LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 DDDDETba3D7 
 

 
 >* A 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 

 
 
 ll» • 
 
 
 ;♦ . *^ -^^ -.^ 
 
 *.* . ** "^ «: 
 
 N • 
 
 
 
 
 
 V .^^°-> 
 
 
 
 
 

 CLONTARF. 
 
[\m]2n} 00 
 
 MOITARCH OF IRELAND. AD 1014 
 
CLONTARF 
 
 OR THE 
 
 FIELD OF THE GREEN BANNER 
 
 AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE. 
 
 AND OTHER POEMS; 
 
 
 BY 
 
 J. AUGUSTUS SHEA. 
 
 cow^ 
 
 Iry^ 
 
 NEW- YORK: XC ^VJMSHV ^ 
 
 D. APPLETON & Co. 200 BROADWAY 
 1843. 
 
 \% 
 

 JAMES B. SWAIN, PRINTER, 
 No. 68 Barclay St. 
 
TO 
 
 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, Esq. 
 
 THIS V01LUME 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 SV HIS OBEDIEJTT SERVANT, 
 
 JOHN AUGUSTUS SHEA. 
 
INTR ODUCTION 
 
 Long has it been my ardent hope, 
 
 Cherished through mawy a cheerless day, 
 That Heaven would yet some vista ope 
 
 For Freedom's long excluded ray ; 
 That agents — not the deadly steel. 
 Crimsoned by war's infuriate zeal ; 
 Or siege or rapine, which but fling 
 
 Freedom whole centuries from her course j 
 And all the viler passions bring 
 
 To subjugate her moral force — 
 But Mind, commissioned from above, 
 Centre of universal love, 
 Order, and Law's harmonious plan, 
 And Moral Unity of man — 
 Would yet arise, in silent might, 
 
 Would justify the long oppressed, 
 
¥111. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 And Freedom's flag of life and light 
 Wave from some world-commanding hight. 
 
 Where Heaven's approving smile could rest. 
 Nor has my hope, though born of pain 
 And suffering, prophecied in vain. 
 E'en as I sing, a Spirit new. 
 
 Bright and regenerate, rides the storm » 
 Pours philanthropic sunlight through. 
 
 And waves the banner of Reform — 
 Reform of inner life — the spring 
 Of good in people and in king. 
 
 And I would, even with humble power. 
 
 Share in the promise of the hour. 
 
 And feel the Spirit — prisoned long 
 
 By mountain walls of world-wide wrong — 
 
 Which, bursting through its bonds, at length 
 
 Asserts its intellectual strength ; 
 
 Dispenses, with resistless might, 
 
 Rich floods of universal light. 
 
 Which cast into eternal shade 
 
 Errors that were accepted truth. 
 And, like Minerva, full arrayed — 
 
 Wisdom of years and nerve of youth — 
 Stands on the battlements of earth 
 And claims the world for second birth. 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX. 
 
 If ever War's horrific tide 
 Can to high heaven be justified. 
 It is when tyranny v^ould strike 
 Law, Freedom, Virtue, Truth, alike ; 
 Arrest, with desperate hand, the mind, 
 
 And stay, with sacrilegious force, 
 The Sun of Truth, by Heaven designed 
 
 To light Creation in its course, 
 And show us in harmonious light 
 
 Our true relation to each other ; 
 How each has no distinctive right 
 
 Of Earth, our universal mother. 
 This is the principle, the aim, 
 
 Hope, motive, end which justifies 
 The sabre's flash, the cannon's flame. 
 
 When Freedom waileth to the skies. 
 Like a lone mother watching Death 
 Contending with her infant's breath. 
 
 Hence I, a part of re-born time, 
 Would weave my tributary rhyme 
 Of memories gathered from the grave 
 Of Freedom's long-departed brave ; 
 Of deeds of other days, which tell 
 Of independence guarded well, 
 By Freedom's ever faithful band — 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The generous heart and ready hand — 
 The warriors of ray native land. 
 
 No tale of carnage do I wake. 
 
 Nor battle sing for battle's sake ; 
 
 But show what Virtue loves to dare — 
 
 What joys forego — what dangers share- 
 
 What friendly links — what kindred ties 
 
 What sweet affiliations sever, 
 For that best blessing of the skies — 
 
 Freedom, triumphant and forever. 
 
CLONTARF 
 
 Clontarf — ■ of memories ever dear 
 
 To heart and spirit, which thy story, 
 Through the dim lapse of many a year, 
 
 Illmnines with its rays of glory, 
 Pride of the ancient days, to thee 
 I wake my humble minstrelsy : 
 To thee, my native land, whose name, 
 Inscribed in adamantine fame, 
 vShall perish not till Time shall perish, 
 
 And History lay aside her pen. 
 And generations cease to cherish 
 
 Deeds which are monuments of men 
 Such men — O heaven ! had we but now 
 
 Their burning chivalry, to brand 
 In fire-words on the recreant brow, 
 
12 CLONTARF. 
 
 Deeply as cuts the furrowing plough, 
 
 " Here is a foe to Erin's land !" 
 How few would, fettered thus, remain 
 In bondage worse than Afric's chain — 
 The bondage of the sow/, that shrinks 
 From that of which it ever thinks, 
 Freedom, the only bliss below 
 Which weareth not the garb of woe — 
 Which keepeth, with essential truth, 
 Tlie heaven of its immortal youth: 
 How few, like yonder recreant thing 
 
 Who struts in titles of to-day — 
 Those bright, accursed weeds that spring 
 
 Shutting sweet flowers from nature's ray, 
 Would thus degenerately bend 
 
 In vassalage to foreign throne, 
 But, strong as cataracts, descend 
 
 To vindicate their nation's own. 
 And cancel, on some field sublime. 
 The deepest curse that fell since Time 
 Wept o'er the birth of damning crime ? 
 
 Clontarf ! full oft with sad delight 
 I gaze upon each hallowed sight, 
 And o'er my boyhood's dwelling flee 
 On tireless pinions " fancy free." 
 
CLONTARF. 13 
 
 The lake with emerald margin bound, 
 
 The hill-top's heavenward height, 
 By day with golden sumbeams crowned, 
 
 With silver stars by night : 
 The mighty deep, or lulled to rest, 
 With gently undulated breast. 
 Or leaping up with giant crest, 
 High as the eagle builds his nest, 
 
 Enthroned in mountain glee ; 
 Let tempests rage or breezes blow, 
 Let surges break or wavelets flow. 
 Be robed thy plains with winter snow, 
 Or wild-flowers bright as L-is' bow, 
 By morning's grey or sunset's glow, 
 
 Thou 'rt beautiful to me. 
 Oh ! in those long departed days. 
 
 How joyous must thy scenery be, 
 Wlien every mountain caught the praise 
 
 Of Freedom from the free ; 
 And Erin's voice, from shore to shore. 
 In one cathedral chorus bore 
 
 To heaven her jubilee ! 
 Happy were they who saw those hours 
 With eyes undimmed by Sorrow's showers, 
 Who died without the will to roam, 
 And rest beside their childhood's home. 
 2 
 
14 CLONTARF. 
 
 Calmly they sleep, who, in that time 
 
 Whose pride survives the death of ages, 
 
 Stood self-ennobled and sublime, 
 
 And, fired by minstrels, saints and sages. 
 
 By sword and song, and prayer and lore, 
 
 Against the Dane the sun-burst bore. 
 
 Yet though in strong historic light 
 
 Our isle was brightest of the bright, 
 
 Though wiser or more sacred laws 
 
 Had never pillared Freedom's cause, 
 
 Yet was her sacred sanctuary 
 
 Not from defiling influence free, 
 
 Nor all secure from Treason's hand 
 
 The throne and altar of the land. 
 
 'T was not the simple peasant's wile 
 
 That kindled discord in the isle, 
 
 That flung its fiery terror round. 
 
 And woke the war's volcanic sound : 
 
 Envy, and rivalry, and hate, 
 
 First sprung, like weeds, among the great — 
 
 In the high places which should stand 
 
 Like beacon-glories o'er the land. 
 
 Exemplars, beaming pure and wide, 
 
 Alike a promise and a pride. 
 
CLONTARF. 16 
 
 Against the rightful monarch's power 
 Maolmorda rose in rebel hour ; 
 He summoned to his counsel's aid 
 Each chieftain whom his sceptre swayed, 
 And to his will, with fiendish arts. 
 Moulded their minds and nerved their hearts ; 
 Bade them for glorious deeds prepare. 
 And nursed the seed of treason there ; 
 No longer should Lagenia own 
 Subordinance to Bryan's throne — 
 Thenceforward should Lagenia be 
 Throned in her own supremacy. 
 
 To such too fatal words they bowed. 
 And talked of freedom long and loud ; 
 A bright new world of light and hope 
 And liberty began to ope ; 
 Day-dreams and visions rose around, 
 And every sod became a mound 
 O'er which a chieftain's banner flew, 
 And round it iron clansmen drew ; 
 The Future whispered to their ear 
 Words they had been unused to hear. 
 And sights they were unused to see. 
 That win the million wondrously. 
 
16 CLONTARF. 
 
 In fancy, e'en the serf became 
 At once a man of note and name, 
 And all wild draughts of vantage drew 
 From fount so Lethean and so new. 
 
 The Monarch of the Isle deplored, 
 
 As patriot monarch should, 
 The bloody refuge of the sword. 
 
 E'en though the cause was good ; 
 He wept that warrior e'er should steel 
 His heart against his country's weal ; 
 That ties of country, nobler far 
 Than even those consanguine are. 
 Should be dissevered and disgraced ! 
 Rather such feelings were effaced 
 From the pure page of nature's laws. 
 Than stained by such dishonoring cause ! 
 Nor to the monarch on that throne 
 Was this regret confined alone : 
 Where'er his sceptre's shadow fell 
 Prevailed that feeling deeply well. 
 
 From palace hall to cottage door 
 The minstrels sang of deeds of yore ; 
 They raised the memory-songs of Youth, 
 Songs of traditionary truth, 
 
CLONTARF. 17 
 
 Which had descended sweetly down 
 Time's current, gathering renown 
 From that first hour when, hand to hand, 
 The conquered Danan of the land 
 Set between them and Iber's race 
 The covenant stone upon its place,' 
 Whose graven promise there remained, 
 Undimmed, unbroken and unstained. 
 
 Brief privilege was there for grief, 
 A nation's glory claimed relief ; 
 The danger festering in the land 
 Required a quick and skilful hand, 
 A bold and energetic leech, 
 Ere yet the vital spring it reach : 
 And such was he, to check and save — 
 The good old monarch, wise and brave. 
 His mandate's out, the ready shield 
 
 Resigns its honored rust again ; 
 The steed is harnessed for the field, 
 
 Youthhood enkindles aged men. 
 And manhood's energy has strung 
 Hearts which but yesterday were young. 
 
 The ocatherino; clansmen, fast and far 
 Arose to hail the rising war ; 
 
18 CLONTARF. 
 
 And, kindling with the patriot fire, 
 The minstrel seized the ecstatic lyre, 
 And, raptured with the theme and time, 
 Thus weaved his rude and wizard rhyme 
 
 Sons* 
 
 Farewell the breezy mountain, 
 
 Where Boyhood reveled long. 
 And hail the field of Freedom's fight, 
 
 And the gathering of her strong. 
 Not gladlier the forests green 
 
 Expand to April's light. 
 Than the hearts of Erin's warriors 
 
 To the rapture of the fight. 
 
 There floats our hallowed banner. 
 
 Our glory and our guide ; 
 In olden days it led our sires 
 
 Through many a path of pride ; 
 A greener verdure 's glowing 
 
 Where'er its beauty waves. 
 And the headland bold, where 't is unrolled, 
 
 A prouder billow laves. 
 
CLONTARF. 19 
 
 Ne'er sung a nation's minstrel 
 
 A banner of such might ; 
 Nor e'er did victor-warrior bring 
 
 A nobler from the fight. 
 Then wave it on the mountain, 
 
 And o'er the armed plain, 
 Until once more it sweep and soar 
 
 In triumph o'er the Dane . 
 
 Not to the bosom, strong and stern, 
 
 Of king and chieftain, bard and kerne, 
 
 Did the high impulse of the hour 
 
 Alone confine its kindling power ; • 
 
 To Woman's gentler breast the flame 
 
 With a more sad persuasion came — 
 
 A spring-like radiance, which appears 
 
 More lovely in its mist of tears. 
 
 Where pride and love were sweetly blent 
 
 Into one mystic element. 
 
 The faithful matron wept to part 
 
 The glory of her house and heart ; 
 
 The maiden, on whose soul the hope 
 
 Of years had just begun to ope. 
 
 Drooped in the pallid Fear that cast 
 
 A death-shade o'er her brightest feelings ; 
 
20 CLONTARF. 
 
 To.her the Future was the Past, 
 A tomb of desolate revealings, 
 
 That mocked and marred e'en hope's endeavor, 
 
 And told her Joy had gone for ever. 
 
 The mother, who for years had gazed, 
 With all a mother's soul of pride. 
 
 Upon her son, and fondly praised 
 
 His step upon the mountain side, 
 As towards his home at eve he hied. 
 
 Wordless, and passionless and lost. 
 
 Beheld him join the warrior host. 
 
 And, if no sorrow dimmed her eye, 
 
 The fountain of her heart was dry. 
 
 Not fond the less, but sterner far. 
 
 The father blessed his manly boy. 
 
 Spoke thrillingly of Freedom's war. 
 And all its pageantry of joy : 
 
 Of battles, arms and chieftains told. 
 
 And glories of the days of old ; 
 
 Emania's Red Branch Knights, and all 
 
 The wars of Morni and Fingal ; 
 
 And ran the current down of Time, 
 
 Through scenes endeared and deeds sublime ; 
 
 Told how his own good sword and shield 
 
 Flashed fear through many a hostile field. 
 
CLONTARF. 21 
 
 And sighed that he could not again 
 
 Mix in the strife of vahant men, 
 
 And that his aged hmbs became 
 
 Inglorious recreants of his name ; 
 
 And then, inspired, gave thanks to heaven 
 
 That to his heart and home were given 
 
 A son to vindicate his fame, 
 
 And Avave the half expiring flame, 
 
 In Freedom's torch-race, as the bold 
 
 Hellenic youths were wont of old ; 
 
 Then, tottering to its resting place. 
 
 That sword of triumph he would take : 
 " Gird on this heirdom of our race. 
 
 And wield it for thy country's sake !" 
 Thus would he say, with feeling strong. 
 Or thus would twine the gift with song : 
 
 Strong pulse of my bosom. 
 Fair light of my brow, 
 
 I never have loved thee 
 More fondly than now ; 
 
22 CLONTARF. 
 
 Than now that I give thee 
 To foe and to field, 
 
 To conquer or perish, 
 But never to yield. 
 
 Take the sword of thy father, 
 
 A field's to be won, 
 Let it flash o'er that field 
 
 Like the beams of the sun ; 
 If it sink, let it be, 
 
 With the pride of its dawn. 
 As near to its heaven 
 
 As when it was drawn. 
 
 By the skill of a freemen, 
 
 For freedom 't was made, 
 In the hands of a freeman 
 
 'T will not be betrayed. 
 I have loved it — how dearly 
 
 Yon heaven can see — > 
 Almost with the love-spell 
 
 That binds me to thee. 
 
 That sword once was light 
 As a rush in my hand, 
 
CLONTARF. 23 
 
 But now I can scarcely 
 
 Its movement commando 
 
 No matter ! come hither ! 
 Come hither, my boy ! 
 
 There, take it — -Oh God, 
 What fulfihnent of joy. 
 
 Go forth in young glory, 
 
 Go vanquish the Dane, 
 And SM^ell the proud story 
 
 Our land must retain. 
 Go ! leave not a footprint 
 
 Of foes on our sod : 
 For glory and Erin, 
 
 For freedom and God. 
 
 Here turn we to a rugged scene. 
 
 Which o'er the Atlantic looks afar, 
 With many a pleasant dell betvreen, 
 Up which, in lines of silver green, 
 
 The waves would rush in mimic war. 
 'T was such a paradise as Love 
 
 Alone can build, without the aid 
 Of garden and romantic grove. 
 
 Or the alternate light and shade 
 
24 CLONTARF. 
 
 Of fountain, as the foliage, stirred 
 By breath of breeze, or wing of bird, 
 Might let a transitory ray 
 Among its sleeping waters play : 
 For Love can build such places, bright 
 As e'er imaginations light 
 Illumined in its zenith power, 
 Whate'er the site, whate'er the hour. 
 'T was a lone cottage from whose door 
 The eye could see the billow soar, 
 Or slumber, as an infant still. 
 As ruled the Tempest Spirit's will. 
 The ear could catch the evening song 
 Climbing the weedy cliffs along, 
 A vesper music sweeter far 
 Than wall-bound psalms cathedral are. 
 The rocks, of nature's stormiest mould, 
 Were high, precipitous and bold : 
 Here, like a phalanx firm they gave 
 Defiance to the leaguering wave. 
 There, in broad cavern, would receive 
 
 Sweet Echo, who delighted well 
 Through the soft lapse of summer eve 
 
 To sing and weave her magic spell ; 
 Here, piled in beetling towers would frown 
 Death through the perilous waters down. 
 
CLONTARF. 25 
 
 And, lessening, form on either hand 
 A crescent reef around the strand. 
 There oft along that headland way, 
 At dawn or. close of summer day, 
 'T was pleasant to behold each ray 
 Of sunlight at its ocean play. 
 Or, silvering beautifully far, 
 The fair and thoughtful Evening Star. 
 
 Such was the lone wild scene before 
 The veteran Ibar's cottage door ; 
 Around its walls the trees were few 
 Which from it westward shadows threw, 
 But when the sun went seaward down 
 The radiance of its golden crown 
 Would, with its farewell light, illume 
 The precincts of the cheerful room. 
 Or linger, like a lover, long 
 The rosy lattice wreaths among. 
 
 As though to woo the beauty bright 
 Who, often sitting there alone. 
 Rivalled — with lustre all her own. 
 
 Soul, heart and eyes — > his setting light. 
 
