, swift was the meeting Of Death, with earth's glory!

Unrivalled in splendour His sky was at morning, Still brightening, its grandeur His noonday adorning.

But a dark cloud rose glooming, Ah, me! 'twas Death's shadow!

It chilled the heat blooming Of hillside or meadow!

Oh, waters and wondrous deep, Mountains and valleys, Woodlands and heathery steep, Lone greenwood alleys--

Sound the weird wail of woe, Tell the news sad and low, Let all the wide world knew Of Erin's best lost one!

WELCOME TO SPRING.

Oh, Spring! sweet Spring! with your golden hours, Thrice welcome back to our vales and bowers!

I have sighed for you through the Winter's gloom, And counted the months, till again you come.

Then, welcome, sweetest! I hail you here, Fairest child of the smiling year!

I have watched for your advent with longing eyes, As you lingered 'neath sunnier southern skies; I have wafted songs o'er the winds to thee The sighs of a lover's fond constancy.

Then, welcome, darling! to glen and grove, Child of gladness, and nope, and love!

I see your footprints along the woods, And your magic touch on the opening buds, Bursting to birth on hedge and tree, In promise of vernal life to be.

Then, welcome, Spring! to our land again, Bringing beauty and me in your happy train!

I have marked where you paused by the streamlet's side, There smiled the primrose, in early pride, All golden fair 'mid her leaves of green.

Dropped from your garland, oh, beauteous queen!

Then, welcome! to brighten our long-left bower Fair child of sunshine, and joy, and flowers!

I have paused entranced in the early morn, When the birds awoke as the day was born, Pealing welcomes wild in their native glee.

And my heart went out in their songs to thee, On the fresh winds borne o'er the hills along, Child of music, and mirth, and song!

Oh, Spring! sweet Spring! 'neath your gentle reign.

Life, light, and beauty are born again; And sad hearts, hopeless in Winter days, Break forth to singing glad songs of praise-- For that promise renewed in your yearly birth Of a fadeless Spring and a ransomed Earth!

ONLY "A LITTLE WHILE."

I saw the sun arise in light at morning; My being drank the beauty, like some dream That comes when all is dark, the gloom adorning With gilding mystic--bright--a soul-world gleam

I saw the noontide flush on grove and meadow, I heard the coo of birds that seem'd at rest; And the fair radiance, all undimm'd by shadow, Was like a foretaste of the bright and blest.

I saw, when evening's mellow sunlight glinted, Far and anear, gleaming on wood and gold; Mountain and valley shone all carmine-tinted, Old Ocean's burnished breast seem'd heaving gold.

Only "a little while" since morn rose brightly, Followed by noontide calm: a little while Since sunset glory lit all Nature, lightly Blessing the earth with one sweet parting smile.

Only "a little while" a meet type, showing How brief is earth's short day--how soon 'tis o'er; Morn, noon, and night, still onward, onward going, So soon to land us on the eternal sh.o.r.e.

Only "a little while," poor child of sadness!

The shadows must come first, the clouds and gloom; Then, the full glow of Heaven, the new born gladness, When Christ, thy risen Lord, prepares thee room.

In that fair Home, where He has pa.s.sed before us, And in "a little while," shall call us in; Here, with His love's own glory shining o'er us, Strong in His strength, we run that goal to win!

Only "a little while," gay child of pleasure!

The night is spent so far--the morn is near; Then think! oh, think! where hast thou hid thy treasure?

In these frail, dying toys that charm thee here.

Oh! in "a little while," their borrowed radiance Shall fade, as starlight fades when dawn is nigh; And all earth's glittering show, her smiles and fragrance, In the fierce fire of wrath shall melt and die!

Only "a little while!" would we but ponder These three brief words, their length and breadth and height A solemn sign to each, a ray of wonder From the Unseen, to light the spirit's night.

"A little while"--past, present, future blending Shall be a tale soon told, and pa.s.s'd for aye; Then the eternal life, that cannot die--unending, Undying woe, or Heaven's own dazzling day.

LIFE'S PATHWAY.