Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Ireland: Vol. V. 1876–79.
Munster
By Sliabh Cuilinn (John OHagan) (18221890)Y
Seek to gather
Biding thought than fleeting pleasure,
In the South what wonders saw ye?
From the South what lesson draw ye?
Wonders, passing thought or measure,—
Lessons, through a life to treasure.
Nature, giving
Welcome wild, or soft caress,—
Scenes that sink into the being
Till the eye grows full with seeing,
And the mute heart can but bless
Him that shaped such loveliness.
Rivers idle,
Wealth unwrought of sea and mine,—
Bays where Europe’s fleets might anchor,—
Scarce Panama’s waters blanker,
Ere Columbus crossed the brine,
Void of living sound or sign.
Man opprest it,—
Sad the fruits that mingling rise,—
Fallow fields, and hands to till them,
Hungry mouths, and grain to fill them;
But a social curse denies
Labor’s guerdon, want’s supplies.
Life that dances
In the limbs of childhood there,—
Glowing tints, that fade and sicken
In the pallid, famine-stricken
Looks that men and women wear,
Living types of want and care.
Mid privations,—
Genial heart and open hand;
But, what fain the eye would light on,
Pleasant homes to cheer and brighten
Such a race and such a land,—
These, alas! their lords have banned.
Us the lesson,
Much may yet be done and borne,
But the bonds that thus continue
Paralyzing limb and sinew,
From our country must be torn:
Then shines out young Munster’s morn.