 MoNONiA was young and fair 
 As child of mingled earth and air 
 3 
 
26 CLONTARF. 
 
 Could be : and Innocence and Grace 
 
 With sister rivalry would seek 
 Which could, with happier action, trace 
 
 Their mingled charms on brow and cheeks 
 She, ere her lip had learned to speak 
 
 A mother's name, was motherless, 
 Nor with her shared that mother meek 
 
 The ectasy of that caress 
 
 Which words could never yet express. 
 But He, who tempereta the wind 
 
 To the shorn lamb, in mercy gave 
 A strength to her confiding mind. 
 
 To breast the world's tempestuous wave. 
 And, 'mid its dangers wild and dim. 
 To turn her hope and heart to Him. 
 She early learned to bend the knee 
 
 At matin and at vesper hour. 
 And ask of heaven that she might be 
 
 For its pure clime a fitted flower z 
 And there in holiness abide. 
 Close by her sainted mother's side, 
 Seeing, in God's own dwelling-place, 
 That earthly lost one face to face. 
 Full soon the beam of childhood grew 
 
 Into that more dilated light 
 
CLONTARF. 27 
 
 Which round the social orbit threw 
 
 A stronger, more defined delight ; 
 And, circling up life's firmanent, 
 
 Asserted its ascendant right, 
 While to all eyes and hearts it sent 
 
 A radiance still more warm and bright. 
 Thus sixteen ripening summers rolled, 
 Rounding her symmetry of mould ; 
 And every hour her mind impressed 
 
 With dreams of feelings yet to be, 
 Waking within her trembling breast 
 
 A new, unquiet jubilee ; 
 Dehghtful, strange and undefined, 
 The meteor of her dazzled mind. 
 
 Oft mid those rocky headlands, tossed 
 At Nature's random round the coast. 
 Did Desmond's fearless footsteps climb 
 In lad-hood's gay, elastic time ; 
 Leaving below his little skiff. 
 And scaling up the beetling cliff*; 
 Fitting his foothold in the cleft 
 The ever loosening fragments left. 
 And grasping, with adventurous hand, 
 Some withy tendril swaying wild, 
 Would reach the mid-way table land 
 
28 CLONTARF. 
 
 Where the inviting wild-flower smiled, 
 
 With rocks on rocks still o'er him piled ; 
 And breathing there a deeper breath, 
 
 Again the ambitious task essayed, 
 Till from the top he looked beneath 
 
 And saw the wavelets as they played 
 Around his tiny skiff, below, 
 Dancing among them to and fro. 
 
 There, sitting on some mossy seat. 
 
 Or gathering fruit or berries red, 
 Or some pet lambkin at her feet. 
 
 Entwining wild-flowers round its head, 
 The fair Mononia oft he met. 
 And caught her eyes of glowing jet ; 
 And blushing, hastened down the glen, 
 
 And w^andered, oft he knew not whither, 
 Yet, timid to approach again, 
 
 Would stray by magic impulse thither ; 
 And, if she were not there, would trace 
 Her form, in spirit, in the place ; 
 And then would roam through brake and bower, 
 Whiling away the evening hour. 
 By love's transition less he thought 
 Of joys his soul had lately sought ; 
 
CLONTARF. 29 
 
 Nor beetling cliff, nor wild-flower now 
 
 With daring flushed his eager brow ; 
 
 No more at eve he plied his oar 
 I 
 
 Among the waters by the shore ; 
 
 But sought, with love's first timid tread, 
 
 That now eiysian spot which she 
 Had with her wand of beauty made 
 
 A shrine for love's divinity. 
 Less often now Mononia came : 
 Haply she too had felt the flame 
 Which Pilgrim Love had lighted there. 
 
 And where with breathing frankincense 
 He fed his censer till the air 
 
 With his own spirit grew intense ! 
 Etherial Being — essence bright — • 
 
 Soul of the world — Eternal Love ! 
 Revealing, to our mortal sight, 
 Reality of that delight 
 
 Whose living fountain is above. 
 How sensitive, how pure thou art 
 Through thine own earthly heaven, the heart ; 
 Shrinking away from every tone, 
 And glance which are not all thine own : 
 Yea ! from thine own, at first conceiving. 
 Timid and trembling, yet believing. 
 3* 
 
30 CLONTARF. 
 
 The eve they met — the fair and young — 
 A bright, new world around them flung ; 
 It was an epoch with whose birth 
 Came all the fiiture of this earth. 
 Nor night, nor day should ever more 
 A shadow cast, a beam restore. 
 That wakened not some thought or sigh 
 In either breast for hours gone by I 
 
 Now called to academic toil, 
 
 To cultivate the classic soil, 
 
 Made sacred by the Mantuan's lyre. 
 
 And glorious with Homeric fire, 
 
 Desmond revisited those groves 
 
 Whose shadowy places Learning loves, 
 
 And, where pale Science furls her wing 
 
 Beside the pure Pierian spring. 
 
 He oft had read, with eager eyes, 
 
 " Let him who winneth bear the prize !" 
 
 And, wrapt in love of classic lore. 
 
 He searched the golden page, 
 And many a palm of triumph bore 
 
 From those of riper age. 
 And thus became, in danger's hour, 
 A portion of his country's power. 
 
CLONTARF. 31 
 
 For then the Nation's mind was felt 
 Where'er the love of letters dwelt, 
 Wherever Cadmus' heavenly dower 
 Had built its citadel of povf er, 
 There did the bright Gal-grena rise^ 
 
 Mid hearts to whom its every fold 
 Was dear as hopes that light the skies, 
 
 And o'er their arch our home behold. 
 Then where that battle meteor shone, 
 Rushed the high-minded warrior on, 
 And with the patriot tide of life 
 Swelled the high triumph of the strife : 
 Nor did they deem it vainly shed, 
 If only Freedom's banner led. 
 Such were the principles instilled 
 
 In Erin's academic halls, 
 Such were the principles which filled 
 
 With warrior men Minerva's walls ; 
 Such hallowed Lacedemon's name. 
 And gave Thermopylae to Fame ; 
 With such the Spartan youth were fired ; 
 For such too Socrates expired - — 
 He who beheld the Christian light, 
 
 Prophetic of its birth. 
 But died before its morning height 
 
 Qhc^/] fr]r,vv on the earth : 
 
 / 
 
82 CLONTARF. 
 
 Such were the tenets Erin taught, 
 
 And such the lore which Desmond sought. 
 
 Thence in that day her mind went forth 
 To East and West, and South and North ; 
 Then did the world's wide nations hail, 
 
 Where'er the sun was known to smile. 
 The trophied minds of Innisfail — 
 
 The children of the ocean-isle, 
 Who thus their hallowed treasures bore 
 To civilize the savage shore. 
 And many, from whose bosom first 
 Knowledge to strength and power was nursed, 
 The sacred groves of learning sought, 
 Where pious Columbanus taught. 
 Where daring Erigena's hght,^ 
 Caught from the Areopagite, 
 Its bright but dangerous lustre shed. 
 Which if but Truth's, the land had led ; 
 And France, chivalric, proud and brave, 
 Hailed Erin's pilgrims of ihe wave, 
 And Italy, of classic ground, 
 Donatus with a mitre crowned '^ 
 All testify our land was then 
 The pride of Learning's chosen men. 
 
CLONTARF. 33 
 
 Oh ! Erin's golden age of time ! 
 Whose every moment was sublime, 
 With all the virtues v^hich could shed 
 Glories upon a nation's head — 
 Religion — Universal Love — 
 Pointing the pilgrim's soul above : 
 Here Faith, unshaken by the storm, 
 In sterm sublimity of form ; 
 Here Hope, in garments which outshone 
 The splendor of the noontide sun — 
 And Charity — with gentle heart, 
 
 And soul of universal span, 
 Tracing no section on life's chart — 
 
 Embraced the world-wide race of man, 
 Looked upward with benignant eyes, 
 And claimed alliance with the skies — 
 While Freedom, with her banner streaming, 
 
 Stood 'mid her mountain ramparts proud, 
 And saw her sword of triumph gleaming 
 
 In many a battle-field unbowed. 
 
 Communing 'mid those scenes sublime. 
 
 Beside the classic fount of Truth, 
 With those who gave the olden time 
 
 The glory of immortal youth; 
 
34 CLONTARF. 
 
 Those who in high Olympus dwelt, 
 
 And with the Gods familiar spoke, 
 And all the sacred influence felt, 
 
 Until in song their spirits woke, 
 And kindhng with Apollo's fire 
 Inspired the nations with their lyre — 
 Immortal power, whose mystic wealth 
 Is subject not to time or stealth ; 
 Of which, of habitants of earth. 
 The Bard alone can know the worth ; 
 And he can love it, purely well. 
 For its own sympathetic spell, 
 For none can tell, and few can feel. 
 The treasure of the Poet's zeal. 
 Communing thus, from hour to hour. 
 With inspiration's classic power, 
 Desmond would seek some lonely place. 
 
 Where, amid wild-flowers bright as wild, 
 The streamlet ran its cheerful race 
 
 On to the ocean, like a child ; 
 And pray that yet his soaring name 
 Might dare the loftiest hights of fame. 
 But not the less, by day and night, 
 Would come, as fairy vision bright, 
 Thoughts of MoNONiA, and dispute, 
 In language eloquent, though mute, 
 
CLONTARF. 35 
 
 Love's empire with the ancient sages ; 
 
 And he would, magic-bound, resign 
 The study of their cumbrous pages, 
 
 And turn to glories more divine — 
 To memory of the eden hour 
 When first he felt her beauty's power, 
 In wild sweet witchery arrayed. 
 The lone and lovely rustic maid : 
 When not a man, nor yet a boy, 
 His was an undefined joy : 
 The Past a motive to excite, 
 The Future pregnant with delight, 
 The Present a lethargic race. 
 Yet promising the treasure place — 
 And on some tablet thus portray 
 The feelings of his love's young day : 
 
 In this garden Elysium, where, half the year round, 
 By morning's or moonlight's more magical ray, 
 
 In fragrance and freshness the roses are found. 
 
 And the leaves and the winds are for ever at play. 
 
36 CLONTARF. 
 
 Where the soft spreading mosses — the golden and 
 green — 
 By the music of waters invite you to rest, 
 And the branches fling out their o'ershadowing screen, 
 With the sun shining through it like smiles of the 
 blest. 
 
 In this garden, at evening, I 've lingered alone. 
 Recalling in fancy the scenes of the past : 
 
 Those scenes of life's morning, ere Knowledge had 
 thrown 
 Round my mind her creations so dazzling and vast. 
 
 Those scenes were all joyous — all full of the light 
 With which Nature, benevolent mother, will crown 
 
 Our spirits, ere yet, in its merciless flight. 
 
 The dark rushing Future will trample them down. 
 
 But brighter than all, like some luminous star 
 Which in lustre and loveliness ruleth the rest, 
 
 Was one whose mild beauty, though seen from afar. 
 Like a planet of destiny shone through my breast. 
 
 MoNONiA ! that star amid millions wert thou ! 
 And well I remember that shadowless even. 
 
CLONTARF. 37 
 
 When first from our headlands I gazed on thy brow : 
 Thy beauty my planet — those headlands my 
 heaven. 
 
 Sing, harp of my feelings, the dark shining hair, 
 That was free as her thoughts which no fingers 
 should bind ; 
 
 Her cheeks like wild roses, bright children of air. 
 And her step like the deer's on the hills of the wind. 
 
 Her smile — its own paradise-gladness revealing — 
 
 Love, innocence, beauty and playfulness beamed ; 
 And her face lighted up with the whole soul of 
 feeling. 
 As though it but mirrored the love she had 
 dreamed. 
 
 If a moment will come, as it may, and it must, 
 To equal those moments of bliss, it will be 
 
 When leaving these halls, with their pages of dust, 
 I shall fly, my Mononia ! to love and to thee. 
 
 How few, from once the bud has grown. 
 The moments ere the flower is blown ; 
 And the eye half doubtingly perceives, 
 In breathing balm and blushing leaves, 
 4 
 
38 CLONTARF. 
 
 The promise of its embryo hope 
 With care-rewarding richness ope. 
 Thus does the stripHng by our side 
 Stand forth arrayed in manhood's pride^ 
 While the contending passions claim 
 His choice for fortune or for fame. 
 Desmond had known and felt the wrong 
 That swelled each minstrel's thrilling song ; 
 He loved his country with a power 
 
 Which on his soul the truth impressed ^ 
 That liberty was nature's dower, 
 
 Wealth of the universal breast : 
 And that, of earth, his native land 
 First claimed his youth, his heart and hand. 
 Rich in those feelings which are more 
 
 Than armour to the breast, 
 He sought that dwelling by the shore — 
 
 Of dwellings loved the best — 
 Where Love led every thought by day, 
 And where, by night, his dreamings lay. 
 
 'T is midnight ! hamlet, hill and plain, 
 Slumber in April's moonlight reign ;^ 
 Stars gem the firmamental blue, 
 Like eyes of angels sparkling through ; 
 
CLONTARF. 39 
 
 The trees their young green leaves expand, 
 
 Their sleep by lulling breezes fanned ; 
 
 The shoreward waters voiceless reach 
 
 The sands that zone the silvery beach, 
 
 And scarce a motion or a sound, 
 
 Disturbs the dreaming night around. 
 
 Yet of that universal rest 
 
 No fraction reached the lonely breast 
 
 Of one fair maid, who, ray by ray^ 
 
 Beheld that starlight die away 
 
 Into the firmanent above her. 
 
 Which hither should have led her lover. 
 
 The vigil lamp, no longer bright, 
 
 Now burned with faint and fitful light. 
 
 And gasped and flickered, loth to partj 
 
 Even as the hope within the heart. 
 
 Awhile in thought she paced the floor. 
 
 The casement, then, approached once more ; 
 
 She heard the morning breeze go by, 
 
 But dark were still the earth and sky ; 
 
 The air was chill, no streak of grey 
 
 Gave promise of approaching day ; 
 
 All still and desolate and drear 
 
 And watch-worn, she reclined her head ; 
 And Nature, gentle friend of care, 
 
 Weaved glorious dream-spells round her bed. 
 
40 CLONTARF. 
 
 ! balmy Sleep — oblivion kind — 
 Samaritan of the wounded mind ; 
 How do the hopeless hope for thee, 
 To set from pain the spirit free, 
 And bid it onward, upward spring 
 Once more, on fresh and vigorous wing, 
 For climes where, mingling with the blest, 
 Peace will imparadise its rest : 
 Or for those stars' harmonious sphere — 
 Those islands of the boundless air, 
 Which some philosophers assign 
 For souls, MoNONiA, such as thine. 
 
 Calmly the dreaming maiden lies. 
 
 As though within were seraphs dwelling. 
 Soothing, with sympathetic sighs. 
 Her bosom's fall, her bosom's rise. 
 
 And of delights celestial telling. 
 But not of. heaven the golden dreams, 
 
 Whose spell in dimpling smiles is straying 
 Along her lips of love, like beams 
 
 Of morn o'er parted rose-buds playing. 
 Those lips in secret utterence ope. 
 
 As angel forms around her hover ; 
 She dreams in estacy of hope. 
 
 And sighs but for her worshipped lover : 
 
CLONTARF. 41 
 
 And surely joyous cherubim 
 
 Take up that sigh to heaven for him ; 
 
 For not by lands or wealth untold, 
 
 Hath he Mononia's favor found ; 
 She giveth not her heart for gold, 
 
 Though it be piled in ingots round ; 
 Nor yet because her suitor be 
 Shining in scutcheoned chivalry, 
 From baron bold or king's degree. 
 It was his spirit's truthfulness, 
 Which knev/ love's feelings to express. 
 With that serene and manly art, 
 
 That, free from flattery's serpent guise. 
 Enters the Eden of the heart. 
 
 And worships while it wins the prize. 
 
 When Nature broke that joyous sleep, 
 MoNONiA woke to think and weep ; 
 But never did suspicion yet 
 Whisper that Desmond could forget ; 
 No ! she had read his heart too well, 
 To think a moment 't would rebel. 
 She read aright ! as evening drew 
 Its curtains round the horizon's blue, 
 Love, trembling, kept its watch again. 
 Lest peril had beset his v.^ay, 
 4* 
 
42 CLONTARF. 
 
 But Desmond loved his fellow-men, 
 
 And that were safety night or day ! 
 And hark ! does she his accents hear — 
 Accents nor strange to heart or ear ? 
 Hark ! they are his — those tones so soft, 
 Nor loved too well, nor heard too oft : 
 
 Calm the skies, and now the night 
 Reigneth robed in starry light. 
 And the streamlet, as it gushes, 
 Greets the rose's dewy blushes. 
 Now's the hour when lovers tell 
 Sacred thoughts by hill and dell ; 
 And the star-light loves to shine 
 For hearts, Mononia, such as thine. 
 
 Such a night ! No brighter hour 
 Ever gladdened lake or bower j 
 Fitter time was never born 
 To bring in love's rosy morn ; 
 Let the cold in slumber be. 
 Moonlight wakes for you and me ; 
 
CLONTARF. 43 
 
 All around, below, above 
 
 Whisper " now's the hour for love." 
 
 Yet our parting sad must be ; 
 
 Many a night like this must flee. 
 
 Ere that moon, auspicious, thus 
 
 Shall again arise for us : 
 
 Many an evening hour of sorrow 
 
 Set, nor lead a brighter morrow ; 
 
 Ere she tell us from above 
 
 " Now's the genial hour for love !" 
 
 Thus sang the youth, as on he w^ent. 
 Breathing Love's genial element. 
 And heart as light as ever pressed 
 Its pulses through a warriors breast ; 
 But quickly as Mononia's eye 
 
 Beheld the glittering mail and plume. 
 It darkened like a thunder sky 
 
 Ere rends one peal the silent gloom : 
 The frequent bodings of her soul 
 Flashed not, but gradually stole, 
 Telling some dreadful fear within. 
 Where fear before had never been. 
 In that unwonted garb arrayed. 
 Scarcely believed the wondering maid 
 
44 CLONTARF. 
 
 Her peaceful Desmond she beheld ; 
 
 And prophet-grief her bosom swelled. 
 
