| |
| I WOULD not give my Irish wife | |
| For all the dames of the Saxon land; | |
| I would not give my Irish wife | |
| For the Queen of France’s hand; | |
| For she to me is dearer | 5 |
| Than castles strong, or lands, or life: | |
| An outlaw—so I ’m near her | |
| To love till death my Irish wife. | |
| |
| O what would be this home of mine, | |
| A ruin’d, hermit-haunted place, | 10 |
| But for the light that nightly shines | |
| Upon its walls from Kathleen’s face! | |
| What comfort in a mine of gold, | |
| What pleasure in a royal life, | |
| If the heart within lay dead and cold, | 15 |
| If I could not wed my Irish wife? | |
| |
| I knew the law forbade the banns; | |
| I knew my king abhorr’d her race; | |
| Who never bent before their clans | |
| Must bow before their ladies’ grace. | 20 |
| Take all my forfeited domain, | |
| I cannot wage with kinsmen strife: | |
| Take knightly gear and noble name, | |
| And I will keep my Irish wife. | |
| |
| My Irish wife has clear blue eyes, | 25 |
| My heaven by day, my stars by night; | |
| And twin-like truth and fondness lie | |
| Within her swelling bosom white | |
| My Irish wife has golden hair, | |
| Apollo’s harp had once such strings, | 30 |
| Apollo’s self might pause to hear | |
| Her bird-like carol when she sings. | |
| |
| I would not give my Irish wife | |
| For all the dames of the Saxon land; | |
| I would not give my Irish wife | 35 |
| For the Queen of France’s hand; | |
| For she to me is dearer | |
| Than castles strong, or lands, or life: | |
| In death I would be near her, | |
| And rise beside my Irish wife. | 40 |
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