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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse  »  Edward Walsh (1805–1850)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

Lament

Edward Walsh (1805–1850)

WHEN the folk of my household

Suppose I am sleeping,

On the cold sod that ’s o’er you

The lone watch I’m keeping.

My fondest! my fairest!

We may now sleep together!

I’ve the cold earth’s damp odour,

And I’m worn from the weather.

Remember that lone night

I last spent with you, Love,

Beneath the dark sloe-tree

When the icy wind blew, Love.

High praise to thy Saviour

No sin-stain had found you,

That your virginal glory

Shines brightly around you!

The priests and the friars

Are ceaselessly chiding

That I love a young maiden

In life not abiding.

O! I’d shelter and shield you

If wild storms were swelling—

And O, my wreck’d hope,

That the cold earth ’s your dwelling!