 " Had the wild war notes w^on his heart 
 
 From Love's less bright but gentler part ? 
 
 Could he — the loved, the only one, 
 
 Her heart had ever dwelt upon — 
 
 Her sunlight, which where'er he dwelt, 
 
 Was, even though absent, ever felt — 
 
 Could he whose life, so fondly free. 
 
 On her's had kindled thrillingly. 
 
 The deep ensealment of whose vow 
 
 Was burning still on lip and brow. 
 
 Could he, from her one moment, sever, 
 
 A moment that might be for ever. 
 
 Or" — here her chiding country rushed 
 
 Upon her heart with strength unbroken, 
 The hot quick tears in silence gushed ; 
 
 The thought expired before 't was spoken. 
 " Forgive me, Desmond, tarrying long 
 For thee, I did my country wrong ; 
 I 've erred, 't is past, and I resign 
 Your love, as no less her's than mine. 
 ! never, never shall the bard 
 
 Bewail, in me, that recreant daughter 
 Of Erin, who would not regard 
 
CLONTARF. 45 
 
 The humblest flower that decks her sward, 
 O'er all that love hath ever brouo-ht her : 
 
 o 
 
 Its hopes, its happiness, and him. 
 Without whose presence all is dim." 
 
 Desmond, by woman thus addressed, 
 
 MoNONiA to his bosom pressed ; 
 
 And Erin sanctified the vow 
 
 Which love renewed between them now. 
 
 " The fears," he said, " thy heart allowed 
 
 To dim thine eye, thy soul to shroud, 
 
 Are but as clouds that break in rain. 
 
 And all is bright and calm again ; 
 
 They prove the wisdom of thy will 
 
 Is Erin's own, triumphant still. 
 
 So did the Doric mothers give 
 
 Love, pleasure, all, that Greece should live ; 
 
 And will thy not less classic part 
 
 Through danger guide and nerve my heart ^ 
 
 And I, where'er my falchion shine, 
 
 Shall link my patriot love with thine. 
 
 Come, come, Mononia, check this tide, 
 
 Tears ill become a soldier's bride ; 
 
 Now is the hour thy smiles to give, 
 
 And bid me for my Country live. 
 
46 CLONTARF. 
 
 And bring to thee, from valor's field, 
 No stain, but glory's, on her shield !" 
 " Enough !" she cried, " around my soul 
 These tempest-fears no longer roll ; 
 I feel the glory of the spell 
 Which thou hast weaved so sweetly well ; 
 Love, Hope, adieu, but for awhile ; 
 And welcome to the embattled file, 
 That shields from sacrilegious hand 
 The banner of our sainted land !" 
 
 Of Erin's maiden bosoms her's 
 
 Was but a sister — was but one 
 
 Of the unnumbered worshippers 
 
 That stood, as planets round their sun, 
 
 Burning within the attractive flame — 
 
 The sunlight of their country's name. 
 
 Though since that day have centuries passed. 
 
 With tyranny o'erburdened blast. 
 
 Along that isle, did they efface 
 
 Aught of the glory or the grace 
 
 Of that high Amazonian race ? 
 
 No — • no ! it is not in the length 
 
 Of years to annihilate the strength 
 
 Which dwells with their bosoms' home, 
 
 Pure as our Isle's encircling foam ! 
 
CLONTARF. 47 
 
 The mothers of that land have nursed 
 Heroes the first among the first — 
 Those who, wherever Freedom sought 
 
 Her empire to extend, 
 Have deeds of proud achievement wrought. 
 
 Devoted to the end ; 
 And set that land's escutcheoned name 
 First on the Ararat of fame. 
 
 They spoke of love's young fervent feelings, 
 
 Its hopes' and fears' alternate strife ; 
 The first with all its bright revealings, 
 
 The last with all its death of life ; 
 They spoke of that sweet twilight hour — 
 
 That hour of starlight's sacred coming. 
 When farewell sunbeam-S kissed each each flower. 
 
 And honey-bees were homeward humming, 
 Each first the other saw, and knew 
 
 Their fates were from that hour united. 
 And felt, their hearts so twine-like grew, 
 
 That, once dissevered, both were blighted 
 But the world's knowledge, never loth 
 
 To chase away bright fancy's vision, 
 Grew up with their maturing growth. 
 And from the elysium dreamed by both 
 
 Drove all that rendered it elysian. 
 
48 CLONTARF. 
 
 They stood in silence ! dangerous mood, 
 
 Where Love in every pulse is pleading ; 
 It damps the soldier's fortitude, 
 
 And vreakens woman's strongest heeding. 
 At length, with energetic start. 
 He shook the danger from his heart ; 
 He saw his horoscope of fame 
 Rise at his country's magic name, 
 And, with a smile of sweet control, 
 Spoke the true Stoic of the soul : 
 " MoNONiA, the joy of grief 
 
 I never, never knew 'til now ; 
 I knew not it possessed relief 
 
 To soothe the heart, and light the Irow ! 
 But 't is a moment such as this — 
 
 The sad farewell — the banner's flout — 
 The present grief — the future bliss — 
 
 That brings the bruised balsam out. 
 Our love was witnessed not by men, 
 
 In birth or blooming, spring or growth ; 
 The breath that gave to yonder glen 
 Its spring-time now, its autumn then. 
 
 Kindled the faithful flame in both ; 
 And He who willed it thus will never 
 The fond and mystic feeling sever !" 
 
CLONTARF. 49 
 
 Then hand in hand, and lieart to heart, 
 And lip to lip, were fondly pressed : 
 
 *' Farewell !" she sighed, " we now can part !" 
 Her tranquil eyes told all the rest ! 
 
 And who can coldly dare deny 
 
 The honest language of the eye, 
 
 Where we can trace each secret thought 
 
 Clearly as though in letters wrought ; 
 
 Letters of truthful light, engraven 
 
 Alike by conscience and by Heaven r 
 
 If smiling with another's joy. 
 
 And weeping for another's woe, 
 Denote a heart whose fond employ 
 
 Was yielding happiness below, 
 Mononia's must supremely be 
 A heaven of purest charity : 
 And the hushed w^ave that, on bright eves 
 Its bosom to the surset heaves. 
 Rejoices not in holier light 
 Than did Mononia's heart that night. 
 
 At that dim early hour, ere yet, 
 
 On the blue heaven's expanded brow 
 
 The morning star its light had set. 
 
 Or oped the blossom on the bough, 
 6 
 
50 CLONTARF. 
 
 The Field of the Green Banner lay 
 In tented pomp of War's array, 
 Abiding the expected hour 
 To check the Rebel Prince's power. 
 O'er shadowing hill and tented plain, 
 Silence still held unbroken reign, 
 Save now and then by varied knell 
 Of time when called the sentinel. 
 As he awoke, on measured round. 
 The trusty word with solemn sound ; 
 While brightly flashed the fitful glance 
 Of moonbeams on his moving lance. 
 Such is the vigil warriors keep. 
 While comrades rest secure'' in sleep. 
 
 Down through the blue skies beauteously 
 The moon descendeth now, 
 
 Submerging in the far off sea 
 
 Her bright and queenly brow ; 
 
 And all within -the horizon's rim 
 
 Becomes more undefined and dim. 
 
 And now the dark clouds climb the night. 
 
 As though to dare one beam of light, 
 
 And, for a season, cover all 
 
 Beneath the firmamental pall. 
 
 
 \ 
 
CLONTARF. 51 
 
 How true a type is night of death, 
 
 Without a star, without a breath ; 
 
 Time of strange sights and sounds and things, 
 
 Beyond enquiry's plumeless wings. 
 
 It giveth beings back a breath 
 
 Long chronicled by hand of Death : 
 
 Beneath its spell our senses stray 
 
 Unfettered by unconscious clay, 
 
 And give ideal worlds a hold 
 
 For baffled reason far too bold ! 
 
 In yonder tent whose lonely light 
 Gleams faintly on the gazer's sight ? 
 A human form I fancy there, 
 In humble attitude of prayer, 
 His arms, at full and lifted length. 
 Move with the spirit's sacred strength ; 
 His face upturned, as though -he gazed 
 On vision bright, or emblem raised, 
 To give devotion holier power 
 Of prayer to consecrate the hour ; 
 Or, as though he some converse prized 
 
 Beatific, communing thence ; 
 In attitude so spiritualized, 
 
 Of piety intense. 
 
52 CLONTARF- 
 
 His patriarchal hairs are white 
 As snows upon our mountain height^ 
 Growing till many a bleaching year 
 Hath piled its stainless winters there. 
 
 'T is he — the Monarch of the Isle — 
 Who prayeth with prophetic smile,. 
 Ere the fierce battle hour come outy 
 And wake the land with thunder shout. 
 He tliirsteth not for foeman's blood — 
 
 Though oft before his prophet wand 
 Has rushed the rocky bosom's flood,. 
 For justice and his country's good — 
 
 For he of peace was far more fond ; 
 Yet would he see no foreign hand 
 Pollute the heir-loom of his land, 
 Or kindle the invader's fires 
 Beside the tomb-house of his sires, 
 Or fling a conqueror's chain around 
 His people, whom but virtue bound. 
 He never drew dishonor's blade. 
 By him was never trust betrayed ; 
 A nation gave him royal power. 
 He raised her glory hour by hour ^ 
 
CLONTARF. 53 
 
 He was a model of such men 
 
 As mankind may consider sent 
 
 To show to earth what Heaven designed, 
 In its omnipotent mercy, when 
 
 He clothed man with luminous mind, 
 Lord of each mystic element. 
 And linked that power with deathless Soul 
 To animate the wondrous whole. 
 
 When home, at eve, the cotter came. 
 
 And sate beside his cheerful fire. 
 He loved to tell of Brian's fame, 
 And, while he spoke the monarch's name, 
 
 His children woke the joyous choir 
 Of their young bosoms — girl and boy — -« 
 With a most fond and innocent joy. 
 While he, with that unreal frown 
 
 Which but a father's soul could bring 
 
 O'er his fond features, like a king, 
 Put the domestic rebels down ; 
 And, taking, with extended hands. 
 
 The soft and willing hand of either. 
 Anticipating their demands. 
 
 Closed them within his own together. 
 And taught them in their prayers to pray 
 For their good monarch night and day. 
 5* 
 
54 CLONTARF. 
 
 Nor by the cottage hearth alone 
 
 Were Brian's countless virtues known ; 
 
 The bower where beauty's smile was brighest, 
 
 The hall where beauty's foot was lightest, 
 
 Were eloquent of him who knew 
 
 Full well that knighthood never drew 
 
 A holier halo round his lance 
 
 Than woman's soul-inspiring glance : 
 
 That mailed warrior never draws 
 
 A more electric sword in fight, 
 Than when he sees round Freedom's cause 
 
 Beauty's approving smile of light. 
 The mountain warrior stern and wild. 
 
 Nurseling of nature's stormiest mood, 
 Who loved the tempest when a child, 
 
 Upon the headland's solitude, 
 His bosom felt a holier flame ; 
 
 A braver transport fired his eye, 
 Whene'er he heard his Monarch's name, 
 
 In minstrel's song or battle's cry : 
 The fair, the brave, the young, the old, 
 In song have sung, in tale have told, 
 And later minstrels wake the string 
 To Erin's best and proudest king. 
 
 The prayer is o'er : he rises now,, . ^ . 
 
 He sets the crown upon his brow : 
 
CLONTARF. 55 
 
 The crown a type of that which yet 
 Upon his brow his God will set. 
 He looketh toward the distant hill, 
 Where laggard night is lingering still ; 
 And seeth, shining through the air, 
 The bright eyed star of morning there, 
 Precursor of that orb which he 
 At its next setting might not see, 
 But which, for many a future age. 
 Shall light a pure eventful page. 
 Which Freedom will full oft unfold 
 To read of Erin's brave and bold — 
 Her heroes of immortal mould. 
 
 NiAL, the minstrel, brave and good. 
 As e'er at board or battle stood. 
 Cast his impatient glance, where dim. 
 The hills defined the horizon's rim ; 
 At length he saw the warrior men 
 Marching by mountain-side and glen. 
 And as the sun its golden beams. 
 Shed, like the light of happy dreams, 
 On nature's April robes of green, ^ 
 His spirit swelling to the scene — 
 Green hills, fond homes, a patriot king, 
 And stalwart clans in living ring — 
 
56 CLONTARF. 
 
 He seized his harp, a prelude rung, 
 And thus beside his monarch sung : 
 
 Sons df tfte iJS^atlverCttfi* 
 
 Oh, king of red battles, 
 
 Could NiAL but tell 
 How his veins with the manhood 
 
 Of chivalry swell ; 
 Could he sweep, as he swept them. 
 
 The harp strings of Brian, 
 When he bore through those battles 
 
 The strength of the lion. 
 
 Then, then, Pd leap upward 
 
 As light as a child, 
 When on its wild pastime 
 
 A parent has smiled. 
 But though o'er my forehead 
 
 The winters are white, 
 I will sing of thy heroes — 
 
 Thy people of might ! 
 
 Like a king, o'er the mountain, 
 The morning advances. 
 
CLONTARF. 57 
 
 Lighting up with its glory , 
 Our forest of lances ; 
 
 And greenly above them 
 The abbey tree waves, 
 
 Which has curtained for ages 
 Our forefather's graves. 
 
 There's the Princedom of Oriel, 
 
 Where we combine 
 The numbers, and prowess, 
 
 And blood of that line. 
 Hy Cairbre's good banner 
 
 Is marshalling there — 
 Here the brands of Mac Garth y 
 
 Flash lightnings of fear. 
 
 Here M'Mahon, M'Loughlin, 
 
 O'DONNELL, O'ThAIL, 
 
 O'Kelly, O'Hanlan, 
 
 M'Dermot, O'Neill, 
 The strength of their Houses 
 
 Is dark on the field, 
 Where waveth the banner 
 
 And flasheth the shield. 
 
 Again comes a multitude, 
 Throng upon throng. 
 
58 CLONTARF. 
 
 Like billows on billows, 
 
 As countless and strong ; 
 
 And here from your borders, 
 
 Loch Dearg and Loch Neagh, 
 
 Is the pride of your people 
 In gallant array. 
 
 Let the Dane sweep the billows 
 
 Of Norse till they feel. 
 To their farthermost limits, 
 
 The strength of his keel ; 
 But ne'er shall his footstep 
 
 Or armament rest 
 On one turf or one wave 
 
 Of the Isle of the West. 
 
 *T is not the reckless gush of life 
 That makes the glory of the strife ; 
 'T is not the shock of martial might ! 
 No — no ! it is the moral right. 
 And ne'er did heaven such consign 
 To purer field, Clontarf, than thine ! 
 It was thy children's right to be. 
 For Freedom's vindication, free ; 
 But with thy heaveij-directed pride 
 Was many a virtue blent beside ; 
 
CLONTARF. 69 
 
 To wrest from vice the Nation's crown, 
 To tread a royal traitor down, 
 To make her throne a sacred place, 
 Free from suspicion of disgrace. 
 Where he who sceptred sat should be 
 Vice-gerent of the Deity. 
 
 Maolmorda's treason, gathering strength,^ 
 His nation's councils would o'erwhelm, 
 
 Around them coil its serpent length. 
 And crush the glories of the realm. 
 
 Oh ! saddest sight of all below, 
 
 A nation's son its direst foe ! 
 
 Leagued with the hostile Dane he calls 
 
 His warriors mid Eblana's walls ; 
 
 The foreign hirelings, thronging near, 
 
 With plaudits fill the traitor's ear ; 
 
 Their Northern Chieftain's dark array 
 
 Already feed upon their prey ; 
 
 The hills and homes of holiest years — 
 
 The golden harvest fields are theirs : 
 
 While be, with worse than demon-toil, 
 
 Divides his father's land as spoil. 
 
 Did there not in his bosom start 
 
 One soft endearment of the heart. 
 
 When he looked forth upon those hills, 
 
60 CLONTARF. 
 
 Where, purer than their purest rills, 
 Or dew which Nature's charm distils. 
 
 Arose his boyhood's morn ? 
 Was not that pulse by him possessed, 
 Which even within the savage breast, 
 Rules into weakness all the rest. 
 And of all lands esteems the blest. 
 
 The land where he was born ? 
 Or, as his eye, in wandering round. 
 Beheld each hallowed tomb or mound, 
 That rose amid the Abbeys grey. 
 Where slept his sires' insulted clay. 
 
 Did he not fear their dead ? 
 Did he not see their forms arise 
 Between him and the vengeful skies, 
 
 And call aloud for vengeance dread, 
 
 E'en to the judgment time ? 
 No ! he who would, wdth heart or hand, 
 Betray or wound his native land. 
 Cannot, one minutes' time, withstand 
 
 The damning plunge of crime ! 
 He told them of his high renown, 
 jde told of his dishonored crown, 
 He told how Brian's rival name 
 Between him and the sunlight came ; 
 
CLONTARF. 61 
 
 He told them of his Island's wealth. 
 
 Its bays of strength and skies of health : 
 " Around," he said, " a region lies 
 Worthy the warrior's enterprize ; 
 Unfurl the flag and bare the brand, 
 And be ye dwellers in the land ; 
 And swear ye, mid my father's towers, 
 Maolmorda's royal cause is ours !" 
 
 The Raven flag of Denmark then^ 
 
 Flung on the winds its glittering flout, 
 Shouted the Hypoborean men — 
 
 The insulted heavens gave back the shout 
 It boomed as though a curse were cast 
 Upon some demon-peopled blast, 
 And each with hell-reverberate voice 
 Replied aloud " Rejoice — Rejoice !" 
 Ebl ana's walls rung out that day 
 With hurrying passion for the fray : 
 And chiefs in sage advisement met, 
 
 And each his favorite plan reviewed ; 
 This were with chance of snare beset, 
 
 And that were perilously pursued : 
 To this opposed, to that inclined, 
 As various council swayed their mind. 
 5 
 
62 CLONTARF. 
 
 At length each plan maturely weighed'^; 
 'T was ruled to draw the battle blade 
 And try their banners on the plain ; 
 Where, should they wield the war in vainj 
 And victory forsake their fray, 
 Their ships were near them in the bay,. 
 For succour prompt, with ready sail, 
 To bear them safely from the Gael. 
 But, pent within the city's bound, 
 Where could that ocean-aid be found ? 
 The wary foeman there would stand 
 Waging his war on either hand ; 
 And with an equal vantage reach 
 Alike the city and the beach : 
 But the broad field, impartial, gave 
 Its triumph only to the brave — 
 Its glory to the hand and heart 
 That acted best the warrior's part. 
 
