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IRISH SONGS AND LYRICS 89 |
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THE LAST FRIENDS
One of the United Irishmen, who lately returned to his native country after many years of exile, being asked what had induced him to visit Ireland, when all his friends were gone, answered, " I came back to see the mountains."—Author's note.
I
COME to my country, but not with the hope That brightened my youth like the cloud lighting bow; For the vigour of soul that seemed mighty to cope
With time and with fortune hath fled from me now, And love that illumined my wanderings of yore
Hath perished, and left but a weary regret For the star that can rise on my midnight no more,— But the hills of my country they welcome me yet.
The hue of their verdure was fresh with me still,
When my path was afar by the Tanais' lone track; From the wide-spreading deserts and ruins that fill
The lands of old story, they summoned me back; They rose on my dreams through the shades of the West,
They breathed upon sands which the dew never wet; For the echoes were hushed in the home I loved best,
And I knew that the mountains would welcome me yet.
The dust of my kindred is scattered afar,—
They lie in the desert, the wild, and the wave; For serving the strangers through wandering and war,
The isle of their memory could grant them no grave. And I, I return with the memory of years
Whose hope rose so high, though in sorrow it set; They have left on my soul but the trace of their tears,
But our mountains remember their promises yet. |
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