| |
| SHALL mine eyes behold thy glory, O my country? | |
| Shall mine eyes behold thy glory? | |
| Or shall the darkness close around them ere the | |
| sunblaze break at last upon thy story? | |
| |
| When the nations ope for thee their queenly circle, as a new | 5 |
| sweet sister hail thee, | |
| Shall these lips be seal’d in callous death and | |
| silence, that have known but to bewail thee? | |
| |
| Shall the ear be deaf that only loved thy praises when | |
| all men their tribute bring thee? | 10 |
| Shall the mouth be clay that sang thee in thy | |
| squalor when all poets’ mouths shall sing thee? | |
| |
| Ah! the harpings and the salvoes and the shouting of thy | |
| exiled sons returning! | |
| I should hear though dead and mouldered, and the | 15 |
| grave-damps should not chill my bosom’s burning. | |
| |
| Ah! the tramp of feet victorious! I should hear | |
| them ’mid the shamrocks and the mosses, | |
| And my heart would toss within the shroud and quiver | |
| as a captive dreamer tosses. | 20 |
| |
| I should turn and rend the cere-clothes round | |
| me, giant sinews I should borrow— | |
| Crying, ‘O my brothers, I have also loved | |
| her in her loneliness and sorrow! | |
| |
| ‘Let me join with you the jubilant procession; | 25 |
| let me chant with you her story; | |
| Then contented I shall go back to the shamrocks, | |
| now mine eyes have seen her glory!’ | |
| |