 'T was done ! rang out the trumpet's sound ; 
 The martial thousands gathered round ; 
 The lances flashed in dazzling gleams 
 Like sunlight on a hundred streams. 
 And shone the banners, bright and fair, 
 Of many gathered nations there. 
 
CLONTARF. 63 
 
 First the choice men of Norway's strono- 
 In armoured hundreds passed along ; 
 Next Denmark's spell-weaved banner proud 
 Moved hke a thunder-bearing cloud ; 
 Maolmorda's standard marshalled then 
 Lagenia's host of native men ; 
 Hy-Falgia's princedom swelled the host, 
 
 And Tuathal of the Liffey's line, 
 Then bands from many a Baltic coast, 
 
 And isles that mid its waters shine. 
 And from Menavia's nearer clime ^ 
 Britons to swell the march of crime ; 
 Here Orkney's Earl his warriors filed, 
 As their own island rough and wild ; 
 And Caledonia's iron men 
 From mountain, lake and pine-clad glen; 
 And all a gallant witness gave 
 How guilt and gold can win the brave. 
 
 Onward they marched with warrior pride : 
 At last their shouts in distance died. 
 They reached the field as Evening threw 
 Her mists around the mountains blue. 
 They set the wardens for the night. 
 And rested for the coming fight ; 
 
64 CLONTARF. 
 
 Save here and there a foreign few, 
 Who round their Hmbs the war-cloak threwy 
 And, grouped together talked of home, 
 And friends beyond the northern foam. 
 Some told of love the thrilling story, 
 And some of war the inspiring glory — 
 And some life's refluent current traced, 
 And friends of boyhood's time embraced. 
 Some sung how those in war who fall 
 Banquet in mighty Odin's hall ; 
 How forth they go at morning's light, 
 And meet, as earthly braves, in fight ; 
 And how each wound which they receive 
 Spontaneous heals ere fall of eve, 
 How maids, whom Freya loved of old — "^ 
 She whose hot tears are turned to gold — 
 How they with love-lit eyes would there 
 Serve them with beverage sweet and rare ■; 
 And how their days would ever be, 
 Like fruits of immortality. 
 Guarded by Idwn to ripest mould 
 And never suffered to grow old ; 
 How they would lie beside the rill 
 Where the o'ershadowing Ydrasil 
 The banner of its leaves unfurled 
 And greenly canopied the world ; 
 
CLONTARF. 55 
 
 Or trace its mystic roots which fling « 
 Their fibres, one to Wisdom's spring, 
 And one to Urdar's holy well. 
 And one to where the Nomas dwell. '^ 
 
 Such mythologic tales for those. 
 
 Would charm the night of its repose : 
 
 But others, sterner far of heart, 
 
 Rude, rugged, men would group apart, 
 
 And sing the songs of wild delight 
 
 That fir'd them for the coming fight. 
 
 " Come," one would cry, " the banner spell ! 
 
 Wake we the chorus wild and well, 
 
 And teach those Islanders how we 
 
 Bear Denmark's flag of destiny. 
 
 And how, with incantations dread, 
 
 Our maidens weave its mystic thread !" 
 
 Sisters ! weave the banner well ! 
 Weave it with the bloody spell ; 
 Weave it for Destruction's track, 
 Carnage red and Vengeance black ; 
 
66 CLONTARF. 
 
 When its folds the foeman sees, 
 
 Death shall spread his funeral wing^ 
 Furies follow on the breeze 
 
 And the Raven's triumph ring :^^ 
 Broken spear and batter'd shield 
 Fast shall fall beneath its field ! 
 With the spirit of the spell, 
 Sisters, weave the banner welL 
 See — see — 
 Listen — listen — • 
 Through the air, 
 Foul and fair. 
 Spirits sing and lances ghsten. 
 
 Let the foeman who would knov/ 
 Where the truthful waters flow — 
 Where the hero's pulse is strongest, 
 Where young Love delights the longest, 
 Where the hope of fame is dearest. 
 
 Where the Future gloweth brighest, 
 Where the smile of Beauty's fairest, 
 
 And the care of earth is lightest — 
 Let him to the Norseman yield. 
 Fly through flood and fight through field, 
 Let him love the banner spell 
 Which we. Sisters, weave so well. 
 
CLONTARF. 67, 
 
 See — see — 
 Listen — listen — ■ 
 Through the air, 
 Foul and fair, 
 Spirits sing and lances glisten. 
 
 Weave the web, weave the woe. 
 O'er its silken field of snow : 
 Where the foe is, bear it thither, 
 Let him waste and let him wither. 
 By the spirit of our curse. 
 
 Dwelling in the deepest hell ; 
 By the deathful winds that nurse 
 Ocean to his maddest swell ; 
 By the lightning blue which knoweth 
 Every victim ere it goeth — 
 By the spirit of each spell 
 Sisters weave the banner well. 
 
 See — • see — 
 
 Listen — listen — 
 
 Through the air, . 
 
 Foul and fair, ^-^, 
 
 Spirits sing and lances glisten. 
 
 Nay ! by my faith, such spells as these 
 Might well set warrior hearts at ease ; 
 
68 
 
 CLONTARF. 
 
 Might make the very child a chief, 
 If such but be their wild belief : 
 Belief that setteth all aside 
 And maketh captive Reason's pride. 
 
 But mark what wonderment appears — 
 Dilated eyes and listening ears — 
 
 Mid yonder group of Danish men ? 
 And mark that youth upon whose cheek 
 The lily and carnation's streak, 
 
 Alternate come and fade again. 
 His garment seems not of their land, 
 Not like his brow do theirs expand ; 
 Their Northern lineage, rough and stern, 
 You may not on his face discern ; 
 Nor beareth he or hue or trace 
 Of their rude Scandinavian race. 
 There is a gentleness beside, 
 Blent with a secret force of pride — ' 
 A sweet serenity of mien, 
 111 suited to this time and scene. 
 Wearing as does that youth the bands 
 Of foreign captors on his hands. 
 
 The chief is seated in his tent : 
 Before him stands with brow unbent 
 
CLONTARF. 69 
 
 The captive youth, a timid smile 
 
 Playing around his lips the while. 
 
 " Wherefore, rash youth ! would'st thou invade 
 
 Those lines by honor sacred made ? 
 
 Didst thou not know that yonder bound 
 
 Gainst every foe is jealous ground ? 
 
 Or cam'st thou hither to survey 
 
 How many lances we array — 
 
 How many spears the Dane can bring 
 
 O'er foam and field to aid thy king ? 
 
 Woulds't thou, presumptuous boy, defy 
 
 The lightnings of the Norseman's eye ? 
 
 By Odin, 't is a deed of fear 
 
 To play thy beardless daring here — ^ 
 
 Think'st thou thy years our hearts disarm 
 
 Of power or right defied to harm ? 
 
 If so twere well to teach the rule 
 
 Which ever guides our battle school ; 
 
 That foes who seek to know must feel 
 
 The strength — the justice of our steel. 
 
 Yet, ere thy captors bear thee hence 
 
 Haply thoud 'st justify defence ; 
 
 And 't were not well unheard to spoil 
 
 Thy errand of chivalric toil. 
 
 Speak, wherefore — Hah ! whom have we here r' 
 
 Guards hence awhile the captive bear ; 
 
70 CLOtTTARF. 
 
 And mark ye let the morrow's sun 
 See battle lost or battle won — 
 Be not a moment's hazard given 
 
 Of rescue, counsel, or device — 
 If limb be touched, or link be riven, 
 
 Your life-blood be the periled price— 
 Whate'er our banner's fortune be, 
 The captive's fate remains with me !" 
 
 Strange words are these, and stranger still, 
 The cause of this most lenient will. 
 And that perturbed chief — in truth, 
 He ne'er before beheld that youth. 
 What sympathy has sprung apace 
 From sight of that young captive's face ^ 
 Were he endowed with spell or name 
 To make or mar the battle's game. 
 He had not more transfixed that chief 
 Than in that time, so strange and brief. 
 No look of suppliance appealed ; 
 No word — no sign — ■ no sigh revealed, 
 Nor feature, e'en a feeling's change ; 
 Nought save the young blood's usual range 
 Was there ; the scene is wondrous strange I 
 
CLONTARF. 71 
 
 The morn is up — the mists are furled 
 Like banners of a peaceful world, 
 Nor shadow far as eye can see 
 Soils the blue heaven's infinity. 
 Along the lines at either side, 
 On left and right the leaders ride ; 
 Here the Lagenian plum'd and proud 
 Calls on his panting ranks aloud ; 
 And there the Dalgais' princes shine 
 Like meteor-lights from line to line : 
 And now a steed of faultless mould, 
 Caparisoned in gems and gold, 
 Is led before the royal tent. 
 His neck in noble beauty bent 
 Like a bow before the shaft is sent ; 
 Dilated eye and step of pride. 
 As though a king alone should guide 
 
 The obedience of his reign ; 
 His glossy shoulders catch each ray, 
 As, fired with wantonness of play, 
 
 He paws the tented plain. 
 
 Forth comes the king arrayed for fight ; 
 The trumpets ring with loud delight ; 
 Long, lusty shouts the welkin fill 
 From thirty thousand hearts, until 
 
73 CLONTARP. 
 
 Reverberate from hill to hill. 
 
 The nation's gladness runs : 
 It reached the Day-God's dazzling throne 
 It reached the world's embracing zone 
 Such soul was in that thunder tone ! 
 "'T is waked by Erin's hearts alone ; 
 And, in the hour of battle, known 
 
 Only to Erin's sons. 
 ! ne'er did sunlight, since the morn 
 When the bright, rosy world was born, 
 O'er panaromic sight expand, 
 More bright, more lofty or more grand. 
 Not Marathon of classic name, 
 Nor Sparta, heir of god-like fame, 
 Nor the sad waves that swept the shore 
 Deep dyed in Lacedemons gore, 
 More noble blood for freedom gave. 
 Or filled a more immortal grave, 
 Or twined a wreath for freedom's brow, 
 Less perishing, Clontarf, than thou. 
 
 Onward the royal warrior rode, 
 A crown of light his helmet glow'd, 
 Salvation's emblem in his hand 
 His only sceptre of command. 
 The storms of age had not all quench'd 
 The fire that lit his eye, 
 
CLONTARF. 73» 
 
 The waste of age had not all blenchM 
 
 The color, rough and high, 
 That glow'd upon his aged cheek. 
 Like autumn evening's sunset streak : 
 Awhile, with all a patriot's pride, 
 
 He viewed the far extending host, 
 Men who, long marshall'dby his side, 
 
 Had never fame or honor lost. 
 He saw their princes in the field, 
 Princes who knew the brand to wield ; 
 Not such as these of modern time. 
 Who know of courage but the crime ; 
 Not the adventurous virtue bold 
 That fired the manher hearts of old. 
 He marked Ultonia's princely men. 
 Fresh-hearted in the field again. 
 As beautiful in mien and motion. 
 As waves that tread the wakening ocean ; 
 Here Munster stood in centred might. 
 
 Spirits no foeman ever bowed ; 
 Here Liffey's waters pure and bright 
 Reflected in its joyous flight 
 
 The Meathians and the Dalgais proud : 
 On the far left the warriors shone 
 Of Cavan, Donegal, Tyrone, 
 7 
 
74 CLCTNTARF. 
 
 And good Armagh, upon whose brow 
 The classic wreath is fresh e'en now. 
 Here strono; as sur2:es Boreas makes 
 Stood tlie proud clansmen of the Lakes, 
 And here thy i vincely banner flew 
 Chief of romance, ODonohue. 
 And though not yet his features wear 
 The tufted growth of manhood's year. 
 Not least among the gallant line 
 Did Desmond's crested honors shine. 
 All in magnificent display, 
 
 Such as Clontarf has seen not since. 
 When from the mountains to the bay 
 Each clanship stood in proud array 
 
 Beneath the banner of its prince - 
 
 " Sons of the never-vanquished men, 
 Who never wore a tyrant's chain, 
 
 The foe are on your fields again : 
 
 With whom shall they to-night remain ? 
 
 Upon this day — this sacred day — 
 
 Thor.e fiends invite the coming fray. 
 
 Wit ess, high Heaven ! they seek this strife 
 
 On Calvary's day of death and life ; 
 
 And be for better or for worse 
 The issue of the fight, 
 
CLONTARF. 75 
 
 Fall not the Godhead's veiigeaiice-curse 
 
 Upon our land to-night. 
 But nerve our hearts Avith Freedom's force 
 
 And vindicate the right. 
 Soldiers ! your causo is that of Heaven, 
 By whom to you this I:Je was given ; 
 This sacred Isle, the brave and blest. 
 The ocean-empire of the West. 
 Here are the heroes of our land, 
 From mountain top to level strand : 
 Be every heart then stern and brave. 
 As headland frowning o'er the wave, 
 And every thought and every deed. 
 Such as befit your country's need. 
 Yon slaves ! why seek they thus your soil .? 
 They seek it but as hirelings' spoil ! 
 No lofty principle of right 
 Has mailed their leaders for the fight ; 
 And their fierce numbers — what are they } 
 Mere masses of dishonored clay ; 
 Soulless and moulded for the hour, 
 With but, of man, the instinctive pov/er ; 
 So poor of glory's element, 
 A million make not one event. 
 Say ! shall your land of field and flood 
 Be to such things a bribe of blood ? 
 
76 CLONTARF. 
 
 Shall helots light their household fires 
 E'en on the hearth-stones of your sires — 
 Hearths where they lit the cheerful blaze. 
 And heard the tales of other days ; 
 And you, e'en mid your native plains, 
 Bend to the thraldom of the Danes, 
 Who seek to rob your glorious dead 
 
 From even the heart's memorial place, 
 And from the very earth v^^ould tread 
 
 Your name, your language, and your race ? 
 Forbid it honor, glory, all 
 
 Of proud below or pure above. 
 On which the Freeman loves to call. 
 
 The homes and altars of our love ! 
 Shall yonder banner, which has shone 
 
 In Freedom's galaxy for years. 
 Be dragged from heaven and trampled on, 
 
 By foreign foes in blood and tears. 
 And Erin, proud, and free, and brave. 
 Become a suppliant and slave ?" 
 Here paused the King ; and, thus, a band 
 
 Of minstrels catching up the strain, 
 Invoked the spirit of the land 
 
 Her lofty glories to sustain, 
 And guard the nation and the throne, 
 By her own free-born men alone : 
 
CLONTARr. 77 
 
 Bear the Sun-Burst through the land, 
 Wake the spirit's thunder, 
 
 Launch it on the Norseman's bands, 
 Rend their ranks asunder. 
 
 Though our Freedom far should flee, 
 And her shrines be lonely, 
 
 Let our mountains trodden be 
 By our children only. 
 
 Crush, yourselves, the civil woe 
 Waked within our borders ; 
 
 Though your brothers be the foe, 
 Be yourselves the warders. 
 
 Warm the serpent into life — 
 
 It hath less of danger. 
 Than to give your country's strife 
 
 To the subtle stranger. 
 
 Heed ye less the native slave 
 
 Than the foreign fcfeman, 
 
 •7* 
 
78 CLONTARF. 
 
 'T was her sons revenge that gave 
 Hellas to the Roman !^^ 
 
 What of Country recketh he — 
 
 He the royal traitor, 
 He who builds his victory 
 
 By the foes that hate her ? 
 
 By the graves in which your sires 
 Have reposed for ages, 
 
 By the songs of Minstrel lyres, 
 Telling of your sages — 
 
 By the fires that never die 
 
 On your holy altars. 
 By the lightning bolts on high. 
 
 Armed for him who falters — 
 
 By the homes that call ye men. 
 By the hearts that love ye,. 
 
 By the banner proud, again 
 Waving free above ye — 
 
 By the towers that round ye stand, 
 By the hopes ye cherish. 
 
 By the glories of your land, 
 Rescue all or perish ! 
 
CLONTARF. 79 
 
 One loud, far echoing cheer expressed 
 The rapture of the warder's breast ; 
 The simultaneous burst of sound 
 Was answered from the hills around, 
 As though far centuries' mouldered men 
 Had started into life again, 
 And broke the silence of the grave 
 To swell the war cry of the brave. 
 A sterner mood of feeling now 
 
 Glowed like the last, deep, mellowed beam 
 Of sunset, on the Monarch's brow. 
 
 As he resumed his lofty theme. 
 
 " Sons of the isle ! behold the Dane, 
 Who would your clime and creed profane : 
 They 've chosen this day, this holiest day, 
 Since earth first felt creation's ray ; 
 This day when Calvary's purple tide 
 Proclaimed to earth a God had died ; 
 When the high temple, rent in twain, 
 Was conscious of His heart's red rain ! 
 Well, be it so, if such their will. 
 The God who saved is with us still." 
 Thus saying, Brian slowly raised 
 Before the host's uplifted eyes — 
 
80 CLONTARF. 
 
 Dread sign, that strengthened as they gazed ■ 
 
 The Cross of Calvary's sacrifice."' 
 " Now for your Freedom, fellow-men ! 
 Your land beholds your deeds again. 
 A thousand years, unborn as yet, 
 Are panting, till this Sun has set, 
 By his historic light to know 
 Their earthly future's weal or woe. 
 Bear ye once more the spear and shield, 
 As oft I've seen in many a field ; 
 And where j^our banners high appear 
 In thickest battle be ye th. re ! 
 From yonder mountains looking down 
 In proud and reverend rcnov/n, 
 To the last wave that laves your strand, 
 This is our own — our father's land ; 
 And freemen — vv'arriors, in the fight, 
 May God defend our country's right." 
 
