Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Ireland: Vol. V. 1876–79.
The Siege of Limerick
By Robert Dwyer Joyce (18301883)B
With musket, sword, and cannon,
To sweep us all from Limerick’s wall,
And drown us in the Shannon;
But we bethought how well they fought,
Our fathers there before us;
We raised on high our charging cry,
And flung our green flag o’er us!
Flashed by the blood-stained water;
The breach is done, and up they run,
Five hundred to the slaughter;
They crossed the breach beyond our reach,
New foes fresh work supplied us;
Our women brave, their homes to save,
Soon slew them all inside us!
With cannons booming solemn,
We would not flinch, but inch for inch
Opposed its bristling column;
Three times we dashed them back, and smashed
Their lines with shot and sabre,
And naught had they at close of day
But thinned ranks for their labor.
“Our foes are better, braver!”
Then fled he straight from Limerick’s gate,
For he could not enslave her;
Then raised we high our triumph cry,
Where battle’s chances found us,
With corse and gun and red flags strewn,
And blood and ruin round us!