The Irish standard., 1904-12-03

chord. y feeling OF mysticism and
deep unrest launts every line of this
magnificent poem:
Back through the hills l hurried
home,
Ever my boiling soul would say:
Mother and sister bid thee come
Long, too long has been thy stay
Stars shone out, but the moon was
pale,
Touched by a black clouds ragged
rim;
Sudden l heard the Banshee's vail
Where NIalmor's war-tower rises
grim.
Quickly l strobe across the slope
Passed the grove and the Fairy
Mound
GLOOMY the moat where blind owls
mope)
Scarcely breathing, glanced
around
Mother of mercy! there she sat
\ woman clad in a snow-white
STROUD
Streamed her hair to the damp moss
mat
White the face on her bosom bowed
Spirit of Woe!' eager cried,
Tell me none that 1 love has gone
Cold is the grave;;' my accents died
The Banshee lifted her face so wan.
Pale and wan as the waning moon
Seen when the sun-spears herald
dawn
Ceased all sudden her dreary Groom,
Full on my own her wild eyes
shone.
Burned and scared my Utmost soul
(When shall sorrow depart from
mey
Black-wingcd terror upon me stole
Binding gaping, 1 turned to flee.
Back to the grove and haunted
mound
Ger the lone road know not how
Hardened afar my baying hound
Home at last at the low hills brow.
Lone the cottage-the door flung wide
-Four lights burned-oh sight of
dread!
Breathing prayer, rushed inside,
Mercy, God! twas my mother
dead.
Dead and white as the fallen leaf
Knceling my sister prayer nearby
Wild as l wrested with my grief
Far and faint came the Banshee's
cry"
Listen to the pleading note of home
sickness in the following, "The Fallin'
o the RAIN" which l would like to
quote in full:
"Good-byc to County Carlow, tits the
lonesome place to me;
Sure every week is like Il month, and
every month like three.
The mist is comm wet and cold but
now | won't complain,
I'm goin" home and little reck the
fallin' o the rain.
Twas fooliSlnrss that brought me
here, twas madness made me STAY
With not Il hillside slopin' green to
rest my eyes all day,
But Aliens bog outstretchin' like the
level. blintlin' main,
And nr'rr Il burst Of sunshine for the
fallin' O the rain"
AT Dead o the Night, Alanna" l
give in full. 1t is one of Father Dol
lard's most widely quoted poems, and
fairly CLOVIS with an intensity of feel
ing that makes ones heart experience
something that is akin to pain, when
the thought of that final lcavc-taking
comes, as it surely will, sooner OF
later
AT dead O night, alanna, l wake and
see you there,
Your little head on the pillow. with
tossed and tangled hair:
| am your mother acushla, and YOU
are my hearts own boy,
And wealth O. the world I'd barter to
shield you from annoy.
At dead O night, alanna, the heart O.
the world is still,
But sobbing O. fairy music comes
down the haunted hill.
The march o the fairy armies troubles
the peace O the air;
Blest angels shelter my darling for
power Of a mothers prayer.
At dead O night, alanna, the sleepless
Banshce means
Wailing for sin and. sorrow by the
Cairns Crumbling Stones,
AT dead o night, alanna, ask Of ou1
God above
To shield you from sin and sorrow
and cherish you in His love.
At dead O. the night, alanna, wonder
DER and DER
Shall you part from our holy Ireland
to die on stranger shore?
You'll break nv heart in tho laov;nc