 The octogenarian King would fain 
 Amid his warrior ranks remain ; 
 But they who kr.jw his aged power 
 Saw 't was unsuited for this hour ; 
 The rush, the shock of shield and spear 
 Were far too much for age to bear ; 
 
CLONTARF. 
 
 And more his country needed now 
 The presence of his kingly brow, 
 To guide her through her future way, 
 Than even his falchion's lightning-play. 
 In vain they urged — in vain they prayed - 
 " Should he at such a time be stayed — 
 He who had felt his chiefest pride 
 At board or battle by their side — 
 Could he sit idly by while they 
 Perished beneath the crimson fray ; 
 They — they his children ? — if they part 
 Be it expiring heart to heart !" 
 
 Thus did they make alternate plea, 
 But none less yieldingly than he ; 
 Until they urged the duteous weight 
 Of rank which monarchs owe the state ; 
 The dangers which beset the land, 
 Which none could check, but he command 
 The accidents, with discord rife, 
 Which hung like fates upon his life ; 
 And showed how triumph e'en were dim 
 For Erin's honor without him. 
 
 Then did the Monarch slowly yield : 
 He turned in silence from the field : 
 
 81 
 
82 CLONTARF. 
 
 Entered his tent — and humbly there 
 The Throne of Love addressed in prayer. 
 
 Say didst thou e'er at morning mark 
 The clouds collecting thick and dark, 
 Converging threateningly on high, 
 From either side the brooding sky, 
 Like spirits breathing not a breath, 
 Yet charged with all the blasts of death ; 
 The earth beneath silent with dread, 
 The sea one world of molten lead, 
 The air hot, damp and thick around, 
 While Nature stood as terror bound. 
 Transfixed and motionless and dumb. 
 As though another World had come. 
 And she in agony sublime 
 Heard the expiring throb of Time ; 
 And all that now was fair and bright 
 Were turned to gross, unnatural night, 
 To which no sun one ray could give. 
 And even Man was pained to live — 
 Did'st thou then upward look and mark 
 The meeting of those war-clouds dark ; 
 Watch the blue lightning's ceaseless flash, 
 And hear loud mingling, crash on crash ; 
 And the full storm, through morning nurst, 
 Shake, with the thunder's volleying burst. 
 
CLONTARF. 83 
 
 The deep-foundationed earth, and heaven, 
 
 To horrid chaos crushed and riven ; 
 
 While tempests' rush and surges' roll 
 
 Seemed launched from thundering pole to pole. 
 
 And paralyzed was Reason's power, 
 
 Past, Present, Future, in that hour ? 
 
 If such thou 'st witnessed thou may'st feel 
 
 The war of multitudinous steel ; 
 
 The shout and shock of host and steed. 
 
 The horrid pause, the rush, and then, 
 By breathing from exhaustion freed. 
 
 The wild assault of desperate men ; 
 Until the elements of strife 
 Lost all but nature's love of life. 
 Heavens ! 't was a thrilling sight to see, 
 
 The anguish of the scene apart, 
 Tliat burst of mountain chivalry, 
 
 That mad volcano of the heart. 
 Pouring its bloody lava down 
 Througli the fair earth's empurpled brown, 
 'Till so profusely did the tide 
 Of life gush forth on either side,'* 
 That Nature mourned for many a day 
 The havoc of that dreadful fray. 
 
84 CLONTARF. 
 
 Rude was the art of warfare then, 
 Strength swayed the destiny of men ; 
 No missile then was poised to reach, 
 With measured curve, the fatal breach ; 
 Nor chemistry's ingredient strength, 
 To count the interval of length ; 
 No rocket's meteoric glare 
 Woke sudden day in midnight air ; 
 No mine with subterranean aid 
 Engulphed the dauntless escalade j 
 
 No column's geometric range, 
 
 No echelon of rapid change, ^ 
 
 No square of adamantine shield, 
 
 That glory of the modern field. 
 
 But though of scientific fray 
 
 Poor knowledge had that distant day, 
 
 The moral of their conflict, now, 
 Surviving ages of despair, 
 
 Freshens the heart and cheers the brow, 
 And wakes the throb of Freedom there, 
 
 And such to her is holier far 
 
 Than crimsoned fields Peninsular. 
 
 Here may we think, in written page — 
 Meet task for student or for sage — 
 
CLONTARF> 85 
 
 How England, rude, imbecile lay^ 
 
 To even her fears a constant prey : 
 
 No lingering voice of glory told 
 
 That Man was there — the lofty-souled ; 
 
 Degenerate, fallen, unredeemed 
 
 By brow that lowered, or eye that gleamed, 
 
 Even for a second forth, to show. 
 
 How Freedom's storm but slept below ; 
 
 While your high deeds even to this day 
 
 Run, brightning with undimmed renown, 
 And scattering signals on their way. 
 
 Though generations kindling down ; 
 And to our still chivalric heart. 
 Pulses of living fire impart : — 
 How unity, that spell of power 
 O ! that it had outlived that hour — - 
 Made Erin — valley, hill and plain — 
 Freedom's invincible domain ; 
 Her glories radiating far 
 From sunset to the morning star. 
 Oh not too well can Erin's youth 
 Nurse in their soul this living truth : 
 No tale of fancy pictured out 
 In hues of legendary doubt ; 
 But Erin's pride and England's shame, 
 In blazonry of written fame, 
 8 
 
86 CLONTARr* 
 
 Such as weak Prejildice might fear 
 To see in kindling glories there. '^ 
 
 'T was set of sun, and Freedom blessed 
 His pathway down the golden west. 
 Defeated now on every side 
 The Norsemen's flight was wild and wide i 
 Yet oft they turned in broken strife, 
 Nor yielded even with yielding life j 
 But lifted oft and oft again 
 The sword of faint but desperate men. 
 But Broder, Denmark's loftiest chief^ 
 Kindling for future wrath his grief, 
 Fled, with some hearts of dastard fear^ 
 The honors of their shield and spear, 
 And, in a neighboring wood concealed, 
 Forsook, afraid to die or yield. 
 The fate of heroes on the field. 
 Thence seeing Brian's banner shine 
 Remote from guard or battle's line, 
 Anew their fevered vengeance burned ; 
 
 And, lightning-footed, o'er the slain 
 He and his maddening followers turned, 
 
 And reached the confines of the plain. 
 Where stood the royal tent, nor kern 
 Nor chief the danger to discern. 
 
CLONTARF. 87 
 
 There frantic for the murderous feat. 
 
 No mailed warrior did they meet ; 
 No king exulting o'er a strife 
 Purchased by such a waste of life : 
 But a meek saint, on bended knee'^ 
 In prayer translated, spirit-free — 
 His lowly head of helmet bare. 
 With eighty winters' reverend hair — 
 Knelt, unperplexed of care's restraints, 
 The monarch of " the Isle of Saints :" 
 While at his side one gentle boy 
 Shared in the monarch's pious joy. 
 
 But little reverence had they 
 For Brian's hairs of honored grey, 
 Or youth which softens savage men ; 
 Vengeance alone was monarch then : 
 And in that name with Brian's blood 
 
 That youth's in savage death was blent 
 The old, the valorous and good, 
 
 The young, the fair and innocent. 
 Drawing from Brian's gushing side 
 His blood-red weapon, Broder cried 
 " Witness ye warriors, mine 's the pride, 
 That by this sword has Brian died !"'^ 
 
88 CLONTARF. 
 
 And Scandinavian legends tell, 
 
 That battle-day possessed a spell 
 
 Fatal to Erin's king as told 
 
 By oracle renowned of old. ^^ 
 
 Of those who did high deeds that day, 
 
 And shared the triumphs of the fray. 
 
 Was Desmond browed with laurels bright, 
 
 As ever bloomed on field of fight. 
 
 Full of the freedom Greece had sung, 
 
 To which he too his lyre had strung. 
 
 Victoriously its spirit played. 
 
 In every impulse of his blade ; 
 
 And where lie raised its shadowy spell 
 
 A triumph followed as it fell. 
 
 ! innate strength of freedom, springing, 
 
 Not in an arid Avaste of strife. 
 But all its mystic freshness bringing 
 
 From founts of living truth and life ; 
 One warrior arm, by thee sustained. 
 Were victory gainst a hundred chained : 
 One heart, one only, nerved by thee, 
 Might set a million bondsmen free. 
 
 Hark to the deep and solemn sound ! 
 
 The funeral train advance, 
 Though the old abbey's burial ground, 
 
CLONTARF. 89 
 
 While gleams the fitful flash around 
 
 Of crozler, helm and lance. 
 Moving religiously slow, 
 In meet companionship of woe. 
 Though the dim portals of that pile 
 
 The monarch's bier is borne, 
 And through the many pillared aisle 
 
 The island-children mourn : 
 For with their monarch half the pride 
 And glory of the triumph died ; 
 Albeit he sank in victory's blaze. 
 Laurelled and crowned and full of days. 
 
 From the depths I 've cried to thee 
 
 Lord my supplication hear ; 
 To my poor repentant plea 
 
 Lend, oh Lord, a lenient ear : 
 For if thou our sins retain 
 Who the judgment will sustain ? 
 De Profundis ! 
 8* 
 
90 CLONTARF. 
 
 With Thee only pardon dwells — 
 With thee mercy's rich reward ; 
 
 'T is that such thy mandate tells 
 I have waited thee oh Lord. 
 
 In his word I Ve rested long : 
 
 In the* Lord my hope is strong. 
 De Profundis ! 
 
 From the mornino- watch till night 
 In the Lord let Israel hope, 
 
 For his mercy in its might 
 
 Will Redemption's portals ope. 
 
 And he w^ill at length reclaim 
 
 Israel from the paths of shame. 
 
 De Profundis ! 
 
 The funeral dirge was sung and said ; 
 The tomb received the royal dead : 
 The solemn train, in long array. 
 Retraced its melancholy way ; 
 The winds that swept the hollow dell 
 Pealed Nature's tributary knell ; 
 And the pure dew-drops from the skies 
 Seemed tears from, planetary eyes. 
 
CLONTARF. 
 
 'T was past : and Desmond sought once more 
 
 That maiden by the southern shore ; 
 
 With love as warm as ever flung 
 
 Its truthful radiance round the young. 
 
 He fancied her, not mute and sad, 
 
 Communing there with Memory only, 
 Whose presence seldom maketh glad 
 
 The soul of meditation lonely : 
 No ! even in fancy, Desmond's mind 
 
 Could no such suffering frame for her 
 Whose heart was in his ov/a enshrined, 
 
 And he the accepted worshipper : 
 But on to hours, which every minute — 
 Each with a panting prophet in it — 
 Brought nearer to his heart, he flew 
 
 And formed an empire of his own, 
 A Realm of Love, where Beauty drew 
 
 A magic circle round her throne : 
 Where Glory, crowned on Freedom's field, 
 
 A field for youthful prowess meet. 
 Would bring his laurels and his shield. 
 
 And lay them at Mononia's feet ; 
 While she the tribute gift would take. 
 And bless it for the donor's sake : 
 And there the lovely and the brave 
 Share, each, the bliss the other gave. 
 
92 CLONTARF. 
 
 Alas ! alas, why does the earth 
 To treacherous fancy e'er give birth ; 
 Why hope we here beyond our breath, 
 While e'en that hope is winged with death ; 
 Why do we build upon desire 
 
 Joys which 't were fruitless to command ; 
 Why tell the ocean to retire, 
 
 Or set its limit on the strand ; 
 Why listen to the courtier, Hope, 
 
 To whom no trust of earth is given ? 
 Why do we read our horoscope 
 
 By dreams of earth, not stars of heaven ? 
 The boldest astrologic sage 
 Ne'er calculates from earthly page. 
 
 He sought his Love ; but sought in vain : 
 Nor cot, nor headland, glen nor plain, 
 Nor that green bower whence the dart 
 Of Love in ambush reached his heart — 
 No place of these he wandered by 
 With hasty step or heedless eye ; 
 But there he found of her no trace 
 As though they never saw her face : 
 As though her beauty's joyous light 
 Had never made their flowers more bright. 
 
CLONTARF. 93 
 
 His castled home which lifted high 
 
 Its time-worn turrets to the sky, 
 
 He sought with that absorbing grief 
 
 Which ill beseems a victor chief : 
 
 And there, in sorrow's dark excess, 
 
 Dwelt in ascetic loneliness. 
 
 The joys of banquet hall, the chase, 
 
 The scenes of that romantic place — 
 
 Lake, meadow, lawn and wooded height, 
 
 His by hereditary right — 
 
 No soothing influence possessed, 
 
 No calm for his perturbed breast. 
 
 Absence, which seemed of years before. 
 
 Could now by hours be counted o'er : 
 
 It seemed but yesterday Avhen she. 
 
 Hallowed his heart with lip of love. 
 And look that told, more eloquently, 
 A heart as true as even he 
 
 Could seek beneath those worlds above, 
 Where souls restored to heavenly youth. 
 Drink of the founts of living truth. 
 Oh ! had she erred or fallen away, 
 
 A meteor from her native sphere — 
 Fallen through the etherial array 
 
 Of light and love that bound her here, 
 
 Attractive, beautiful and fair ? 
 
94 CLONTARF. 
 
 Away the foul, dishonoring thought, 
 With doubtful depths of treason fraught ! 
 No ! no, that star was never rent 
 From Love's harmonious firmament. 
 
 Night her broad wings had just unfurled, 
 And brooded o'er the dreaming world : 
 As he, in wild conjecture, turning 
 
 Chaotic thoughts, beheld afar 
 A moving light, now brightly burning, 
 
 Now twinkling like a timid star. 
 Through the dark boughs, that lengthening stood. 
 Flinging deep shadows o'er the flood. 
 And, stretching downward, darkened ever 
 The course of that romantic river ; 
 Save where the sun's unclouded light 
 Peeped in on its eternal night. 
 Here winding through the meadows wide 
 The river flowed with ampler tide ; 
 Here mid a leafy colonnade 
 The banks a narrower channel made ; 
 And here, detached from ruin grey, 
 The stormy fragments fret its way ; 
 And swifter now it hurries by. 
 
 Increasing with a smoother motion ; 
 
CLONTARF. 95 
 
 More swiftly now the waters fly, 
 
 As eager to embrace the ocean : 
 Now, sheeting smooth, they flash and leap 
 A fall of fearful fathoms deep, 
 RecoiUng in the dread rebound 
 With agonies of broken sound. 
 Now, free from its precipitous force, 
 It flows with less unquiet course ; 
 
 Fair, open fields of pleasant green, 
 
 And undulating hills between ; 
 
 While sylvan grove and bank-side bower, 
 
 Of gathering fruit and balmy flower. 
 
 Spring up around rejoicing ever, 
 
 In the calm beauty of that river. 
 
 Wherefore, by whom and why that light 
 
 Invaded there the secret night ? 
 
 Seeks there some remnant of that band 
 
 Of Danes still wandering through the land, 
 
 By stratagem of foul surprise — 
 
 By open guilt or hidden guise — 
 
 To compass him in lonely hour. 
 
 Or lay the torch-fire to his tower ? 
 
 Full well he felt a chieftain's life 
 
 Redeeming sacrifice might be, ^ 
 
96 CLONTARF, 
 
 To Denmark vanquished in that strife, 
 
 That blighting of her chivalry. 
 He breathed no word of doubt or fear, 
 Yet deemed not light of danger near ; 
 But wakeful vigil nightly kept, 
 Lest foes surprize him while he slept : 
 " What will vindictive foes not do, 
 To honor false, to vengeance true ?" 
 
 One evening looking from his tower, 
 
 Just as the moon, her radiance flinging, 
 Silvered the dews on leaf and flower. 
 
 And their " good night" the birds were singing, 
 He saw in stooping attitude 
 
 A Norseman by the river side. 
 Heaping a pile of arid wood. 
 
 Where a few naked rocks divide 
 His heritance from other soil. 
 " Strange task," he said, " for stranger's toil :" 
 Each passing moment but defined 
 The late conjecture of his mind. 
 His fears conviction strong became, 
 " That heap was destined for a flame. 
 And was it e'en this night to glow, 
 To guide the well directed foe 
 O'er ftie else treacherous waves below .^" 
 
CLONTARF. 97 
 
 A few stout clansmen, stern and bold, 
 He summoned, but no purpose told : 
 '* Seize yonder outlaw!" It was done. 
 Thus far at least some hope is won ! 
 Some hope ? alas ! of what ? — of whom ? 
 No^matter, hope can light a tomb, 
 Though dark as death !" But what is wild, 
 
 Or dark or fanciful to Hope — 
 To her who e'en at death has smiled, 
 And, waving her eternal wand, 
 Saw worlds of life and light beyond ; 
 
 And bade their golden portals ope. 
 While joyous years, nor few nor far, 
 
 In rosy eircies lay reclining, 
 Each with her destined morning-star 
 
 Upon her cloudless forehead shining ; 
 Their wings of brightness even now. 
 
 Though yet unfolded, downward casting 
 The radiance, o'er the mortal's brow, 
 
 Of love, and beauty everlasting. 
 O ! ne'er did realm of glory ope 
 Too bright for man to tread with Hope ! 
 This very night — nay even this hour 
 
 May Desmond meet his long lost dove j 
 And heaven upon his spirit shower, 
 
 Free, bright and pure, the dews of love. 
 9 
 
98 CLONTARF. 
 
 The moon had sank, the night wind bleW 
 
 In fitful gusts and strong, 
 And clouds with now and then a view 
 Of scanty starlight struggling through, 
 
 Swept fierce and dark along. 
 Hoarsely the cumbrous branches sighed 
 
 As with a living woe, 
 To which the river's voice replied 
 
 In murmurs deep below- 
 Darkness and silence else was all 
 From earth to heaven's extended pall. 
 Alone went Desmond forth, awhile 
 He stood above the mimic pile ; 
 And fain would waive the desperate need 
 That urged and justified the deed : 
 But dastard treachery hath no claim 
 On aught that beareth human name . 
 
 He bore away the brambly heap. 
 
 Far down toward the river's side, 
 Where first the impulse of the leap 
 
 Impels the current of the tide ; 
 The spark applied, serene and clear 
 
 The beacon-fire arose, 
 " Spirits of justice now appear ! 
 
 Thus Desmond hails such foes ! 
 
