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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  881. Ireland

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Dora Sigerson. d. 1918

881. Ireland

‘TWAS the dream of a God, 
  And the mould of His hand, 
That you shook ‘neath His stroke, 
That you trembled and broke 
  To this beautiful land.         5
 
Here He loosed from His hold 
  A brown tumult of wings, 
Till the wind on the sea 
Bore the strange melody 
  Of an island that sings.  10
 
He made you all fair, 
  You in purple and gold, 
You in silver and green, 
Till no eye that has seen 
  Without love can behold.  15
 
I have left you behind 
  In the path of the past, 
With the white breath of flowers, 
With the best of God’s hours, 
  I have left you at last.  20