dots-menu
×

James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.

October 6

Parnell

By Lionel Johnson (1867–1902)

  • Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish statesman and leader of the Home Rule party which, under his guidance, accomplished more than ever before or since. He died on Oct. 6, 1891.


  • THE WAIL of Irish winds,

    The cry of Irish seas;

    Eternal sorrow finds

    Eternal voice in these.

    I cannot praise our dead

    Whom Ireland weeps so well;

    Her morning light that fled

    Her morning star that fell.

    She of the mournful eyes

    Waits, and no dark clouds break;

    Waits, and her strong son lies

    Dead, for her holy sake.

    Her heart is sorrow’s home;

    And hath been from of old;

    An host of griefs hath come

    To make that heart their fold.

    Ah, the sad autumn day

    When the last sad troop came

    Swift down the ancient way,

    Keening a chieftain’s name!

    Gray hope was there, and dread,

    Anger and love in tears;

    They mourned the dear and dead,

    Dirge of the ruined years.

    Home to her heart she drew

    The mourning company;

    Old sorrows met the new

    In sad fraternity.

    A mother, and forget?

    Nay! all her children’s fate

    Ireland remembers yet,

    With love insatiate.

    She hears the heavy bells

    Hears, and with passionate breath

    Eternally she tells

    A rosary of death.

    Faithful and true is she,

    The mother of us all;

    Faithful and true may we

    Fail her not though we fall.

    Her son, our brother, lies

    Dead for her holy sake;

    But from the dead arise

    Voices that bid us wake.

    Not his to hail the dawn;

    His but the herald’s part;

    Be ours to see withdrawn

    Night from our mother’s heart.