CLONTART*. 99 
 
 Be hushed ye winds lest even a breath 
 
 Disturb the dreadful pause ; 
 Ye starry witnesses of death, 
 
 Now justify my cause : 
 And thou, oh Night ! thy pall extend ; 
 
 Fair Night ! whose gentle reign 
 Those fiends with fire and blood would rendj 
 And, where thy forest rites ascend, 
 
 Thy sanctuary profane, 
 And make thy shrines of peaceful gloom 
 One hideous, vast, volcanic tomb !" 
 Hark ! was 't the ripple through the grass 
 Low drooping where the waters pass, 
 Or stealthy dipping of some oar 
 That ventures from the farther shore ? 
 Clearer the sound, and still more clear 
 It grows on Desmond's anxious ear : 
 Now voices as of terror rise, 
 And louder now awake the skies. 
 Hush was it not his uttered name 
 In agonizing accents came? 
 Again a wild, protracted shriek 
 That blanched with fear the listener's cheek, 
 Then with distinct and rapid dash. 
 
 As struggling with the rushing wave, 
 A plunge — a pause — a stifled crash,' 
 
 Up from the cataract's sleepless grave. 
 
100 CLONTARF, 
 
 He started up as from a dream 
 
 Of all things horrible : wild voices 
 Rose from the bosom of the stream, 
 
 As when the deepest hell rejoices ; 
 And forms unearthly seemed to tread. 
 Where'er his will of motion led ; 
 At every step the woods around 
 Seemed tongues and utterance to have found ; 
 The black, thick clouds above him broke. 
 
 And lightnings winged the hour with fire, 
 The thunders deep denouncement spoke, 
 
 And winds awoke their funeral choir ; 
 While earth as yielding up its dead 
 Convulsive seemed with horrid dread. 
 And haunted conscience filled, with fear. 
 All sights and sounds to eye and ear. 
 He reached his home with trembling pace ; 
 
 His vassals stood aghast. 
 As they beheld the hollowed face. 
 
 Where iron passions passed, 
 And left as records of their ire 
 Corroding lines of graven fire. 
 
 Transformed as 'twere to breathing stone, 
 Till morning's hour he dwelt alone ; 
 
OLONTARF. IGl 
 
 Nor joy nor peace, it brought to him, 
 His heart was sad, his soul was dim : 
 He looked as he outlived the span 
 Of nature's usual years to man. 
 
 ^^ Bring forth" he cried, " the captive Dane- 
 
 And thou my trusty friend, — 
 Thou in our audience wilt remain 
 
 And usual council lend. 
 We have strange task whate'er it be, 
 Of death and fear and mystery !" 
 
 The Dane appeared ; his step was slow. 
 
 Far less with weight of age than woe j 
 
 His lips stood lividly apart 
 
 As though to ense his breathless heart ; 
 
 And his bright sunken eye did seem, 
 
 Such wildness in its fixed beam. 
 
 Delirious from some horrid dream, 
 
 " Soldier !" said Desmond, '^' is thy pride 
 
 So far debased thou must conspire, 
 Upon our rightful soil and tide, 
 
 To light the dark avenger's fire t 
 Hath not the field of generous strife 
 Fair guerdon for a soldier's life ? 
 9* 
 
102 CL0NTARF. 
 
 " Blest is this hour !'^ the Dane replied, 
 This is the time for which I 've sighed ; 
 When I may to thine ear unfold 
 A tale that better were untold : — 
 That Faith herself might justly deem 
 The fiend had woven for some foul dream. 
 Doubless on yonder banks there be 
 Men leagued against thy home and thee ; 
 For since Clontarf's eventful day 
 The spirits, fallen in that fray. 
 Have from their rest in Odin's hall, 
 Rung in our ears the atonement call. 
 Of all thy country's warriors there. 
 Thine was the sword of darkest fear : 
 Where'er appeared thy flaming crest 
 It blazed, the beacon of the rest ; 
 Where'er the war-clouds blackest met, 
 
 There was it shiningly revealed 
 Aloft, as on a headland set ; 
 
 The triumph-planet of the field. 
 Called to revenge we sought this place, 
 A foe to thee and all thy race. 
 
 But though I be of Denmark's name 
 And 'gainst thee lifted spear and shield 
 In the red strife of honor's field. 
 
 Yet — even yet, a stronger claim 
 
CLONTARF. 103 
 
 Hath won my heart, all claims above — • 
 Woman's devotedness of love. 
 Much have I heard of Desmond's name 
 Thy lineage and chivalric fame ; 
 But dazzling fame and lineage bright 
 
 Are lost in dark eclipse, 
 Before the love-praise and the light 
 Of vrorth, as sadly, day and night, 
 
 Told by Mononia's lips !" 
 " Heavens !" Desmond cried, " even now to thee, 
 Wealth, honor, power, life, liberty, 
 If she but lives!" 
 
 " But yester-morn 
 She lived !" 
 
 " Since then ?" 
 
 " These chains I've worn I" 
 
 " Speak ! be each word with lightning fraught, 
 That I may read thy inmost thought !" 
 Resumed he — " On Clontarf there strayed 
 A youth in rustic garb arrayed. 
 Within our lines : " A spy — a spy !" 
 From guard to chieftain was the cry. 
 The spy was seized, but to the chief 
 
 The captive answered not ; 
 But stood in strange and frozen griefy 
 
 Nor friend nor comfort sousht : 
 
104 CLONTARF. 
 
 Nor seemed the searcher's gaze to fear, 
 
 Nor frown to heed, nor threat to hear. 
 
 Confined in fetters in our tent 
 
 Nor word nor sigh bespoke lament ; 
 
 And the brief questions of our peers 
 
 Reply received in silent tears. 
 
 Battle and death which darkness brought 
 
 To many a brilliant crest, 
 Mid every change was suffered not 
 
 To wound the captive's breast. 
 Nor in defeat, nor yet in flight, 
 
 Did aught of rudeness dare 
 The bird to ruffle or affright 
 
 Chained from its native air. 
 The tale of grief was nightly told 
 And listened to by young and old ; 
 Of whom at length to me alone 
 The captive's secret heart was known. 
 We leagued a few, who felt like me, 
 To set the gentle captive free. 
 One to erect a beacon light 
 
 Where calmly flows yon tide ; 
 One to direct the forest flight. 
 
 And one the skiff" to guide ; 
 That one so good and fair should be 
 Restored to home and hope and — thee. 
 
CLONTARF. 105 
 
 Pure as the dew in morning's &un ; — 
 MoNONiA, captive — both in one ! 
 
 Come, vassals, come ! vt^hat darkness now 
 Spreads o'er your chieftain's eye and brow. 
 What demon-power — what mystic dart 
 Hath in an instant pierced his heart, 
 In which the lost Mononia's name 
 Should kindle Eden's altar flame ? 
 With fixed eye and prisoned breath, 
 And lips that seemed the porch of death. 
 He lay like one for whom no more 
 Could Time one pulse of life restore. 
 
 The day passed anxiously away. 
 
 Mid watch and wail and dark surmise. 
 
 And some would cross themselves and pray. 
 And some, with fear-dilated eyes. 
 
 Would tell how at no distant day. 
 
 The sad Ban-shee or evil fay,^^ 
 
 Followed, for some uncancelled crime,. 
 
 Their race from immemorial time. 
 
 That night a calmer mood of thought 
 A change to Desmond's spirit brought, 
 But a mute prophecy of brow 
 Brooded in fixedness of woe 
 
106 CLONTARF. 
 
 Above his eyes, revealing now 
 The troubled heart belovr : 
 Passion and impulse had no power 
 In thought or action of the hour : 
 Again he summoned up the Dane 
 Struck from his limbs the captive's chain, 
 And with him spoke in converse stern 
 Apart from vassal, guard or kern. 
 
 ^^ Bring torches each my faithful men, 
 And lead our pathway to the "glen." 
 
 They went, they came with torches bright, 
 
 And led into the dusky night. 
 
 Through fallen branch and tangled weed, 
 
 The devious way they bent ; 
 Here lay a path of level speed. 
 And here the cautious torch would lead 
 
 A perilous descent ; 
 And now the caverned rocks replied 
 To rushing of the distant tide ; 
 And now its current they pursued, 
 By reedy marge and gloomy wood ; 
 Less indistinct and less the sound 
 
 Of swifter waters now. 
 And now, dashed by the giant bound, 
 
 The spray besprent their brow. 
 
CLONTARP. lot 
 
 Oh ! there are doubts twere crime to break, 
 
 Whose sweet allusions ope 
 To many a tempest-shaken peak — - 
 
 Bright Ararats of hope — 
 Where the earth-weary and oppressed 
 For even one trusting hour can rest. 
 Yet tis a spirit-wasting thing 
 Thus, fleeing from ourselves to cling 
 To the delusion — thus to clasp 
 A moment with convulsive grasp. 
 Lest Truth should dash forever out 
 The lingering hope that lived on doubt ^ 
 Thus in afflicted mood of mind, 
 Wilhng to search yet loth to find, 
 Did Desmond with his followers reach 
 
 To where the river's gradual power 
 Had formed and shaped a fairy beach 
 
 O'er-arched with willow, shrub, and flower—- 
 Where the convolvulus, with bell 
 
 Of silver, hung in white festoon. 
 Through which the winds, when evening fell. 
 
 Sung mystic legends to the moon — 
 Romances quaint of that lone place. 
 Traditions of the spirit-race. 
 
 What a convulsive shudder ran 
 
 O'er the rapt chieftain, as though death, 
 
i08 CLONTARI'. 
 
 Seizing the agonizing man, 
 
 Had froze life's current in a breath. 
 A groan of deep sepulchral sound 
 
 So rose on the enchanted air, 
 You scarce could hear the living bound 
 
 Of the hoarse waters rushing near, 
 As down he fell and hid his face 
 And cried, in agonizing tone ; 
 " At last — at last can I embrace 
 
 My lost — forever now my own !" 
 There — there within that fairy bay, 
 
 She, who had dared for love to roam. 
 Cold as the sculptured marble lay. 
 
 Wrapped in a shroud of silver foam 
 Wove by the spirit of the wave. 
 To deck Mononia's sinless grave-* 
 
 Oh ! the wild drama of that night, 
 
 Illumined by the lurid light 
 
 Of peat-wood torches which the spray 
 
 Reflected fiercely ray on ray ; 
 
 The night-wind's low funereal song 
 
 Booming the forest-depths among. 
 
 The fairy temple round them spread, 
 
 With flowery arabesque, o'er head. 
 
 From which bright wreaths of wild-flowers hung 
 
 Above the dead — the fair and young — 
 
CLONTARF. 109 
 
 Who perished in the faithless tide, 
 O'er which she sought her lover's side ; 
 The rugged group of bronzed men, 
 
 Enfolded each in martial cloak. 
 Like guardians of some wizard glen. 
 Who there the midnight vigil kept 
 While some enchanted maiden slept, 
 Nor visage raised, nor utterance woke, 
 To wake with even one soothing sound 
 The horrid silence thi'oned around. 
 
 And t'was a sad, a thrilling sight 
 To see the funeral pomp that night -, 
 Nor throbbed a heart around that bier, 
 That did not shed its tribute tear 
 Above that sainted child of love — 
 The spirit's self-commissioned dove, 
 That perished in her pride of flight — 
 The daughter of departed light. 
 The starhght had not yet withdrawn. 
 And, dimly grey, the feeble dawn 
 
 Trembled upon the horizon's brim, 
 When through the dark and solemn aisle 
 Of the antique monastic pile 
 
 Arose the funeral hymn. 
 10 
 
110 CLONTARF. 
 
 They sang of dust returned to dusty 
 Of spirits yielding up their trust, 
 
 Of mercy and of sins forgiven, 
 Of faith, and hopefulness and love,, 
 And everlasting joys above, 
 
 By Siloa's stream that flows in Heaven. 
 They sang of the seraphic choir 
 
 Innumerous, that, round the throne, 
 On wings of life's essential fire. 
 
 Forever spread their shining zone ; 
 And of the virgins pure arrayed 
 
 In snow-white garments, — those who passed 
 Like flowers that on their branches fade 
 
 Untouched — unsullied to the last. 
 Singing of heaven they sang of her 
 
 Who lay amid them on her bier, 
 For she had been a worshipper, 
 
 And oft had bent her brow in prayer, 
 Within that venerable pile ; 
 
 There oft her heaven-inspired soul 
 Beamed forth, in many a sacred smile. 
 
 As she beheld the incense roll 
 High o'er the altar's awful rite. 
 
 Type of the heaven-ward breath of prayer,, 
 And happy, in her spirit's night. 
 
 Sought light and hope and refuge there ; 
 
CLONTARF. Ill 
 
 For never did her heart forget 
 Red Calvary's uncancelled debt. 
 
 And when the dirge was duly sung 
 Above the beautiful and young, 
 They laid Mononia's virgin form 
 
 Within the grave of final rest^ 
 Where earliest sunbeams, fond and warm, 
 
 Would nurse the wild flowers o'er her breast, 
 And shed, as pure as Nature gave. 
 Their evening tears above her grave. 
 
 Not sternly, like a warrior, then 
 >Stood Desmoj!?d mid those cowled men — 
 Monastic men who had grown grey 
 Watching the world from day to day : 
 Who knew its nothingness — its pride, 
 
 And vanities that spurned control, 
 As though life's orbit were so wide 
 
 No man had ever reached its goal — 
 Men who had neither tear nor sigh 
 For aught, beneath the purer sky, 
 Which clung to earth — men who had given 
 Their passions, hopes and lives to heaven. 
 But Desmond, as the turf was piled, 
 Wept tears of anguish like some child 
 
112 CLONTARF. 
 
 Who, trained in happiness from birth^ 
 Loses the all he loved on earth. 
 Then did his frame as aspen quiver, 
 
 While vainly struggled soul and clay; 
 As ripples of some deep, dark river 
 
 Its channelled restlessness betray » 
 The chief that through the battle field, 
 
 Erect and proud, defiance bore, 
 Before whose arm the firmest reeled 
 
 That ever darkened Erin^s shore,- 
 More pitiable was than they — 
 That weak, lorn man of hopeless clay.. 
 Of all — of all— of all bereft, 
 Unsullied honor only left. 
 
 When Nature had becalmed her mood, 
 A moment wrapt in thought he stood ; 
 And gentle resignation now. 
 Like dawning light suffused his brow •, 
 
 Strengthening his spirit to its needy 
 And, faintly uttering one loved name, 
 Thar fired his spirit with its. flame. 
 
 His heart, like some deep river freed 
 From frozen barriers, poured along 
 His piteous caoine — his farewell song.^- 
 
CLONTARF. 113 
 
 Qtmint. 
 
 ^* Oh ! had she died in earlier youth, 
 
 Ere beauty in its fullness came, 
 Or love, with its inspiring truth, 
 
 Fed in her breast the sacred flame — 
 Had she then died, my heart were not 
 
 .A living tomb as it is now — 
 Where hope can find no resting spot — 
 
 And furrowing sorrow dims the brow. 
 
 "t) 
 
 Ah ! vainly does the wise man say 
 
 That tears should flow not for the dead ; 
 Nature will still enforce her way, 
 
 As torrents scoop their mountain bed. 
 Summer may dry the mountain stream 
 
 And wild-flowers weave their curtain there ; 
 But this fond heart ! — no summer beam 
 
 Can bring concealing verdure here. 
 
 When virtue, truth and beauty cease 
 To make life lovely to the heart, 
 
 Tears are but Heaven's kind dews of peace 
 A soothing calmness to impart. 
 10* 
 
114 CLONTARF. 
 
 What though the Stoic had no tear 
 
 Which touched by one endearment ran, 
 
 He who Mononia's fate could hear 
 
 Nor weep, were more or less than man. 
 
 Though high in military fame 
 
 Laurelled and proud was Desmond's nanae —r- 
 
 Though loved and honored with a truth 
 
 Proverbial of his nation's heart, 
 And in the tropic time of youth, 
 
 When meteors of ambition dart 
 Across the soul bewildering 
 
 With visions beautiful as bright, 
 Leaving no pause for reason's wing. 
 
 But luring it from height to height. 
 
 With rich intensity of light, 
 And flashing from its magic source 
 On him their full concentred force •— 
 Wealth, fame, ambition, beauty, power, 
 And learning's more immortal dower, 
 Which makes men mightier in their lot 
 
 Than monarchs o'er a million slaves. 
 Which graveth laws that perish not, 
 
 But long outlive the sculptured graves 
 Of generations — yet did he. 
 Living henceforth for worlds to be. 
 
CLONTARF. 115 
 
 The passion and the power resign 
 In this mere world to soar and shine. 
 The high ambition of his prayer, 
 
 His country, was secure once more, 
 No sceptre waved its mandate there 
 
 Save that her kings for centuries bore. 
 But the pure dreams of love, that filled 
 
 The future with their splendid light, 
 Returned no more for him, to gild 
 
 On hour of time's too tardy flight. 
 And oft at evening's thoughtful hour 
 
 Would he walk forth, to meet the moon 
 Within the well remembered bower. 
 
 And there, in solitude, commune 
 With Memory, who, her phantom crowd 
 
 Of joys, untombed at his desire, 
 'Till Reason, dimmed, enfeebled, bowed, 
 
 Before the wizard would retire. 
 And leave him to the transient dream. 
 Unbroken by her truthful beam. 
 And morn would come and find him there, 
 
 A man of more depresssing woe. 
 And he, in agony of prayer 
 That heaven would shield him from despair, 
 
 Would from that place of sorrow go, 
 
116 CLONTARF. 
 
 Straying as though, so lost and dim, 
 All places were alike to him. 
 
 In broken-heartedness, at times, 
 He fain would roam to distant climes 
 Of Immortality's regard — 
 The Caesars and the Mantuan bard — 
 Would muse amid the ruins proud 
 
 Of Rome, and feel as though again 
 Had risen from her age's sbroud 
 
 That mother of undying men. 
 " Yet," he would say, " why seek a clime 
 Where but the wasting power of time 
 On all things earthly I can see, 
 On pride and fame's infirmity, 
 Alas ! if such a truth be dear. 
 Its time and evidence are here — 
 Here, even within my home, and now — 
 See ! read my heart — behold my brow — 
 They have been built by God's own hand. 
 
