As Vanquished Erin. Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Boyne, the River. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. Ireland: Vol. V

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Ireland: Vol. V. 1876–79.

Boyne, the River

As Vanquished Erin

Thomas Moore (1779–1852)


AS vanquished Erin wept beside
The Boyne’s ill-fated river,
She saw where Discord, in the tide,
Had dropped his loaded quiver.
“Lie hid,” she cried, “ye venomed darts,	5
Where mortal eye may shun you;
Lie hid,—the stain of manly hearts
That bled for me is on you.”

But vain her wish, her weeping vain,—
As time too well hath taught her:	10
Each year the fiend returns again,
And dives into that water;
And brings, triumphant, from beneath
His shafts of desolation,
And sends them, winged with worse than death,	15
Through all her maddening nation.

Alas for her who sits and mourns,
Even now beside that river,—
Unwearied still the fiend returns,
And stored is still his quiver.	20
“When will this end, ye Powers of Good?”
She weeping asks forever;
But only hears, from out that flood,
The demon answer, “Never!”