Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Ireland: Vol. V. 1876–79. | | | | Mitchelstown | | Mitchelstown Caverns | | Gerald Griffin (1803–1840) |
| | | GRIMLY it frowned when first with shuddering mind | |
| We saw the far-famed Cavern’s darkling womb, | |
| And for that vault of silence and of gloom | |
| Left the fair day and smiling world behind. | |
| But what bright wonder hailed our eyes erelong! | 5 |
| The crystal well, the sparry curtained dome, | |
| The sparkling shafts that propped that caverned home, | |
| And vaults that turned the homeliest sounds to song. | |
| O, this, I thought, is sure a symbol plain | |
| Of that undreaded death the holy die, | 10 |
| Stern at the first and withering to the view; | |
| But past that gate of darkness and of pain, | |
| What scenes of unimagined rapture lie, | |
| Rich with elysian wealth and splendor ever new. | | | | |
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