FROM IRISH MELODIES," BY T. MOORE, ESQ. A triple grass* Shoots up, with dew-drops streaming, As emeralds, seen Through purest crystal gleaming! Saint Patrick is said to have made use of that species of the trefoil, to which in Ireland we give the naine of Shamrock, in explaining the doctrine of the Trinity to the Pagan Irish. I do not know if there be any reason for our adoption of this plant as a national emblem. HOPE, among the ancients, was sometimes represented as a beautiful child, "standing upon tip-toes, and a tre foil, or three-coloured grass in her hand. Oh the Shamrock, the green immortal Shamrock, Chosen leaf Of Bard and Chief, Old ERIN'S native Shamrock! And cries, "Oh! do not sever "Three god-like friends, "LOVE, VALOUR, WIT, for ever!" Oh the Shamrock, the green immortal Shamrock! Chosen leaf Of Bard and Chief, Old ERIN'S native Shamrock! So firmly fond May last the bond, They wove that morn together; One drop of gall May Love, as shoot His flowers and fruit, His standard rear Against the cause of freedom! Oh the Shamrock, the green Of Bard and Chief, immortal Shamrock! Old ERIN's native Shamrock! STANZAS TO THE MEMORY OF THE "A mighty spirit is eclipsed-a Power Lord Byron's Monody on the Death MOURN not the Hero and the Bard, In Albion's "cold and cloudy climet." But struggling with the free and brave, Mourn not! ah, bootless words! the hand Ours are indeed unhappy days! See the Greek song in Don Juan, beginning Where burning Sappho lived and sung." + Sec Dedication of the Prophecy of Dante, than which a nobler poem does not exist in any language: "Lady, if for that cold and cloudy clime, Where I was born, but where I would not die!" &c. |