 Illumed by hopes as bright as heaven. 
 Sustained by all that's great and grand 
 And virtuous in my native land 
 
 To which all these are proudly given — 
 Pillared and lifted to renown, 
 Nor storm to rock, nor cloud to frown ; 
 
CLONTARF. 117 
 
 Yet now behold them — me and mine — 
 Ruin is on the inmost shrine, 
 And misery writes each moment now, 
 Her ceaseless triumphs on my brow." 
 Thus, like the " left" of Israel's race, 
 His bosom found no resting place. 
 The very grave, by which arose. 
 
 Eve after eve, the funeral hymn, 
 And took the weary to repose. 
 
 Seemed to deny repose to him. 
 
 Years travelled on with usual pace. 
 
 And nature felt no wrikling change 
 Mar the fair beauty of her face, 
 
 Nor one bright lineament derange ; 
 Their lines of undulating grace 
 
 The hills around the horizon rolled. 
 And day light closed its splendid race 
 
 'Mid the same lines of living gold ; 
 But the strong manfulness of form. 
 
 The classic forehead, white and smooth, 
 The eye that through the battle's storm 
 
 Flashed the impetuous soul of youth — 
 The pulse that leaped with vigorous bound, 
 
 Like a young athlete, through his heart — 
 
118 CLONTARF. 
 
 The voice that with such dulcet sound 
 
 As lutes o'er moonlight waves impart 
 Nature, in these, alas ! to him, 
 Was changed and desolate and dim. 
 The past an ever present grief. 
 
 The future unredeemed despair. 
 He, like a lofty forest leaf. 
 
 Blasted in life's unripened year — 
 His mind, bewildered, ceased to find 
 Or claim or kindred 'mid his kind ; 
 Nor genial link that owned him part 
 Of the wide universal heart. 
 Mononia's name he seldom spoke 
 
 In accents audible ; but then 
 A smile along his features broke. 
 
 Which was not as the smile of men : - 
 A tranquillized expression — pure — 
 
 Distinct from every mortal trace, 
 A spirit-light which seemed to pour 
 
 Ethereal radiance o'er his face. 
 
 It seemed as, in Mononia's death, 
 All had expired, of mortal breath 
 He knew or cared again to know ; 
 Alike to him seemed weal and woe. 
 
CLONTARF. 119 
 
 And day by day his frame decayed 
 
 Sinking beneath its long distress — 
 Nature her yielding but delayed, 
 
 And, wasted by life-weariness, 
 Unloosed her tenure breath by breath. 
 And hailed life's dawnino- lioht of death. 
 But while yet lingering on the brink 
 And holding to life's latest link, 
 Desmond felt all the expiring light . 
 Gather with concentrating might. 
 Like beams of re-awakening hope, 
 And to the past a vista ope — 
 A beautiful and luminous way. 
 That, like the sunset's golden play. 
 Lit up the past ere it unfurled 
 Its banners o'er a brighter world : 
 Then as a man becomino; free 
 Thus spoke his soul rejoicingly. 
 
 2rftr Knijocation* 
 
 Star of my love ! Celestial Vision beaming. 
 
 And beckoning from thy home of light to me. 
 In the rapt moments of my purest dreaming 
 I've worshipped thee. 
 
120 CLONTAPvF. 
 
 O ! thou wert fairest of this fair creation, 
 
 That human mind could dream or eye could see ; 
 A hope, a power, a glorious revelation 
 Of love to me. 
 
 Thou wert the earthly idol of my living ; 
 
 Thy presence made it paradise to me ; 
 Thy smile was all the w^orld possessed worth giving, 
 Though bright it be. 
 
 And I have loved thee too for that devotion 
 
 With which thou 'st loved our Island of the 
 sea; 
 She felt the prayer of thy pure soul's emotion, 
 And she is free. 
 
 My country, may thy name and fame and glory — 
 
 Hope, prowess, virtue, pride and liberty — 
 Kindle thy sons in many a future story 
 With chivalry. 
 
 Free mayest thou be, honored and pure and holy, 
 
 The GospePs rock-built ocean-sanctuary ! 
 Accept this prayer for her from lips so lowly, 
 Oh! God to thee! 
 
CLONTARF. 121 
 
 He ceased, and smiled as though a dream 
 
 Had round his soul Elysium cast ; 
 But, in the rapture of the theme, 
 
 The spirit of the hero passed : 
 And ne'er did infant sink to rest 
 More calmly on its mother's breast. 
 Than sank that warrior to repose 
 At his brief life's pacific close. 
 Conscience, no demon-peopled scene, 
 
 No paralyzing guilt, 
 Spread in horrific wrath between 
 His spirit, and the faith serene ' 
 
 On which his hope was built. 
 The glories which his memory drew. 
 
 To his last moment, round his heart. 
 Lifting its energies anew 
 
 With nature's mystery of art, 
 Gathered from deeds of virtuous fame, 
 A high renown — an honored name : — • 
 His country, not as in those years, 
 Inglorious weeping blood for tears. 
 Stricken in slavery's deepest deep. 
 And drugged into insensate sleep — 
 Aye ! not as now to bondage doomed, 
 But, victor-hke, crested and plumed, 
 11 
 
122 CLONTABFv 
 
 Dwelling with freedom which his sword 
 Defended from barbaric horde — 
 The people of his native land 
 
 Proud in the nation's own dominion^ 
 And Happiness, from strand to strand, 
 Shedding along the golden land 
 
 The radiance of her sun-bright pinion— 
 All these, like spirits of the blest, 
 
 Around him came with fonder pow'r, 
 To point afar his home of rest. 
 
 And tranquilize his parting hour. 
 True ! thoughts of Love's young martyr maid- 
 Her truth and beauty — would invade, 
 And turn his heavenward thoughts aside, 
 With dreamings of his Spirit-Bride : 
 But then remembering Earth hath nought 
 
 Of love or joy undimmed, unstained, 
 He sighed away the panting thought, 
 
 And Heaven his worthier hopes sustained. 
 And thus the hero passed away. 
 No cloud to dim his parting day. 
 Oh ! let his patriot virtues live ! 
 
 For he was one of that high race, 
 Who heart and hand would bravely give, 
 That Freedom find a dwelling place. 
 
CLGNTARF. 123 
 
 Where she in majesty could stand^ 
 And with a trumpet-voice demand 
 The universe as her own land. 
 He was a soldier of that Isle 
 
 Who ever hath to freedom given 
 Her sons with gladness without guile. 
 
 The bravest which the breath of Heaven 
 Hath since creation vitalized ! 
 And shall their children be despised ? 
 Shall they whose minds by instinct know 
 
 The mighty home of Freedom's fane. 
 And to its grand proportions grow, 
 
 As though upon their native plain, 
 Stood Freedom's glorious shrines again. 
 
 And join in her triumphant strain, 
 
 And justify her right of reign, 
 Sooner than Europe's other men ? 
 Shall they thro' earth unhonor'd roam ; 
 
 And shall they vainly breathe their plea 
 That their loved Isle beyond the foam 
 
 May share the freeman's sympathy ? 
 
 America ! adopted land 
 
 Of thousands from my native isle, 
 ^ Tis thine by Freedom's sons to stand, 
 
 And bid the ocean-pilgrims smile — 
 
134 CLONTARF. 
 
 Them who have sought her day by day, 
 
 Far from their native homes away, 
 
 Far from the graves of worthy sires, 
 
 Far from their sacred altar fires, 
 
 And far from those endearing ties 
 
 In which half life's elysimn lies. 
 
 For they have bled and still would bleed. 
 
 Ere of thy banner proud unfurled 
 One stripe should fade, one star recede, 
 
 Against a thunder-mailed world. 
 And they can dare the field, how well, 
 How willingly, thy wars can tell. 
 Let but the veriest mountaineer 
 
 That roams upon Hibernia's hills. 
 The sacred name of Freedom hear. 
 
 Oh ! how his heart with rapture thrills. 
 And if they swell the loud " hurra" 
 
 For Freedom raised by treacherous art, 
 They violate not Freedom's law. 
 
 For Nature ne'er deceives the heart. 
 
 Honest ! too easily beguiled ! 
 
 Deceived, tho' scorning to deceive ! 
 As lions brave ! and yet the child 
 
 Not sooner will its nurse believe. 
 Than will they shed for others' ills 
 The fullness of their bosoms' rillg. 
 
CLONTARF. 125 
 
 But let Deceit conviction wake 5 
 Wild, as convulsive shocks that shake 
 Cities from off our earth, are they 
 To crush the serpents that betray. 
 And this is justice —right of soul — i 
 
 Prerogative from Nature's youth, 
 That spurns all lesser laws' control — 
 
 Justice inflexible as Truth. 
 
 America ! need I portray 
 
 The fervent, unconditioned love 
 With which they battled in that day 
 
 When England's banner first above 
 Thy homes in fury was flung out ? 
 Or tell with what a joyous shout 
 They rushed into thy battle then, 
 A living hurricane of men } 
 Shall I, tho' humble, call upon 
 Thy Heaven-commissioned Washington, 
 Whose fortunes, in their darkest night, 
 They followed in the doubtful fight > 
 No ! step of mine shall not invade 
 The home of his departed shade. 
 But of the living I shall seek. 
 Who, counseled by awarding Fame, 
 11* 
 
126 dLONTARF. 
 
 In monuments marble speak 
 
 The glory of Montgomery's name 
 And see, again, where close beside 
 Standeth that obelisk of pride 
 To Ireland's Cicero who gave 
 
 His exiled genius to the State, 
 And sank into his honored grave, 
 
 Pre-eminent among the great ; 
 While Justice 'mid her sacred walls, 
 Upon the shade of Emmet calls, 
 From whose inspired lips the spell 
 Of eloquence convincing fell : — 
 Yes ! there are living round us still 
 Of whom these works declare the will, 
 Who twined the wreaths of grateful fame 
 For Emmet's and Montgomery's name. 
 And shall the Island of their birth, 
 
 'Gainst slavery leagued, a slave remain, 
 Or, " 'mid the nations of the earth," 
 
 Uprising from the oppressor's chain, 
 Resume her plaee ? It is with thee 
 To say how long these things shall be. 
 Yes ! yes ! to thee, and to thy race, 
 America ! I urge my plea ; 
 Thy land is Freedom's dwelling place, 
 And such may it for ever be : 
 
CLONTARF. 127 
 
 She tells her tale of woes to thee ; 
 
 To whom can she look up for aid, 
 If not to the victorious free, 
 
 Whom Freedom her vice-gerents made ? 
 All thou canst do is but thy part 
 
 Of Freedom\s delegated trust, 
 To cheer the nations who would start 
 
 To life, and lift them from the dust. 
 Be friendly to her friends, and fond : 
 For so 'tis written in thy hond- 
 
 We ask not men — we ask not arms, 
 Nor fleets to thunder war's alarms — 
 Nothing to weaken ev'en one tie 
 
 Which Commerce weaves across the sea : 
 We ask thee but to breathe the sigh. 
 
 The word of generous sympathy — 
 To c^ive the heart without the hand, 
 And vindicate my native land. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 22 — For '^By the skill of a free-men/' 
 Read '^ By the skill of a free-Twan." 
 
 '^ 47 — For '' When farewell sunbeams kissed each 
 each flower." 
 
 Read '■'■ When farewell sunbeams kissed 
 each flower." 
 
 '^ ^^ — Yor '^And felt their hearts so ifmne-like 
 grew." 
 Read ''And felt their hearts so twin-likQ 
 grew." 
 
 ^'^ — For '^ Soils the blue heavens' infinity." 
 Read '•' Sails the blue heavens' infinity." 
 
NOTES 
 
NOTES TO CLONTAHF. 
 
 (1.) Set between them and Iber's race, 
 
 The covenant stone upon its place. 
 
 On that day, the second day after Baal had entered into the 
 second chamber of his house Sgith, was the covenant made. 
 «' And the Danaan did set up a large stone on the spot where 
 the covenant was made ; and I, Ordac, have set down the words 
 on the clironicles of the Gaal, to remain forever." — O' Conner's 
 Chronicles of Eri, Part IL Chapter 1. 
 
 (2.) Then did the bright Galgrena rise. 
 
 Galgrena signifies " The Brightness of the Sun, or Sun- 
 Burst," and is applied to the Irish National Banner. 
 
 (3.) Where daring Erigena's light. 
 
 The most remarkable man that Ireland, or perhaps any other 
 country, sent forth in those ages, was the learned and subtle 
 John Scotus, whose distinctive title of Erigena, or, as it was 
 sometimes written, Eringena, points so clearly to the land of his 
 birth, that, among the numbers who have treated of his life 
 and writings, but few have ventured to contest thi§ point. He 
 went to France about the year 815, where his great learning 
 and social and intellectual powers secured for him the esteem 
 and familiar companionship of Charles the Bold, King of France. 
 His knowledge of Greek was extraordinary, and he was deeply 
 
132 NOTES. 
 
 acquainted with the mystic theology of the Alc-^-nc'rian School, 
 which he derived in reality from his study of tL- writings 
 ascribed to Dionysius, the Areopagite, " whose the logical trea- 
 tise he translated, by appointment of Charles the i'old, into the 
 Latin language, with the view of rendering ihem acces^^ihle to 
 such readers as were unacquainted with tAo Greelc. These 
 mystic doctrines he introduced into the theology of tlie West, 
 thereby giving rise to innumerable mischiefs, and it is well ob- 
 served, as strange, that " while the Hibernians were the first 
 teachers of Scholastic Theology in Europe," so an Hibernian, 
 himself unrivalled among the dialecticians of his day, should 
 have been also the first to introduce into the arena the antago- 
 nist principles of mysticism." — Moore, Volume 2. 
 
 (4.) And Italy of classic ground, 
 
 Donatus with a sceptre crowned. 
 
 Donatus having gone on a pilgrimage to Rome was induced 
 to fix himself in Italy, and soon after became Bishop of Fiesole. 
 
 (5.) Slumber in April's moonlight reign. 
 
 The battle of Clontarf was fought in the month of April, in 
 the year 1014. 
 
 (6.) On Nature's April of green. 
 See last note. 
 
 (7.) Maolmorda's treason gathering strength. 
 
 The King of Leinster, Maolmorda, who had, in the yeat 
 999, been aided by the forces of the Danes in usurping the crown 
 of that kingdom, now co-operated with them in a plundering 
 expedition into Meath despoiling and burning all that lay in their 
 way. 
 
 " To avenge this violation of his territory, the deposed mo- 
 narch, now only King of Meath, set fire to the neighboring dis- 
 tricts of Leinster, as far as Benadar, the present Hill of Howth. 
 There being attacked by the combined forces of Maolmorda and 
 his Danish allies, he was entirely defeated with the loss of 200 
 
NOTES. 133 
 
 of his best troopsj his son Flann, and several of the noble chiefs 
 of Meath." 
 
 * * « « * 
 
 " In the summer of 1013, so menacing an aspect had the com- 
 
 bined movement of the Danes and Lagenians begun to assume, 
 
 that Brian, to meet the coming danger, advanced his quarters 
 
 to the neighborhood of Dublin, laying waste the country of Os- 
 
 sory in his march." . . , . " Here he remained from the 
 
 month of August until Christmas, when, finding that he could 
 
 not succeed in bringing the Danes or Lagenians to action, he 
 
 broke up his quarters, and returned, laden with ample spoil, to 
 
 Kincora." 
 
 ***** 
 
 " No sooner had Brian withdrawn from his cantonment in 
 the neighborhood of Dublin, than the Danes of that city, as 
 well as of every other part of Ireland where these foreigners 
 were dispersed, began to prepare with the utmost activity for a 
 combined effort against the Irish, by despatching envoys in 
 every direction to summon auxiliaries to their banner. Not 
 only from Scotland, from the Orkneys and Hebrides, the Isle of 
 Man, and the Isles of Shetland, did they muster together all the 
 disposable forces of their fellow Northmen, but even to Den- 
 mark, Norway, and other parts of Scandinavia. 
 
 " Though long prepared, by the natural alliance which 
 had placed Leinster in the hands of the Danes, to expect a 
 struggle of no ordinary description, Brian could little have fore- 
 seen so formidable an array of force as was now collecting to 
 assail him. Nothing daunted, however, by their numbers, he 
 put himself at the head of his own brave army of Munster, and 
 joined by Malachy with the troops of Meath, and by the forces 
 of Connaught, under the command of Teige, the King of that 
 province, marched directly to the plain of Dublin, and took up 
 his station in front of the enemy, on the very same ground 
 which had been occupied by him in the summer of the preced- 
 ing year. 
 
 " Having reconnoitred the state of the opposing force, he ven- 
 tured to detach into Leinster a select body of troops, consisting 
 
 12 
 
134 NOTES. 
 
 of his Dalcassian warriors, together with a small body also of 
 the Eugenians, for the purpose of devastating the dominions of 
 the King of Leinster, and thereby causing a diversion of the en- 
 emy's force." 
 
 The Danes, becoming aware of the diminution of Brian's force 
 spent the whole of the night in preparing for a general action 
 and " presented themselves at the first dawn of light before the 
 Irish army, which had taken up its position at this time on the 
 plain of Clontarf. It had been the wish, we are told, of Brian 
 to avoid engaging on this day, (Friday, April 23d,) which, as 
 being the anniversary of Christ's passion, ought to have been 
 kept sacred, as he felt, from the profanation of warfare. Being, 
 however, obliged to waive his scruples upon this point, he after- 
 wards skilfully, as we shall see, turned the incident to account 
 — making it the means of calling forth the religious as well as 
 the military zeal and enthusiasm of his countrymen." 
 
 (8.) The raven flag of Denmark then. 
 The field of the Danish flag was white, with a raven as its 
 device. 
 
 (9.) And from Menavia's nearer clime. 
 Menavia — the Isle of Man. 
 
