Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Gerald Griffin. 18031840663. Eileen Aroon
WHEN like the early rose, | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Beauty in childhood blows, | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
When, like a diadem, | 5 |
Buds blush around the stem, | |
Which is the fairest gem?— | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Is it the laughing eye, | |
Eileen Aroon! | 10 |
Is it the timid sigh, | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Is it the tender tone, | |
Soft as the string’d harp’s moan? | |
O, it is truth alone,— | 15 |
Eileen Aroon! | |
When like the rising day, | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Love sends his early ray, | |
Eileen Aroon! | 20 |
What makes his dawning glow, | |
Changeless through joy or woe? | |
Only the constant know:— | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
I know a valley fair, | 25 |
Eileen Aroon! | |
I knew a cottage there, | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Far in that valley’s shade | |
I knew a gentle maid, | 30 |
Flower of a hazel glade,— | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Who in the song so sweet? | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Who in the dance so fleet? | 35 |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Dear were her charms to me, | |
Dearer her laughter free, | |
Dearest her constancy,— | |
Eileen Aroon! | 40 |
Were she no longer true, | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
What should her lover do? | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Fly with his broken chain | 45 |
Far o’er the sounding main, | |
Never to love again,— | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Youth must with time decay, | |
Eileen Aroon! | 50 |
Beauty must fade away, | |
Eileen Aroon! | |
Castles are sack’d in war, | |
Chieftains are scatter’d far, | |
Truth is a fixèd star,— | 55 |
Eileen Aroon! |