Classic Poem

XI.

" O Con! thou'rt rich in yellow gold,
Thy fields are filled with lowing kine,
Within thy castles wealth untold,
Within thy harbours fleets of wine;
But yield not, Con, to worldly pride,
Thou may'st be rich, but hast not all;
Far richer he who for his bride
Has won fair Anne of Cushendall.

XII.

" She leans upon a husband's arm,
Surrounded by a valiant clan,
In Antrim's Glynnes, by fair Glenarm,
Beyond the pearly-paven Bann;
Mid hazel woods no stately tree
Looks up to heaven more graceful-tall,
When summer clothes its boughs, than she,
Mac Donnell's wife of Cushendall! "

XIII.

The bard retires amid the throng,
No sweet applause rewards his song,
No friendly lip that guerdon breathes,
To bard more sweet than golden wreaths.
It might have been the minstrel's art
Had lost its power to move the heart,
It might have been his harp had grown
Too old to yield its wonted tone.

XIV.

But no, if hearts were cold and hard,
'Twas not the fault of harp or bard;
It was no false or broken sound
That failed to move the clansmen round.
Not these the men, nor these the times,
To nicely weigh the worth of rhymes;
'Twas what he said that made them chill,
And not his singing well or ill.

XV.

Already had the stranger band
Of Saxons swept the weakened land,
Already on the neighbouring hills
They named anew a thousand rills,
" Our fairest castles, " pondered Con,
" Already to the foe are gone,
Our noblest forests feed the flame,
And now we lose our fairest dame. "

XVI.

But though his cheek was white with rage,
He seemed to smile, and cried — " O Sage!
O honey-spoken bard of truth!
Mac Donnell is a valiant youth
We long have been the Saxon's prey —
Why not the Scot as well as they?
He's of as good a robber line
As any Burke or Geraldine.

XVII.

" From Insi Gall, so speaketh fame,
From Insi Gall his people came;
From Insi Gall, where storm winds roar
Beyond grey Albin's icy shore
His grandsire and his grandsire's son,
Full soon fat herds and pastures won;
But, by Columba! were we men,
We'd send the whole brood back again!

XVIII.

" Oh! had we iron hands to dare,
As we have waxen hearts to bear,
Oh! had we manly blood to shed,
Or even to tinge our cheeks with red,
No bard could say as you have said,
One of the race of Somerled —
A base intruder from the Isles —
Basks in our island's sunniest smiles!

XIX.

" But, not to mar our feast to-night
With what to morrow's sword may right,
O Bard of many songs! again
Awake thy sweet harp's silvery strain.
If beauty decks with peerless charm
Mac Donnell's wife in fair Glenarm,
Say does there bound in Antrim's meads
A steed to match O'Donnell's steeds? "

XX.

Submissive doth the Bard incline
His reverend head, and cries, — " O Con,
Thou heir of Conal Golban's line, —
I've sang the fair wife of Mac John;
You'll frown again as late you frowned,
But truth will out when lips are freed;
There's not a steed on Irish ground
To stand beside Mac Donnell's steed!