"Lady! dost thou not fear to stay, "So lone and lovely, through this bleak way? "Are Erin's sons so good or so cold "As not to be tempted by woman or gold?" "Sir Knight! I feel not the least alarm; "No son of Erin will offer me harm: "For though they love woman and golden store, "Sir Knight! they love honour and virtue more!" On she went, and her maiden smile In safety lighted her round the Green Isle; Upon Erin's honour and Erin's pride! AS A BEAM O'ER THE FACE OF THE WATERS MAY GLOW. AIR-The Young Man's Dream. As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow, While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below, So the cheek may be tinged with a warm sunnysmile, Tho' the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the while. One fatal remembrance, one sorrow, that throws Its bleak shade alike o'er our joys and our woes, To which life nothing darker or brighter can bring, For which Joy has no balm, and Affliction no sting: Oh! this thought in the midst of enjoyment will stay, Like a dead leafless branch in the summer's bright ray; The beams of the warm sun play round it in vain It may smile in his light, but it blooms not again! THE MEETING OF THE WATERS'. THERE IS NOT IN THIS WIDE WORLD A VALLEY SO SWEET. AIR-The Old Head of Denis. THERE is not in this wide world a valley so sweet As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet2; Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart! "The Meeting of the Waters," forms a part of that beautiful scenery which lies between Rathdrum and Arklow in the county of Wicklow; and these lines were suggested by a visit to this romantic spot, in the summer of the year 1807. 2 The rivers Avon and Ovoca. Yet it was not that Nature had shed o'er the scene "Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near, Who made ev'ry dear scene of enchantment more dear; And who felt how the best charms of Nature im prove When we see them reflected from looks that we love. Sweet Vale of Ovoca! how calm could I rest best, Where the storms which we feel in this cold world should cease, And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace! |