| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Eileen Aroon | | By Gerald Griffin (1803–1840) |
| | | WHEN like the early rose, | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| Beauty in childhood blows, | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| When, like a diadem, | 5 |
| Buds blush around the stem, | |
| Which is the fairest gem?— | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| |
| Is it the laughing eye, | |
| Eileen Aroon! | 10 |
| Is it the timid sigh, | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| Is it the tender tone, | |
| Soft as the string’d harp’s moan? | |
| O, it is truth alone,— | 15 |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| |
| When like the rising day, | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| Love sends his early ray, | |
| Eileen Aroon! | 20 |
| What makes his dawning glow, | |
| Changeless through joy or woe? | |
| Only the constant know:— | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| |
| I know a valley fair, | 25 |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| I knew a cottage there, | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| Far in that valley’s shade | |
| I knew a gentle maid, | 30 |
| Flower of a hazel glade,— | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| |
| Who in the song so sweet? | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| Who in the dance so fleet? | 35 |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| Dear were her charms to me, | |
| Dearer her laughter free, | |
| Dearest her constancy,— | |
| Eileen Aroon! | 40 |
| |
| Were she no longer true, | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| What should her lover do? | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| Fly with his broken chain | 45 |
| Far o’er the sounding main, | |
| Never to love again,— | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| |
| Youth most with time decay, | |
| Eileen Aroon! | 50 |
| Beauty must fade away, | |
| Eileen Aroon! | |
| Castles are sack’d in war, | |
| Chieftains are scatter’d far | |
| Truth is a fixèd star,— | 55 |
| Eileen Aroon. | | | | |
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