Blest be the spot,
My heart leaps to it o'er the swelling billow!
Home! Earth hath not
One dream that brings thee not unto my pillow.
I pine to cleave
The deep dark waters that from thee do sever.
I would not leave
Thee, mine own Isle! my heart's sweet home! oh, never,
For brighter skies,
Or the fantastic dreams of wild ambition,
No thought can rise
To win me from thy simple calm condition;
No wildfire light
Can dazzle me, thine own rude Island daughter,
'Tis utter blight
And grief doth haunt me o'er thy girdling water.
Too idolised —
Thou to whose earth this passionate heart is clinging,
Thou art too prized!
How know I what futurity is bringing? —
Estranged years,
And weary days of cold and bitter feeling,
And hopeless tears!
Oh! what a sad and shadowy train is stealing
Across my path!
Aye! mournful thoughts of which is no repressing.
Yet home — home hath,
In shade or sunshine, evermore my blessing.
Isle of my soul!
This heart leaps madly o'er the severing water;
Can space control?
Time cannot chill thine own adoring daughter.
No! till that hand
Which comes to all falls darkly, darkly, o'er her
With death's dread power.
Then make her grave — where long have slept before her
Her Island dead —
Upon the green hill that looks o'er the billow,
And let Heaven shed
Its light and incense o'er her lone Manks pillow.
Isle of my heart,
Mona! the lone! the wild! the unforgot!
My home! thou art
The star, the idol of a wayward lot —
Earth cannot bring
One dearer vision to me than thy face,
Time cannot bring
Forgetfulness! affection mocks at space.
Hurrah for the dredge, with its iron edge,
And its mystical triangle,
And its hided net with meshes set
Odd fishes to entangle!
The ship may move through the wave above,
'Mid scenes exciting wonder,
But braver sights the dredge delights
As it roveth the waters under.
C HORUS .
Then a-dredging we will go, wise boys!
Then a-dredging we will go!
Down in the deep, where the mermen sleep,
Our gallant dredge is sinking,
Each finny shape in a precious scrape
Will find itself in a twinkling!
They may twirl and twist, and writhe as they wist,
And break themselves into sections,
But up they all, at the dredge's call,
Must come to fill collections.
The creatures strange the sea that range,
Though mighty in their stations,
To the dredge must yield the briny field
Of their loves and depredations.
The crab so bold, like a knight of old,
In scaly armour plated,
And the slimy snail, with a shell on his tail,
And the star-fish — radiated.
My heart leaps to it o'er the swelling billow!
Home! Earth hath not
One dream that brings thee not unto my pillow.
I pine to cleave
The deep dark waters that from thee do sever.
I would not leave
Thee, mine own Isle! my heart's sweet home! oh, never,
For brighter skies,
Or the fantastic dreams of wild ambition,
No thought can rise
To win me from thy simple calm condition;
No wildfire light
Can dazzle me, thine own rude Island daughter,
'Tis utter blight
And grief doth haunt me o'er thy girdling water.
Too idolised —
Thou to whose earth this passionate heart is clinging,
Thou art too prized!
How know I what futurity is bringing? —
Estranged years,
And weary days of cold and bitter feeling,
And hopeless tears!
Oh! what a sad and shadowy train is stealing
Across my path!
Aye! mournful thoughts of which is no repressing.
Yet home — home hath,
In shade or sunshine, evermore my blessing.
Isle of my soul!
This heart leaps madly o'er the severing water;
Can space control?
Time cannot chill thine own adoring daughter.
No! till that hand
Which comes to all falls darkly, darkly, o'er her
With death's dread power.
Then make her grave — where long have slept before her
Her Island dead —
Upon the green hill that looks o'er the billow,
And let Heaven shed
Its light and incense o'er her lone Manks pillow.
Isle of my heart,
Mona! the lone! the wild! the unforgot!
My home! thou art
The star, the idol of a wayward lot —
Earth cannot bring
One dearer vision to me than thy face,
Time cannot bring
Forgetfulness! affection mocks at space.
Hurrah for the dredge, with its iron edge,
And its mystical triangle,
And its hided net with meshes set
Odd fishes to entangle!
The ship may move through the wave above,
'Mid scenes exciting wonder,
But braver sights the dredge delights
As it roveth the waters under.
C HORUS .
Then a-dredging we will go, wise boys!
Then a-dredging we will go!
Down in the deep, where the mermen sleep,
Our gallant dredge is sinking,
Each finny shape in a precious scrape
Will find itself in a twinkling!
They may twirl and twist, and writhe as they wist,
And break themselves into sections,
But up they all, at the dredge's call,
Must come to fill collections.
The creatures strange the sea that range,
Though mighty in their stations,
To the dredge must yield the briny field
Of their loves and depredations.
The crab so bold, like a knight of old,
In scaly armour plated,
And the slimy snail, with a shell on his tail,
And the star-fish — radiated.