| Padraic Colum (1881–1972). Anthology of Irish Verse. 1922. |
| |
| 173. The Betrayal |
| |
| By Alice Furlong |
| |
| |
| WHEN you were weary, roaming the wide world, over, | |
| I gave my fickle heart to a new lover. | |
| Now they tell me that you are lying dead: | |
| O mountains fall on me and hide my head! | |
| |
| When you lay burning in the throes of fever, | 5 |
| He vowed me love by the willow-margined river: | |
| Death smote you there—here was your trust betrayed, | |
| O darkness, cover me, I am afraid! | |
| |
| Yea, in the hour of your supremest trial, | |
| I laughed with him! The shadows on the dial | 10 |
| Stayed not, aghast at my dread ignorance: | |
| Nor man nor angel looked at me askance. | |
| |
| Under the mountains there is peace abiding, | |
| Darkness shall be pavilion for my hiding, | |
| Tears shall blot out the sin of broken faith, | 15 |
| The lips that falsely kissed, shall kiss but Death. | |
| |
|
|
|