 (10.) How maids whom Freya loved of old, 
 She whose hot tears are turned to gold. 
 Odin is the Jupiter of the Scandinavian mythology — he is the 
 first and chiefest of all, and lives forever; he sits upon the ele- 
 vated throne Lidskjalf, whence he observes every thing in the 
 universe, alone, contemplating his own being. He is also called 
 Walfadcr, (Father of all who fall in battle,) which title be- 
 longs to him as ruler of Valhalla — which was a palace surround- 
 ed by groves and beautiful environs ; in it was the dwelling of 
 heroes who had fallen in battle. Here life is passed in bloody 
 war and riotous revelry. But all wounds here received in battle 
 are healed as soon as the trumpet sounds for the feast ; and then 
 the heroes quaff the oil of Enherium, and the beautiful Valky- 
 
NOTES. 135 
 
 rias fill their cups. These Valkyrias, or Disas, are awful and 
 beautiful beings — neither daughters of heaven nor of hell; nei- 
 ther begot by gods, nor cradled in the lap of immortal mothers. 
 Nothing is said of their origin. Their name signifies the 
 " choosers of the slain," (from wal, a heap of killed, and kyria, 
 to choose.) They appear awful and horrid in the songs of the 
 scalds ; yet we find them to be the beautiful maids of Odin, 
 with helmet and mail, and mounted on swift horses. Heroes 
 long for their arrival, enamored of their charms. They conduct- 
 ed the heroes to Valhalla, where the apples of immortality are 
 presented to them on their entrance : those apples alone 
 preserve the eternal youth of the gods. In this mythology 
 Freya is ranked as the Goddess of Love, 
 
 (11.) And one to Urdar's holy well, 
 
 And one to where the Nomas dwell. 
 The tree of the world, Ydrasil, stands over the well of time ; 
 Its branches extend over the world, its top reaches above the 
 heavens. It has three roots— one among the gods, another 
 among the giants, and a third under Hela. Near the middle 
 root is the fountain of wisdom, the fountain of Mimers. Near 
 the heavenly root is the sacred fountain, by which the gods hold 
 their council and make known their decisions. From these 
 fountains rise three beautiful maids, the Nomas, whose names 
 are : Urd, (the Past,) Varande, (the Present,) and Skuld, (the 
 Future.) They determine the fate of mortals, and aid or pun- 
 ish them by their ministers. 
 
 (12.) Furies follow on the breeze. 
 
 And the Raven's triumph ring. 
 See Note S. 
 
 (13.) 'T was her sons' revenge that gave 
 
 Hellas to the Roman. 
 
 When, with a blind and rash policy, the Etolians solicited the 
 
 aid of the Romans against the Macedonians, the Romans availed 
 
 themselves of this desirable opportunity of adding to their con- 
 
136 NOTES. 
 
 quests : and this was the beginning of the end. The history of 
 Ireland affords a similar instance of the impolicy of calling in 
 foreign aid to settle her domestic differences. 
 
 (14.) The Cross of Calvary's sacrifice. 
 It had been the wish, we "are told, of Brian to avoid engaging 
 on this day, (Friday, April 23d, 1014,) which, as being the an- 
 niversary of Christ's Passion, ought to have been kept sacred, 
 as he felt, from the profanation of warfare. Being forced, how- 
 ever, to waive his scruples upon this point, he afterward skil- 
 fully, as we shall see, turned the incident to account — making 
 it the means of calling forth the religious as well as the military 
 zeal and enthusiasm of his countrymen. — Moore's History of 
 Ireland. 
 
 (15.) Till so profusely did the tide 
 
 Of life gush forth on either side. 
 A writer in Colgan's Acta Sanctorum says : — " Quae ingenti 
 prselio in Cluain Tarbh juxta Dublinium commisso, mutuas 
 vires ita irreparabiliter debilitarunt, ut neutra gens in hunc us- 
 que diem pristinas vires recuperaverint." 
 
 (16) Such as weak Prejudice might fear 
 To see in kindling glories there. 
 In comparing, indeed, the histories of England and Ireland at 
 this period, it is impossible not to be struck by the strong con- 
 trast which they exhibit. The very same year which saw Ire- 
 land pouring forth her assembled princes and clans, to confront 
 the invader on the sea-shore, and there, of his myriads, make a 
 warning example to all future intruders, beheld England un- 
 worthily cowering under a similar visitation — her King a fugi- 
 tive from the scourge in foreign lands, and her nobles purchas- 
 ing, by inglorious tribute, a short respite from aggression ; and 
 while, in the English annals for this year, we find little else 
 than piteous lamentations over the fallen and broken spirit both 
 of rulers and people, in the records of Ireland, the only sorrows 
 which appear to have mingled with the general triumph, are 
 
NOTES. 137 
 
 those breathed at the tombs of the veteran monarch and the nu- 
 merous chieftains who perished in that struggle by his side. — 
 Moore's History of Ireland. 
 
 These remarks are sustained by the following quotation from 
 Matthew of Westminster, who, speaking of the broken spirit of 
 the English, says : — " Nee fuit quispiam qui hostibus obviaret." 
 And again, in referring to the wretched Ethelred: — "Inertia 
 terpens, timidus, suspiciosus .... exercitum congregare vel 
 contra hostes ducere non audebat, metuens ne nobiles regni quos 
 injuste exhaeredaverat, in campo eum relinquentes hostibus tra- 
 derent ad damnandum. Ad. ann. 1013." Ingulfus also thus 
 describes the English of that day as cowering before every as- 
 sailant : — " Omnes hostes in capite super Anglos semper vincere, 
 et ex omni certamine semper prevalere." 
 
 I will not, I trust, be deemed over-zealous, if I add one other 
 testimony, that of William of Newbridge, on this point, on which 
 the character of Ireland is but too often misrepresented, perhaps 
 because too superficially understood : — " It is a matter of wonder 
 that Britain, which is of larger extent, and equally an Island of 
 the Ocean, should have been so often, by the chances of war, 
 made the prey of foreign nations, and subjected to foreiga rule- 
 having been first subdued and possessed by the Romans, then by 
 the Germans, afterwards by the Danes, and lastly by the Normans 
 — while her neighbor, Hibernia, inaccessible to the Romans 
 themselves, even when the Orkneys were in their power, has 
 been but rarely, and then imperfectly, subdued; nor ever, in re- 
 ality, has been brought to submit to foreign domination till the 
 year of our Lord 1171." 
 
 (17.) But a meek saint on bended knee. 
 In prayer translated, spirit-free. 
 Marianus Scotus, in his short record of the battle, represents 
 Brian as engaged in prayer at this period of the attack ; — " Bri- 
 anus, rex Hiberniae, Parasceve Paschae, sexta feria 9 Calendas 
 Maii, manibus et mente ad Deum intentus necatur ;" — all which 
 Torfseus pronounces to be in perfect accordance with tlie Scandi- 
 navian accounts. 
 
 12* 
 
138 NOTES. 
 
 (18.) Witness, ye warriors ! mine's the pride^ 
 That by this sword has Brian died. 
 Turn Broder sic exclamare : referat homo horrini Brianum 
 a Brodere dejectum. 
 
 (19.) Fatal to Erin's king as told 
 By oracle renowned of old. 
 The Scandinavian authorities, speaking of Broder's giving bat- 
 tle on this day, say it was in obedience to the suggestion of some 
 oracular idol, consulted by him, which answered " that if the en- 
 gagement took place on a Friday, King Brian would assuredly 
 fall in the field. 
 
 (20.) The sad Banshee or evil fay. 
 Banshees are supernatural beings, who bewail, in sweet and 
 melancholy songs, the actual or approaching death of individuals 
 of whose families they are especial followers. 
 
 (2 1.) His piteous caoine — his farewell song. 
 Caoine signifies a dirge or wail over the remains of the de- 
 parted. 
 
POEMS 
 
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS 
 
 THE OCEAN. 
 
 Likeness of Heaven ! 
 
 Agent of power ! 
 Man is thy victim ; 
 
 Shipwrecks thy dower I 
 Spices and jewels 
 
 From valley and sea, 
 Armies and banners 
 
 Are buried in thee ! 
 
 What are the riches 
 Of Mexico's mines, 
 
 To the wealth that far down 
 In thy deep water shines r^ 
 
144 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 The navies that cover 
 The conquering West — 
 
 Thou lling'st them to death 
 With one heave of thy breast ! 
 
 From the high hills that vizor 
 
 Thy wreck-making shore, 
 When the bride of the mariner 
 
 Shrieks at thy roar — 
 When, like lambs in the tempest, 
 
 Or mews in the blast. 
 O'er thy ridge-broken billows 
 
 The canvas is cast — 
 
 How humbling to one 
 
 With a heart and a soul, 
 To look on thy greatness 
 
 And list to its roll ; 
 To think how that heart 
 
 In cold ashes shall be, 
 While the voice of eternity 
 
 Rises from thee ! 
 
 Yes ! where are the cities 
 Of Thebes and of Tyre ? 
 
 Swept from the nations 
 Like sparks from the fire ! 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. I45 
 
 The glory of Athens, 
 
 The splendor of Rome ? 
 Dissolved — and for ever — > 
 
 Like dew in thy foam. 
 
 But thou art almighty — 
 
 Eternal — sublime — 
 Unweakened — unwasted — 
 
 Twin-brother of Time ! 
 Fleets, tempests, nor nations 
 
 Thy glory can bow ; 
 As the stars first beheld thee, 
 
 Still chainless art thou ! 
 
 But when thy deep surges 
 
 No longer shall roll, 
 And the firmament's lenp-th 
 
 Is drawn back like a scroll, 
 Then — then shall the spirit 
 
 That sighs by thee now. 
 Be more mighty, more lasting, 
 
 More chainless than thou. 
 13 
 
146 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 SERENADE. 
 
 I Ve watched the tardy sun go down, 
 
 Till darkened Mona's topmost tree. 
 And shone the star-encircled crown 
 
 Of Dian circling from the sea ; 
 And now, my dreaming girl, I bring 
 
 The offering of my heart to thee j 
 Wake from thy slumbers while I sing, 
 
 Reveillez-vous belie endormie / 
 
 There is a star which shineth bright^ 
 
 And only lovers' eyes can see, 
 And, calm or stormy be the night, 
 
 Its home is all tranquillity : 
 That star is beauty born above, 
 
 Moving and beaming but in thee ; 
 Then wake, my own, my gentle love^ 
 
 Reveillez-vous belle endormie ! 
 
 I would not be again a boy, 
 
 With mind unripe and thoughtless brain 
 No ! give me love's romantic joy, 
 
 And all the transport of its pain ; 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 147 
 
 Maturity of manly bliss, 
 
 To weave with mine thy destiny, 
 And sing by midnight moons like this, 
 
 Reveillez-vous belle endormie ! 
 
 The world hath slaves who dare not know 
 
 The pulse, the paradise of love — 
 The passions' range, the spirit's glow. 
 
 The fire that kindleth from above ; 
 Who ne'er by moon or lesser star 
 
 Have roamed by bower or summer sea, 
 Or sung to lute or light guitar, 
 
 Reveillez-vous belle endormie ! 
 
 Mine is the glory, thine the spell — 
 
 We both reflect their mingled pow'rs ; 
 From starry sky to leafy dell. 
 
 The universe of soul is ours. 
 Ne'er could a world, by love unblest, 
 
 Be dweUing place, my girl, for thee. 
 When rapture is life's only rest : 
 
 Reveillez-vous belle endormie ! 
 
 Then wake the lute thou 'st waked so oft, 
 And sing again, as oft thou 'st sung, 
 
 And in that silken language soft 
 
 Which thrilleth, uttered from thy tongue ; 
 
148 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 And as thy accents melt along, 
 
 Like wind-harp breathings o'er the sea, 
 
 I '11 blend with it my moonlight song, 
 Eeveillez-vous belle endormie ! 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 161 
 
 And pine trees by the Dee shut out the pale moon's 
 
 pensive star, 
 With foliage dark of Invercauld, and the spreading of 
 
 Braemar. 
 
 But over all in pride and strength, and ancientness 
 
 and power, 
 Stands firm Clan- Alpine's banner-tree, topping the 
 
 mountain tov/er. 
 Girt by his own dominions — deep rocks and cliffs 
 
 around — 
 Unweakened by the tempest's breath or the torrent's 
 
 wasting bound. 
 
 Then live the pine of Scotland, that dwelleth in de- 
 light 
 
 Up where the lightning banners lead the thunder- 
 clouds of night ! 
 
 Long may its carnival of leaves be joyous in the 
 light. 
 
 While all look up to that kingly tree on his throne of 
 ancient might. 
 
152 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 THE FOREST STREAM. 
 
 Bright stream of the forest, 
 
 Unnamed and unknown ! 
 Thou shin'st not less brightly 
 
 In shining alone : 
 Smooth, calm, and transparent, 
 
 Thou glidest along. 
 To the old woods repeating 
 
 Thy myst'ry of song. 
 
 Bright stream of the forest ! 
 
 I love thee full well ; 
 Thou art to my bosom 
 
 A soul and a spell 
 When I see thee I fancy 
 
 Thou lookest on me, 
 With the beautiful sadness 
 
 Of moonlight on sea. 
 
 Round thy spring on the mountain 
 
 Th' horizon was splendid. 
 Where all hues of the sunlioht 
 
 o 
 
 Were gloriously blended : 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 149 
 
 THE SCOTTISH PINE. 
 
 The mountain-pine of Scotland ! it liveth in delight, 
 
 Aloft where lightning-banners lead the thunder-clouds 
 of night; 
 
 Not from the soil that deeply lies in the lowland val- 
 leys down, 
 
 Does the Pine his sceptred arm extend, or lift his 
 leafjT^ crown. 
 
 But on his heritance of hights where the blood-red 
 sunsets play. 
 
 Like meteor plumes on a warrior's helm at the close 
 of battle day, 
 
 There — there he stands the mountain king, and a 
 glorious king is he. 
 
 As he sees with pride on every side his forest chiv- 
 alry. 
 
 What know they of his glory ? what feel they of his 
 
 pride, 
 Or of the loud-wheeled thunder trains that round his 
 
 empire ride — - 
 
150 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 They who have never seen him soar where the 
 
 eagle's vision fails, 
 From his native Highland heather dark, to wrestle 
 
 with the gales ? 
 
 " Loosed is a flood of sunlight," the gloom is changed 
 to gold, 
 
 And the cascades of orchestral sounds their scenic 
 pride unfold, 
 
 And, by that lustre, deeply down, each calm romantic 
 scene 
 
 Is vista'd off by sun-touched glades that ope to mead- 
 ows green. 
 
 Hath all the Arab's fairy realm a glory like to this — 
 Beauty, and power, and fear, and joy, in one ecstatic 
 
 bliss ? 
 One glance to those eternal pines, when storm-clouds 
 
 are unfurled. 
 Is far beyond the spell-built halls of the Genii's spirit 
 
 *world. 
 
 Pine trees are in Glengary, Glemoriston, Glenmore, 
 Strathglass, Lock-Shiel, Findhorn, and calm Lock- 
 Arkaig's shore, 
 
MISCELLAIi'EOUS. 153 
 
 But that summit, where rested 
 
 The firmament's glor}'-, 
 Had no voice for thy moral, 
 
 No ear for thy story. 
 
 From the pride of that region 
 
 Built up in the skies, 
 Thou seekest this silence, 
 
 This valley of sighs ; 
 Where the tempest, expiring, 
 
 Just-mingleth its breath 
 With the dirge of the zephyr, 
 
 And sinketh to death. 
 
 Here deep contemplation, 
 
 Undazzlgd and calm. 
 Goes up as in Ela, 
 
 The Prophet's high psalm : 
 The wing of the spirit 
 
 Is peacefully furled. 
 While thunders are rocking 
 
 The firmament world. 
 
 Thus calm in humility. 
 
 Fearless and free, 
 My stream of existence 
 
 Glides onward like thee ; 
 
154 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 A type and a promise, 
 Unveil'd and engraven, 
 
 Of its ocean-ward path 
 To eternity's haven ! 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 155 
 
 NIGHT. 
 
 So beautifully fair, 
 
 I Ve seen the night-hour never ; 
 There 's brightness in the air, 
 And music in the river. 
 
 No shade — no cloud 
 
 The moon to shroud 
 That moves so meek and slowly, 
 
 'Mid isles of light. 
 
 The pure — the bright, 
 The beautiful and holy. 
 
 Does she yon glorious hight 
 
 Eternally inherit. 
 To beacon with her light 
 The disembodied spirit ? 
 
 And those bright isles 
 
 That gild with smiles 
 The sea of heaven's dominions — 
 
 Have they been made 
 
 In flower and shade 
 To rest its pilgrim pinions ? 
 
156 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 Or are they worlds like this, 
 
 Thro' space and darkness sweeping, 
 With one brief hour of bliss 
 To glad an age of weeping ? 
 
 And have their spheres 
 
 The hopes, the fears, 
 The passions and the pleasures, 
 
 Fever of fame. 
 
 Ambitious game. 
 And earth's delusive treasures ? 
 
 Or will the fond and fair, 
 
 Who here in anguish sever. 
 Live in those homes of air. 
 United and for ever ? 
 
 O ! thus allow'd 
 
 Ye mystic crowd 
 How happy, 'mid our sorrow, 
 
 To know the tear 
 
 That trickles here 
 Your joys will dry to-morrow. 
 
 C 32 89 ^.4i 
 

 v^ 
 
 Vi*. • • • A^ 
 
 
 
 ol, 'o , , « A 
 
 
 
 
 ' ^^^%^' . 
 
 ■s^ 
 
 
 
 '^ov* r 
 
 -. ^^^ 
 
 
 4<^^ «: 
 
 
 <4:- 
 
 V - 1 • 
 
 f- V 
 
 V^^.-l.^'.^ 
 
 
 
 ''•\ 
 
 5, "o . * * A 
 
 -/ **'\ • 
 
 
 
 \r>^ 'o • * * A 
 
 
 
 ii°-«. .' 
 
 t^. •♦tt;-' .*«-^ 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^^.♦\/ V^<^*/ %*^^^'\**'^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 >° .»-"^*^. '-^iar*' -»? 
 
 //i.;^'>.. ./\-^;:X .^<*;rB.:> 
 
 
 5^ 
 
 ■4o«. ..